The best science fiction movies to watch on Netflix in May

We are in the middle of May and, as the reviews of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga It’s an indication that moviegoers are in for a great show when it hits theaters next week. If you’re looking for a fantastic movie to tide you over until then, you’ve come to the right place, as we’ve once again dug into the Netflix catalog to bring you the best science fiction movies to watch on the platform this month can stream. month.

We have a brutal and hilarious cyberpunk revenge thriller starring Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) as a vengeful mechanic controlled by an evil AI, Ang Lee’s underrated Marvel film, and a chilling sci-fi thriller about the horrors of suburbia and parenthood.

Let’s see what this month has to offer!

Editor’s Choice: Upgrade

Director: Leigh Whannell
Form: Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson

Leigh Whannell’s cyberpunk action thriller feels like the kind of film destined for reappraisal and appreciation; a brutal tech nightmare about a borderline Luddite whose body is hijacked by an amoral AI in a dystopian future.

After witnessing his wife’s murder and suffering a near-fatal gunshot, Gray (Logan Marshall-Green) is seemingly given a second chance at life when he is implanted with an experimental chip that allows him to walk again. Determined to track down his wife’s killers, Grey’s mission is complicated by the fact that the chip known as STEM is not just an ideal passenger, but a fully conscious entity that derives sadistic satisfaction from the pain of others. Whannell’s film is a fantastical, violent revenge drama that imagines a world where AI assistants are the devil on your shoulder, exploiting someone’s grief and anger to further their own inscrutable plans. Come for the brutality, stay for the inventive cinematography and beautiful production design. —Toussaint Egan

Hulk

Image: Universal Picture Home Entertainment

Director: Ang lee
Form: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott

Quick follow Spider-Man, X MenAnd Knife II as part of the superhero movie boom at the turn of the century, Ang Lee’s Hulk is largely left out of the conversation of the era’s best. But it deserves to be there as a highly stylized comic book adaptation that doesn’t shy away from the visual influences of the source material.

You know the Hulk story – Bruce David Banner is a mild-mannered scientist who is exposed to a lot of gamma radiation (this movie earns its place on this list as a much more sci-fi superhero story than most), and then you’ve won. I don’t like it when he gets angry. This time around, Banner is Eric Bana, joined by a game supporting cast including Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly and Josh Lucas.

While some of the CG hasn’t aged well, Ang Lee’s commitment to comic book visuals certainly has, and stands out in a genre that has lost some of that visual luster. (This was his sequel to Crouching tiger, hidden dragon!) With split screens set up like comic book panels, editing transitions that look and feel like you’re turning the page, and an appropriate combination of silliness and epic stakes, Lee has definitely nailed it. A planned sequel became significantly less effective The incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton, which in turn led to Mark Ruffalo being the Hulk The Avengers. Although there are definitely a few highlights from Ruffalo’s performance as the character, Ang Lee Hulk will always be the epitome of Hulk goodness on screen for me. —Piet Volk

Vivarium

Image: Saban Films

Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Form: Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris

The science fiction horror film Vivarium lacks the sense of polish or sense of relatability that could put it among the sci-fi greats, but it certainly doesn’t lack nerve-wracking chills. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots star as a young couple trying to come to grips with the obligation to buy a house together. When they agree to tour an eerily homogeneous new development, they enter a surreal, nightmarish world that is better experienced step by step than described – but they expect a lot of leaning on the creepy kids arena of horror.

A little Twilight zone and a little bit Donnie Darko, Vivarium is one of those ‘the suburbs are hell’ films that bucks all the American stereotypes of domesticity with 2.5 kids and a dog as the ultimate in comfort and fun – but it pushes back with a shrill, violent edge that is genuinely is fascinating, disturbing, and likely to show up somewhere in your dreams. —Tasha Robinson