The 5 Best Sci-Fi Movies To Watch On Netflix And More In July 2023

It’s July and we’re running through the summer movie calendar, with exciting new releases like Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1And Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate light up movie screens across the United States. Even more top releases, like Barbie And Oppenheimer, expected to arrive later this month. But if you’re looking for something to watch closer to home, look no further – there are plenty of great streaming movies to watch from the comfort of your couch.

Each month, we pick five sci-fi movies to watch at home, on Netflix and other streaming platforms. This month, we’ve got recent streaming releases, films from directors with new works in progress, and deeper cuts off the beaten path that are sure to delight you.

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65

Year: 2023
Duration: 1h 33m
Directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Discard: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt

This is a question as old as archeology itself: what Really killed the dinosaurs? You know, aside from the gigantic meteor that hit the site of what is now known as Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. It’s a bit like the question of who Really built the pyramids, although the answer is obviously and unfortunately Egyptian slave labor. Either way, in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ sci-fi action debut, the answer is a former alien astronaut named Mills (Adam Driver) who crash-landed on Earth 65 million years ago. years after taking a job to pay for her daughter’s medical treatment.

After rescuing Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), the sole other survivor of the crash, Mills is forced to fight his way through a myriad of prehistoric predators in order to reach his ship’s escape pods – the only remaining way to escape. return to his homeworld – before that big towering meteor I mentioned earlier hit the planet. While the initial premise of 65 is far more convoluted than it has reason to be, Beck and Woods’ film is an overall entertaining sci-fi game, anchored by an unsurprising performance from Driver, action sequences cool and cool alien technology.

65 is available to stream on netflix. It is also available for rent on Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.

Annihilation

Year: 2018
Duration: 1h 55m
Director: Alex Garland
Discard: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson

Alex Garland’s adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s eco-horror novel is one of the director’s finest works (although Ex-Machina still reigns supreme, sorry). Natalie Portman plays Lena, a biology professor who agrees to embark on an expedition to the Shimmer, an anomalous area in West Florida filled with plants and creatures mutated by meteor radiation. Searching for answers to her husband’s inexplicable disappearance, Lena is confronted with a world of fantastical horrors beyond her wildest fears and forced to face troubling questions about herself and the future. of humanity.

Explore the nature of depression and self-harm, Annihilation has one of the most memorable final acts of any sci-fi movie of the 2010s, thanks to the wonderfully unsettling performance of actor and recurring Garland collaborator Sonoya Mizuno. If you’re looking for a thoughtful, scary, and mostly bizarre sci-fi drama with weird creatures and even stranger secrets, Annihilation is the answer.

Annihilation is available to stream on Netflix. It is also available for rent on Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.

Arrival

Year: 2016
Duration: 1h 56m
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Discard: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Based on Ted Chiang’s 1998 short story “Story of Your Life”, Denis Villeneuve Arrival is the Dunes the director’s first foray into hard science fiction and easily ranks among his best. Starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, the film centers on Louise Banks (Adams), a linguistics professor enlisted by the US government to lead a team of investigators on a first contact expedition when 12 mysterious spacecraft land. on the planet. With a beautiful score composed by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson — his last collaboration with Villeneuve before his death in 2018 — this romantic sci-fi tale finds something new to say about the intrinsic power of language and communication.

Arrival is available to stream on First video. It is also available for rent on Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.

Beautiful

Year: 2021
Duration: 2h 4m
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Discard: Kaho Nakamura, Ryō Narita, Shōta Sometani

Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf children, summer wars) returns with another animated sci-fi fantasy in the form of Beautiful. The film follows Suzu, a reserved and quiet teenager mourning the loss of her mother who retreats into the immersive online world of “U”, inadvertently becoming a famous pop idol by the name of Belle. When one of Belle’s concerts is interrupted by a monstrous user known only as “Dragon”, Suzu sets out to find out more about this mysterious person who she can’t help but feel shares a bond with. deep and deep.

The setting of “U” looks like the culmination of Hosoda’s fascination with the internet and social media, a dazzling unreal metropolis populated by colorful avatars and gigantic whales with speakers embedded in their backs. The story is about trusting yourself to open up to others and thus love others for who they are despite their appearances, with moving musical numbers complemented by beautiful animation. Beautiful is totally the movie for you if you’re craving a sci-fi fantasy musical drama full of heart.

Beautiful is available to stream on Max. It is also available for rent on Amazon, AppleAnd Vudu.

Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White

Year: 1995
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Robert Longon
Discard: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi Kitano

Robert Longo’s directorial debut is all the rage. Of course, it’s not exactly the cyberpunk landmark that is. blade runner Or The matrix would continue to be, but it has a nerdy charm that still makes for an entertaining experience. Johnny Mnemonic suffered from significant post-production edits that siphoned off the more satirical and tongue-in-cheek tone of Longo’s original vision in pursuit of something more conventional, and as a result, it feels like a film split between two different directions. The black-and-white version of the theatrical cut, overseen by Longo himself, is closer to the director’s intended vision and makes for a more satisfying and surreal watch.

Keanu Reeves stars as Johnny, a “mnemonic courier” who carries sensitive information between powerful clients via an implant in his brain. Accepting one last job as a way to regain his own lost childhood memories, Johnny finds himself ensnared in a murderous conspiracy involving unscrupulous megacorporations, ruthless yakuza, Luddite biohackers, omnipotent artificial intelligences, and sentient dolphins. Also, Dolph Lundgren makes a delightfully hammered appearance as a vengeful assassin with a penchant for Bible-inspired executions. How can you not you want to at least check that?!

Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White is available to stream on Criterion channel.