There are tons of cool sci-fi films to look forward to in the coming weeks. From Flying Lotus’ psychedelic horror thriller Ash to David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, there’s no shortage of exciting new releases to catch in theaters. If you’re looking for the best sci-fi movies to watch from the comfort of your own home, though, we’ve got a couple in mind that’ll give the latest slate of films a run for their money and then some.
This week, we’ve picked an indelible sci-fi classic starring Harrison Ford and Sean Young, a critically panned superhero reboot that’s actually pretty good, and a maximalist action horror movie with guns and guts galore.
Let’s take a look at what this month has to offer!
Editor’s pick: Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Image: Warner Bros.
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
Imagine this: You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden, you look down and you see a tortoise that’s crawling toward you. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help, but you’re not helping. Why is that?
You already know the answer, don’t you? Ridley Scott’s 1982 neo-noir opus is essentially a litmus (or Voight-Kampff) test for whether or not you’ll enjoy cyberpunk as a whole, as almost the entirety of the genre’s tonal, thematic, and aesthetic touchstones are attributable to the film’s singular vision of a petro-capitalist future teetering on the brink of collapse. It is, in many ways, a perfect sci-fi film, if not a perfect film, full stop. More than four decades since its theatrical release, Blade Runner remains a timeless and essential work of art. —Toussaint Egan
Image: Lionsgate
Director: Dean Israelite
Cast: Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler
No matter who you ask, just about anyone will tell you that making a Power Rangers reboot movie in 2017 seemed like a terrible idea. And yet, director Dean Israelite pulled off one of the most fun, interesting, and inventive blockbusters of the 2010s.
The plot of the movie is mostly a copy of the original show’s first episode. A group of five kids find magical coins that grant them incredible powers and the ability to transform into colorful-suited Power Rangers and talk to Zordon, a floating hologram head voiced by Bryan Cranston. At the same time that they gain this power, the evil Rita Repulsa, played by Elizabeth Banks in a ridiculously fun performance, awakens from her 65 million-year slumber with a new plan to take over the world that only the Power Rangers can stop.
The fact that all this works is due in large part to the movie’s excellent cast, which includes a few stars, like Banks and Cranston, and several young actors who were about to break out, like Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, and RJ Cyler. On top of that, the movie is smart enough to play everything straight, rather than being ashamed of its source material or overly nostalgic. —Austen Goslin
Resident Evil: Retribution
Image: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Kevin Durand
Paul W.S. Anderson is back in theaters with his new movie In the Lost Lands, which means it’s a perfect time to revisit one of the best entries in his excellent Resident Evil franchise. Resident Evil: Retribution is the fifth movie in the series, the third directed by Anderson, and it feels like the first time in the series he was given the space to go all out with his action.
Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been captured by the evil Umbrella Corporation and is being held inside its top-secret base somewhere in Russia. The base itself has dozens of massive rooms, each designed to simulate some of the biggest cities in the world, like New York, Tokyo, and Moscow. This provides Retribution with the perfect excuse to stage some extremely cool action set-pieces in each of these locations, with thousands of teeming zombies attacking Alice and her allies.
This premise makes Retribution a surprisingly strong jumping-on point for the series, and turns the whole movie into a fantastic sci-fi action romp. —AG
