July has come and gone, and with it so too have the dog days of summer. We still have a few more weeks to luxuriate in the sun, but there’s nothing like sitting down after a hot day outside to watch a good movie. If you’re looking for an exciting sci-fi flick on Netflix to watch this weekend, you’re in luck: We’ve once again cherry-picked the best of this best selections on the streamer to watch this month. Whether it’s ne0-noir drama exploring the intersection of nostalgia and grief, grandiose space opera epics, or a transformative sequel from one of the modern living masters of the genre, there’s plenty to choose from and enjoy in August.
Let’s see what this month has to offer!
Editor’s Pick: Reminiscence
Director: Lisa Joy
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton
Reminiscence is not what I would call a “great” movie. So why am I recommending Reminiscence? Simple: While I don’t think it’s perfect, I do think it’s interesting, and what I find most interesting about it is its unabashed willingness to stare the future in the face and not flinch, unlike so many other modern sci-fi movies that conspicuously avoid grappling, let alone acknowledging, one of the most pressing existential concerns of our lifetime in lieu of crowd-pleasing nostalgia fare.
Director Lisa Joy’s sci-fi neo-noir explores the relationship between nostalgia and trauma, following the story of Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a man searching for his missing lover Mae (Rebecca Ferguson) using a machine that can transform memories into 3D projections. Imagine if someone took the Esper machine scene from Blade Runner, where Deckard uses a voice-activated computer to forensically scrutinize the contents of a polaroid using generative technology, and built a whole movie around that.
Reminiscence is set in a future where climate change has reached its natural tipping point, flooding the shorelines of Miami and forcing the city’s population in turn to adapt to their new reality. The opening expository sequence, with its flood-swallowed skyscrapers and nocturnal Venetian nightlife, is a bolder, more bracingly honest vision of the future than I’ve seen in any other modern sci-fi film in recent memory. It’s a world where world powers are too busy fighting over scant resources to care about or protect their own citizens, leaving them prey to the private security forces of land barons who reign over the remaining “dry lands” with impunity.
In a world like this, it’s no wonder that people retreat into a world of their own memories of a past where some semblance of a different, better future still seemed possible. And what’s even more fascinating than this is how this worldbuilding doesn’t even call attention to itself, remaining more or less on the periphery of Nick’s personal journey. For those reasons alone, Reminiscence is worth watching, even if only once. —Toussaint Egan
Rebel Moon Part 1 and 2 Director’s Cut
Image: Netflix
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein
Rebel Moon is the kind of sci-fi movie that isn’t supposed to exist anymore. It’s a perfect overlap point between Warhammer, Star Wars, and Seven Samurai that blends all three into something wholly unique and interesting.
The plot of the film is a nearly exact copy of Seven Samurai, with a disgraced warrior gathering a small band of outlaws and trying to protect a small farm planet from the military might of the Imperium. But what makes the movie great is director Zack Snyder’s vision for this universe. Despite the fact that we don’t spend much time in any one corner of it, Rebel Moon’s world feels both carefully crafted and fully lived in. Bars are filled with weird tentacle aliens that can somehow control people’s minds, an order of warrior priests collect teeth from fallen enemies for some kind of religious practice, and ships conduct faster than light travel thanks to the tears of a massive machine god.
All of this looks absolutely incredible, and if huge, unique space operas are up your alley, then Rebel Moon should be at the top of your watchlist. One thing that’s worth noting here is that almost none of what makes Rebel Moon great is present in the original cuts of the movie. They obfuscate almost everything that makes Snyder’s world cool and gruesome in favor of a sanitized PG-13 bore. Even if you’ve already seen those terrible versions, the director’s cuts are still very much worth your time. —Austen Goslin
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick
Few action blockbusters have ever been or will ever be as good as Terminator 2. Director James Cameron had already proven with Aliens that he could turn a monster movie into an action movie with just the right sequel, but in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (or T2), he takes the concept a step further, merging the two genres and creating a fantastic fusion that’s never quite been matched.
Taking place several years after the original movie, T2 follows John Connors (Edward Furlong) as a kid, when Skynet sends a newer, more advanced terminator model after him. In order to protect him, the resistance sends back a reprogrammed terminator of their own (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who just so happens to look like the one that tried to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in the original movie.
This is perhaps Cameron’s most brilliant idea in the movie. On the one hand it brings back the fantastic Schwarzenegger as a hero this time, but it also lets us see all of the ways that Sarah has been forever changed by her experience in the first movie. It’s a more careful look at the trauma of a survivor than nearly any monster movie sequel since, and it’s mostly played out in the background of this excellent action movie. —AG