The best sci-fi movies of the year so far

polygon.com:

We love science fiction here at Polygon. We cover it in games, movies, TV, books — whatever medium you can find the genre in, we’re there.

This year has already delivered a lot for fans of the genre, with fascinating stories from around the world for sci-fi faithful in theaters and at home. There have been crowd-pleasing blockbuster hits, contemplative smaller projects, joyous B-movie genre fare, and everything in between.

So here are the best sci-fi movies of 2024 so far and where to watch them. They are sorted into two sections: the top tier, can’t miss movies of the year, and the best of the rest. This list will continue to be updated throughout the year, and will be sorted in reverse chronological order, so the newest movies always show up first.

Where to watch: Netflix

When the first part of Zack Snyder’s sci-fi epic arrived on Netflix late last year, it was met with criticism over its shallow world and vapid story. However, there was one notable caveat: Snyder himself had already explained that Netflix made him release a shorter, toned-down version of the movie first before he could release his director’s cut that better fit his vision. Unsurprisingly for some, now that the director’s cut has arrived, it’s a totally different and infinitely better movie.

Rebel Moon: Chalice of Blood, the subtitle for the director’s cut of part one, is exactly what Snyder promised the series would be: A tremendous space opera with intricate, complicated lore and tremendous visuals. The story is more or less Seven Samurai in space, which is a perfect prism to use to introduce us to this world. Rebel Moon’s universe floats exactly in the middle ground between Star Wars and Warhammer, which as it turns out means that everything in the movie is exceptionally cool. Skulls and bones are shoveled into engines to power faster-than-light travel, an unexplained order of red-clad priests collect the teeth of enemies of the horrible fascist Imperium, all in the name of a dead child-god.