The best sci-fi movies to watch on Netflix this July
The summer continues on, with hotter and hotter new releases inching closer to us on the horizon. Deadpool & Wolverine comes out next week, followed by Borderlands early next month and Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus slinking up not far from behind. In the meantime though, if you’re looking for the best sci-fi movies to stream on Netflix from the comfort of your home in July, our picks for this month are the ones to watch.
We’ve got an underappreciated sci-fi horror film starring Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal that flew under most people’s radar when it was first released, an unfairly maligned sequel to a series based on one of the greatest survival horror game franchises of all time, and a cyberpunk classic that changed the face of Hollywood action films forever.
Let’s see what this month has to offer!
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada
Incorrectly assumed by Reddit-brained trailer fiends to be a covert Cloverfield-style prequel to Venom (only one franchise could pit astronauts against alien goo!!! obviously!!!), it turns out the 2017 sci-fi thriller Life didn’t need to connect to comic book IP to thrill. Written by pro genre-blenders Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Zombieland), it’s part Alien, part Gravity, and a steady blast of mayhem. From space station disasters to violent encounters with an E.T., Daniel Espinosa’s controlled direction genuinely shocks, with a first hour that made me yelp out loud a few times.
Life starts on an action beat: a team of astronauts are preparing to “catch” an unmanned probe hurtling back from Mars before it collides with the International Space Station. Averting disaster, they bring the probe on board only to discover that one of the soil samples contains a dormant single-celled organism. A jolt by the ISS’ local exobiologist ignites the growth process, and soon the ship has a cute new alien pet they name “Calvin.” Unfortunately, Calvin evolves – in strength,
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