The best science fiction movies to watch on Netflix in January 2024

Greetings, Polygon readers!

This month marks a happy new year with a number of exciting new science fiction releases. Dune: Part Two, Furiosa: A Mad Max SagaAnd Mickey 17 are all set to be among the biggest releases of 2024, not to mention a new Alien film from evil Dead Director Fede Alvarez and the latest installment in the Planet of the Apes series.

However, you don’t have to wait long to experience your speculative thrill. We’ve compiled a list of the best science fiction films available on Netflix this month, from post-apocalyptic adventures to topical parables of scientific hubris.

Let’s dive in and see what this month has to offer!

Editor’s tip: Gravity

Image: Warner Home Video

Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Pour: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Alfonso Cuarón’s survival thriller about a woman stranded in humanity’s most inhospitable environment remains visually and emotionally spectacular to watch in 2023, more than a decade after its initial theatrical release. Sandra Bullock plays Ryan Stone, a medical technician and mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Explorer, which is thrown into space when the ship is bombarded by a shower of debris from a nearby satellite. After being rescued by crewmate Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), the pair must find a way to restore contact with Earth and accomplish the impossible: return home with no functioning shuttle and no hope of rescue.

Inspired by Cuarón’s childhood love of space travel, Heaviness has been praised by both critics and scholars for its stunning visuals, compelling lead actors, and scientific rigor. The innovative “lightbox” rig technology used to capture Bullock and Clooney’s performances and simulate the 360-degree zero-gravity motion of the film’s cinematography was a breakthrough in entertainment technology, similar to motion capture technology in 2009 Avatar or the “bullet time” effect in the 1999s The Matrix. Cuarón’s film is not only a compelling portrait of human perseverance triumphing over adversity, but also a true milestone in the history of filmmaking. –Toussaint Egan

Birdhouse Barcelona

Photo: Andrea Resimini/Netflix

Directors: Alex Pastor, David Pastor
Pour: Mario Houses, Naila Schuberth, Georgina Campbell

Netflixs Birdhouse Barcelona suffered from the fact that the premiere took place too close to Season 1 of the narratively similar series The last of us series, but viewed from a greater distance from this series, it lands better and hits harder.

Set in the world of the successful Netflix horror film BirdhouseThe film is about a man from Barcelona, ​​​​Sebastián (Mario Casas), who travels with his daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard) through a post-apocalyptic world full of monsters whose visual appearance causes human witnesses to kill themselves. Navigating a world full of aliens blindfolded is difficult enough, but Birdhouse Barcelona brings many more problems to the table for the survivors, including Sebastián himself. It’s a film full of shocks that builds on that BirdhouseThe film’s world is filled with just enough new information and narrative wrinkles to keep viewers on their toes without giving away the mysteries the original chose to leave unanswered. —Tasha Robinson

Jurassic Park

Image: Universal Pictures

Director: Steven Spielberg
Pour: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum

You’ve almost certainly seen it Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg’s first dinosaur film is a ’90s gem and a classic fondly remembered by children around the world since its release in theaters. But here’s what you might not know if you haven’t seen it recently: It’s a lot better than you remember.

There are good blockbuster movies, there are great blockbuster movies, and then there are others Jurassic Park. One of the fastest and best executed films of all time, Jurassic Park is a truly perfect crescendo. The film’s elegant but exposition-heavy opening proves that dinosaurs are wondrous and impressive creatures, and that half of them would almost certainly kill you instantly.

Spielberg’s ability to jump from childlike wonder to absolute terror in the blink of an eye is so seamless and skillful that it’s easy to take it for granted. The sheer fun of the film and the dynamic it exudes from scene to scene mean that you might not even notice how many genres there are Jurassic Park manages to create two extremely entertaining hours. When people say they don’t make films like Jurassic Park What’s more, they’re kind of right. But only because there really aren’t any films like that Jurassic Park. –Austen Goslin