Superheroes and horror movies may be overpowering theaters this summer, but streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video have some stone-cold sci-fi classics just waiting to be watched.
Sometimes, it’s purely by chance that the major streaming services give sci-fi fans a movie lineup that’s worthy of a binge-watch.
Since this month is one of those occasions, the Watch With Us team has selected three underrated sci-fi movies you should watch in August.
Our picks this month include a big-budget blockbuster, a film that kind of cribbed its entire premise from two other movies and a very timely choice that has a stacked cast of performers.
‘Pacific Rim’ (2013)
Pacific Rim came out so long ago that it actually takes place in an alternate version of 2025. Director Guillermo del Toro had a blast with this wildly underrated sci-fi movie about giant robots (Jaegers) beating up giant aliens (Kaiju) from another dimension.
Charlie Hunnam stars as Raleigh Becket, a former Jaeger pilot who is coaxed out of retirement by Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) to serve on Earth’s last line of defense. In order to pilot a Jaeger, Raleigh needs to find someone who is “drift compatible” with his mind. The only suitable choice is Pentecost’s adoptive daughter, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), but she has a lot of psychological damage to unpack before she and Raleigh can try to save the world one last time.
Pacific Rim is streaming on Netflix.
‘Stargate’ (1994)
Before they brought Independence Day and other sci-fi disaster movies to the big screen, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin combined elements of Star Wars and Indiana Jones in Stargate. Most of Stargate‘s best moments came in the TV franchise it spawned years later, but the original film is very solid and exciting in its own right.
Kurt Russell leads the cast as Colonel Jack O’Neil, an Air Force operative who reluctantly accompanies archeologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) through a recently recovered Stargate that can open a wormhole to another world. What they discover is a planet full of humans enslaved by an immortal alien tyrant known as Ra (Jaye Davidson), who seems very interested in destroying Earth for daring to attack his empire from afar.
Stargate is streaming on Prime Video.
‘In Time’ (2011)
In Time envisions a future where time itself has become the ultimate commodity in place of money. Naturally, the rich have become effectively immortal and eternally young while everyone else scrapes by on hours and days in a fruitless struggle to survive.
An ordinary factory worker named Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is gifted an immense amount of time by a suicidal and very wealthy man. That leaves Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) convinced that Will killed the man who helped him. To remain free, Will takes Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) hostage. But despite her vast wealth, Sylvia turns out to share Will’s desire to bring down the system and restore time to the people who really need it.
In Time is streaming on Max.
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