Movies

The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies of 2019 So Far

This year’s speculative fiction highlights include bleak trips through space, multiple ‘Back to the Future Part II’ tributes, and movies about women with extraordinary abilities.
Best Sci Fi Midyear
By  · Published on June 29th, 2019

Happy Death Day 2U

Happydeathdayu

We’ve seen slasher franchises go sci-fi before, but when Jason Voorhees went to space, his murder spree was still the focus. This follow-up to Happy Death Day, which already mixes sci-fi/fantasy in its horror for a Groundhog Day-inspired slasher plot, pretty much changes genres. Or leans more into the sci-fi than the horror, at least. There’s still a Babyface slasher afoot, but the core of the plot involves time travel and alternate universes. And the key meta-reference is Back to the Future Part II, similarly pulling off new perspectives on previously seen scenes a couple of months before Avengers: Endgame got all the credit for doing the same thing.

As with the original, Happy Death Day 2U works as well as it does primarily thanks to the funny and relatably cynical yet sincere characterization by Jessica Rothe in the lead role. This time, she impresses even further as her role becomes more dramatically weighted with the ramifications of her multiverse hopping. Joining the actress again but on an expanded level is the increasingly charming Israel Broussard, and for their continued collaboration alone I’d be fine with returning writer/director Christopher Landon figuring out a way for another sequel.

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High Life

High Life Goth

The other movie on this list about people spending the rest of their lives on a spaceship to nowhere, Claire Denis’ first English-language feature is mesmerizing one moment and difficult to watch in the next, Tarkovskian in its pleasures and its provocation. Robert Pattinson stars in High Life as one of a group of convicts involuntarily sent off as guinea pigs on a mission to a black hole. Along the way, they’re subjected to reproduction experiments but are denied sexual activity outside of the masturbatory experiences inside a chamber called a “fuckbox.” That all goes about as smoothly as you’d presume.

The story offers intrigue as it begins with Pattinson’s character alone on the ship with a baby and then plays out in flashbacks to show what has happened to the rest, but the plot isn’t as important as specific stunning moments and Denis’ own study of her characters and exploration of humanity. Your appreciation of the original Solaris will very likely match your appreciation of High Life, only this movie has more body fluids to wade through. Pattinson is great. André Benjamin surprises. Juliet Binoche was born to play a mad scientist. But not enough people have celebrated Mia Goth’s strength in the role that surely suffers the most. She continues to be a superb staple of the most unsettling cinema of late.

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I Am Mother

I Am Mother Trailer
Netflix

We all know that AI and robots will rule Earth when we’re all gone, but what this movie supposes is maybe they’ll attempt to bring us back or keep us around. The main machine in Grant Sputore’s feature debut, I Am Mother, is known only as Mother (voiced by Rose Byrne), and she’s made it her mission to raise the future of humanity. For now, she’s got one young woman (Clara Rugaard) dwelling with her in an elaborate bunker. She’s known only as Daughter and she loves physical fitness and episodes of The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was the host. Suddenly, Daughter’s world is turned upside down by the appearance of another woman (Hillary Swank, best I’ve seen her in years) at the door of their shelter from what’s supposed to be an uninhabitable world.

Chaos and contemplation ensue, as they do in the best kind of science fiction. And while the premise appears to be simple and familiar on the surface — outsider arrives, disrupting the flow of a seemingly safe and relatively ideal life — where the movie goes with it is not as predictable or easy as you’d imagine. I Am Mother is an impressive, economical first film, never too showy, though also never as fun as something like the comparable Ex Machina. Its titular machine is one of the most “fleshed out” and complex robots in cinema yet, practically portrayed and believable to the point that you might take her for granted as a character as the movie goes. But afterward, you’re thinking about her for a long time.

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The Kid Who Would Be King

The Kid Who Would Be King
20th Century Fox

Many filmmakers of this decade have attempted to replicate the “Amblinesque” wonder and adventure of 1980s movies such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies, but only Joe Cornish has gotten the spirit of such throwbacks right while also offering his own unique and modern voice to the formula. Finally following up on his spectacular directorial debut, Attack the Block, the writer-director delivered another delight in his similarly inspired (and, sadly, similarly ignored) sophomore effort. Exchanging aliens for medieval fantasy, The Kid Who Would Be King again follows a bunch of kids stopping a sort of invasion. It may be an acknowledged derivative mashup of Cornish’s love for Arthurian legend and Steven Spielberg movies, but it’s a joy in its own right.

And it does have a very contemporary story in spite of its interest in ancient elements like Excalibur and the Knights of the Round Table. The movie’s preteen hero (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) must team up with a young incarnation of Merlin (a hilarious Angus Imrie) and go on a quest to defeat Morgana (a fabulously wicked Rebecca Ferguson) but it’s all done in the present as they have to stop the evil sorceress from completely enveloping England in darkness. Brexit obviously came to mind for many viewers. And as tends to be the case, the children are our future and as such are the ones who’ll have to fix or fend off the problems made by their elders, perhaps with a look to the past mashed up with a new perspective. Every kid should be watching this movie.

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Shazam!

Shazam

With three very enjoyable movies now under its belt (excluding Man of Steel, which I actually still like a lot), the jumbled hodgepodge that is the DC Extended Universe is no longer deserving of disrespect. Shazam! really sealed it by being the most consistent in its focus and standard of quality. Aside from its easy elevator pitch of it being Big meets Superman, this adaptation doesn’t feel like something devised by studio executives and written by committee. Its smaller scope and price tag probably made that feasible, resulting in the movie its screenwriter (Henry Gayden) and director (David F. Sandberg) wholly intended, right up to the questionable non-kid-friendly bits.

Zachary Levi is a hoot as the title character, especially in his scenes opposite fraternal sidekick Jack Dylan Grazer, despite Billy Batson’s personality not lining up well between teen (Asher Angel) and superhero forms. And the rest of the cast nicely fills out what’s ultimately and surprisingly a comic book movie with a lot of warmth, just enough to make you feel good without getting a bellyache from too much sweetness. Everything works, from the comedic tone to the action set pieces to the motivations of the villain, wonderfully played by Mark Strong. Shazam! 2 can’t come soon enough.

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.