The 5 best sci-fi movies to watch this September

16.09.2023 - 12:15 / polygon.com / Denis Villeneuve / Tom Hardy / Gareth Edwards / September / Best

Happy September, Polygon readers!

Summer is finally over, and a slate of exciting new films is just on the horizon. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two might’ve been pushed back to next year, but the future is still looking bright, with Gareth Edwards’ The Creator as one of the most anticipated films of the year. We’ve still got a week or so before that (and more) releases, so why not peruse the best sci-fi movies on streaming that Hulu, Max, and more have to offer?

Each month, we pick five science fiction movies for you to watch at home. This month, we have a kaiju classic, an excellent blockbuster from George Miller, Jordan Peele’s latest hit, and much more.

Let’s get into it!

Year: 2001
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Cast: Chiharu Niiyama, Ryudo Uzaki, Masahiro Kobayashi
Where to watch: Pluto TV

There’s one breathtaking moment in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack where the camera zooms out from a man in a bathroom to Godzilla crushing the house he’s in with his foot, moving from a full-size set to miniatures without breaking the shot. The movie does this multiple times, transitioning to miniatures with clever masking techniques for maximum impact and jaw-dropping scale, and the joy in the movie’s formal approach energizes it.

GMK is a delightful throwback to the early era of Godzilla movies, especially in its use of miniatures and rejection of a CG Godzilla for the classic “man in a suit” approach. Like many of the best movies in the franchise, it also balances tones very well. It’s funny — in the first 90 seconds, it references both the original movie and Roland Emmerich’s 1998 entry, humorously dismissing the latter’s potential status as canonical — but also very tense in the destruction sequences.

There are few guaranteed good times out there like a quality Godzilla movie, and GMK certainly fits that bill. And with a new Toho entry in the franchise on its way later this year, there’s no better time than now to catch up with an underappreciated Godzilla movie. A note: Hulu only carries the dubbed version, because Toho had the movie dubbed for international release. The dub is very solid, though, with the voice actors leaning into the sincere (and at times silly) tone of the project. —Pete Volk

Year: 2015
Run time: 2h
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Where to watch: Hulu

There are action movies, and then there’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

George Miller’s return to the post-apocalyptic world of his 1979 debut is epic in every sense of the word. Eight years since its initial theatrical release, it remains one of the most impressive late-career comebacks ever produced by a major Hollywood studio — an explosive spectacle of blood,