2023 promises to be a great year for sci-fi films ,and these five, from a Transformer reboot to the sequel to Dune, are the most anticipated ones on our radar.
While 2022 was a great year for movies, 2023 promises to top it with a schedule full of great films from all types of genres: action (Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1), comic book (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), drama (Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer), and whatever the hell Barbie is supposed to be.
One genre in particular is geared to have a great year in 2023: science fiction. With the usual slate of sequels, reboots, and original films with high-concept premises (Kylo Ren battles dinosaurs!), these five sci-fi films stand out as the best of a very crowded pack that we can’t wait to watch later in the year.
Finally done with the DC Extended Universe, Zach Snyder veers away from the superheroes and zombies that dominated his previous films and looks toward the heavens. His next film, Rebel Moon, is set in a peaceful colony in a faraway galaxy that is threatened by Balisarius, an alien tyrant hell-bent on conquering as many planets as he can. In desperation, the colonists send a young woman with a mysterious past to gather other warriors from nearby planets to help fight Balisarius.
Inspired by both Star Wars and the films of Akira Kurosawa, Rebel Moon promises to bring the space opera back to sci-fi. Snyder has an epic vision, as well as Netflix’s seemingly unlimited financial resources at his disposal. Plus, he’s gathered an eclectic cast featuring Charlie Hunnam, Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Corey Stoll, Justice League‘s Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, and Anthony Hopkins to bring his epic vision to life. While Snyder has had his misfires (remember Sucker Punch?), Rebel Moon has a schlocky B-movie premise that we can’t help but like, and there’s no pesky WB executive reining in the director’s penchant for slow-motion action sequences and washed-out visuals.
Wait, what? There’s a sequel to The Wandering Earth, a film you’ve probably never heard of? Well, prepared to be even more surprised as The Wandering Earth was one of the biggest global hits when it was released in 2019. It’s not hard to see why, as the concept is intriguing: a group of scientists need to save Earth from the dying sun’s intense heat.
