The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy to Watch This Week
There’s a lot to watch this week, and it’s a great time to be a horror fan, as one of the best zombie franchises makes a triumphant return after almost twenty years. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something a little more family friendly, then Pixar has you covered with a new original release.
28 Years Later
In theaters June 20
The long-awaited sequel to ‘28 Days Later’ is here, and it’s definitely been worth the wait!
The movie is set, as you might have guessed, almost three decades after the first entry. ‘28 Years Later’ sees the UK overrun by those infected with the Rage virus, which turns them into savage, bloodthirsty killers. The survivors live in isolated communities, like the one on the tidal island Lindisfarne. Here, twelve year-old Spike goes on his first journey to the mainland with his father, as a right of passage, to prove his skills and learn first-hand the effects the virus has inflicted on the country.
The movie is a mix of the frantic, brutal horror the series is known for, and the personal story of Spike as he tries to save his mother from a devastating illness, and introduces us to new and even more deadly Infected. It does drop the ball in a few places, but the good still far outweighs the bad, and it’s a worthy sequel to the 2002 classic.
28 Days Later
Available to watch on Pluto TV
If this movie has got you in the mood to go back and watch the original, then you can thanks to Pluto TV, the only platform currently streaming this movie.
‘28 Days Later’ is a classic piece of low-budget British cinema. Set a month after the deadly virus has spread throughout the UK, devastating the country. The horror, gore and violence are all top notch, but they aren’t the most important part of the movie. At the center are the characters, and the questions of what holds society together, and how quickly it can regress into brutality and chaos.
28 Weeks Later
Available to stream on Hulu
Just for good measure, if you want to go all-in on a ‘28’ series rewatch, then the 2007 sequel ‘28 Weeks Later’ is streaming now on Hulu.
This is definitely the worst of the three movies, with a plot that relies heavily on convenience and dumb character choices, as a US-led task force attempts to reestablish order in Britain after the Infected have seemingly all starved to death, but the virus flares up again, with devastating consequences. It lacks the emotional or narrative weight of the other two movies, and the presence of Jeremy Renner makes it focus more on the action, but it’s still an enjoyable enough “zombie” movie.
Elio
In theaters June 20
If you’re not a fan of zombie movies, or want something that’s more appropriate for the whole family to watch, then Pixar’s ‘Elio’ arrives in cinemas on June 20.
The film follows eleven year-old Elio, a boy who dreams of finding life in outer space, and is abducted by aliens who want him to serve as Earth’s ambassador and taken to the “Communiverse”, a place where species share their knowledge openly. Here he has to try and negotiate peace with the alien warlord Grigon.
It’s the only Pixar movie to release this year and has gone under the radar, with little to no advertising, but early reviews have been positive and it currently has a 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so could be the perfect excuse to take the whole family on a cinema trip.
A Minecraft Movie
Streaming June 20 on Max
At the time of writing, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ is still the highest-grossing movie of the year, bringing in over $950 million. An adaptation of the popular video game, the movie sees a bunch of humans drawn into the Minecraft world who have to figure out a way to get home.
It’s had a mixed critical reception (48% on Rotten Tomatoes) but was a big hit with audiences, who went viral with videos of their antics during screenings, shouting out lines, singing along, and throwing popcorn around. Well now you can do all that in the comfort of your own home.
