Netflix sci-fi March 2020: The 11 best movies and shows to watch

Over the next month, we'll have to say goodbye to quite a few science fiction titles as they leave Netflix. For some of them, like A Wrinkle in Time, that goodbye will last forever as they drift over to the land of Disney+. For others, we really have no idea, but Netflix is losing Will Smith classics like Men in Black and Wild Wild West, so it's a good thing the platform has Bright permanently.

If you’re hankering for a taste of tomorrow this March, here are 11 of the best science fiction shows and movies available to stream on Netflix, with a focus on whatever’s new, original, or leaving soon.

11. I Am Not Okay With This

If Netflix was an assembly line the end result would be I Am Not Okay With This. From the producer of Stranger Things, the creator of End of the F***ing World, and rising scream queen star Sophia Lillis, I Am Not Okay With This is a perfect blend of superhero origin story and ‘80s nostalgia. If John Hughes directed an X-Men movie, it might look something like this.

10. Altered Carbon

In Altered Carbon, the lone survivor of an elite group of soldiers is resurrected into a new body 250 years after his last death to solve a murder. Most people have their consciousness put into a chip — called a “stack” — in their spine. After death, the stack can be inserted into a new “sleeve” body, which looks and feels just like a humanoid Cylon or Replicant. An intense action-noir at the midpoint between Blade Runner and The Matrix, Altered Carbon newly features Anthony Mackie in Season 2 as the latest “sleeve” for Takeshi Kovacs.

And later this month, check out the anime spin-off Altered Carbon: Resleeved on March 19, made by Dai Sato, the creative mind behind the legendary Cowboy Bebop.

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9. Space Jam

WELCOME TO THE SPACE JAM! What's not to love about an insane movie where Michael Jordan teams up with the Looney Tunes to defend Earth against alien invaders via an intense basketball matchup? The bad guys steal the basketball prowess of other NBA stars, leaving Bugs Bunny to recruit Jordan into the mix for a totally bonkers collision of animation with live-action. To his credit, Michael Jordan does okay here, but anyone who loves Looney Tunes and/or basketball should have a good time.

8. Men in Black

The classic Men In Black and its less-desirable direct sequel will be leaving Netflix by March 14, and with the onslaught of more streaming services on the horizon, who knows if it'll ever be back? Will Smith stars as a street-smart NYPD cop who winds up working for a secret intelligence agency tasked with protecting the world from alien threats, and he's thrust into an exciting and hilarious adventure alongside a no-nonsense veteran agent played by Tommy Lee Jones. The music is also pretty catchy.

Men In Black and Men In Black II will be removed from Netflix on March 14.

7. Wild Wild West

Make it a Will Smith triple feature! His raucous 1999 steampunk Western action-comedy, Wild Wild West, only landed on Netflix in January and it's already on its way out. Loosely adapted from a 1960’s TV show with a similar premise, Wild Wild West follows two mismatched U.S. Secret Service agents who team up to protect U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant from bizarre threats during the American Old West of the late 1860s. Critics and more casual audiences alike under-appreciate Wild Wild West, because despite being a bad movie by most accounts, it’s still fun to watch. Isn’t that what counts?

Wild Wild West will be removed from Netflix on March 30.

6. A Wrinkle in Time

2018's A Wrinkle in Time is a stunning a heartfelt motion picture that just doesn't quite work all that well, but for any fans of the source material novel, it might be worth watching considering the fact that this one will just wind up on Disney+ and never return to Netflix. In this story, two brilliant young children are joined by three celestial beings as they travel across time and space with their classmate to find their lost father and defeat an ancient evil.

A Wrinkle in Time will be removed from Netflix on March 24.

5 & 4. Batman Begins & The Dark Knight

Indisputably the two best Batman movies of all time, these first two films in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne set an impossibly high bar for the dozens of superhero movies that followed them. Begins is easily the most under-appreciated of the three and probably deserves some love even more than The Dark Knight, which we've all seen so many times over already, right?

Batman Begins & The Dark Knight will be removed from Netflix on March 30.

3. Small Soldiers

It's a big month for Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones apparently, because Small Soldiers stars the latter as the voice of a murderous toy soldier. Critics have panned Small Soldiers for more than two decades, but its an under-appreciated masterpiece mainly due to an outrageous premise that makes for an incredibly fun watch as long as you don’t take it that seriously. This movie is essentially a dark and gritty live-action Toy Story alternative where the toys aren’t afraid to interact with humans (and worse).

The premise? Commando Elite action figures and their Gorgonite enemies are accidentally upgraded with military-grade microprocessors, ostensibly giving them free will. The Commando Elites immediately try wiping out the innocent Gorgonites, who team up with some human kids. It only gets weirder from there.

Small Soldiers will be removed from Netflix on March 30.

2. Her

In Her, the always-excellent Joaquin Phoenix plays a man who falls in love with a disembodied A.I. voice — a hyper-advanced Alexa who sounds like Scarlett Johansson and can learn at an exponential rate. Set in near-future Los Angeles, Her explores the depression of a sensitive guy looking to fill an emotional void following the end of a long-term relationship. The whole thing is executed in a way that feels deeply relatable — which also makes it that much more uncanny bordering on frightening.

1. Blade Runner

Is there any film more important to the science fiction genre than Blade Runner? Probably not. In Ridley Scott's cyberpunk masterpiece from 1982, Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a former policeman tasked with tracking down bioengineered humanoids known as replicants. It's essentially futuristic noir that stacks overlapping mysteries atop each another, making you question the nature of humanity itself.

Ironically, the story takes place in a dystopian 2019 that looks nothing like the actual 2019 did. Blade Runner virtually created an entire aesthetic for the cyberpunk subgenre of sci-fi. For anyone who hasn't seen Blade Runner yet, the "Final Cut" version is the 25th-anniversary version recut by Ridley Scott and released in 2007 that leaves the story's biggest questions vague and adds a surreal dream sequence to further complicate the film's messages in compelling ways.