Viewers are turning to streaming entertainment more than ever thanks to the global pandemic, and the plethora of services—Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, and HBO Max—can serve as a much-needed escape. At the start of each month, most streamers do a little shuffle, adding new movies and taking some away—and io9 is here to help you narrow down your decision-making.
Welcome to the Nerd’s Watch, our monthly column where we curate the most interesting sci-fi, fantasy, and horror movies (and shows) coming to the biggest streaming services. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Disney+, and HBO Max all have new content for March 2021, so let’s get to it.
Netflix
Table of Contents
Available March 1
Batman Begins and The Dark Knight – Christopher Nolan’s landmark Batman films come to Netflix. Well, two of them. The best two. Personally, I prefer Begins but they’re both excellent.
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I Am Legend – Will Smith is the last man on Earth living in a post-apocalyptic New York in this sci-fi blockbuster that should have been better than it is.
Jason X – Sure, the classics may have defined the franchise, but what’s more fun than a mech-version of Jason killing campers in an elaborate virtual reality? We submit: not much.
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny – The greatest band who ever lived, Tenacious D, take on Satan himself in this fantasy musical comedy that’s worth watching for the music alone.
Available March 4
Pacific Rim: The Black – This Netflix original series is an anime-style continuation of the Pacific Rim franchise. That means big monsters and robots will do battle and it will likely be glorious.
Available March 15
The BFG – Not a movie about the best gun in Doom, unfortunately. It’s actually a magical little Roald Dahl adaptation from none other than Steven Spielberg himself. It’s lesser Spielberg, to be sure, but still Spielberg.
Available March 18
Skylines – The third film in the Skyline franchise was recently released and now makes its way to Netflix. By now, humanity has had it with the aliens terrorizing Earth and decide to take the fight to space.
Available March 20
Jiu Jitsu – Netflix is the perfect place watch to watch Jiu Jitsu, a super cheesy Nicolas Cage movie about an alien who fights a bunch of warriors. It’s not a good movie but it’s watchable. Read more about it below.
Amazon
Available March 1
Attack the Block – Simply put, one of the best sci-fi films in the past decade. (Also on Hulu)
Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, and Back to the Future Part III – The wacky adventures of a teen boy and an aging scientist.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial – Trust us, if you haven’t seen E.T. in a while, give it a spin again. You’ll instantly be caught up in this timeless, magical, masterpiece of a film.
Available March 26
Invincible – The highly anticipated, R-rated animated series based on the comic of the same name from Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley follows a young man whose father is the biggest superhero in the world. He soon discovers his own powers as well as the harsh, violent realities in a world of superheroes. The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun stars along with Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Zachary Quinto, Mahershala Ali, and Mark Hamill.
Hulu
Available March 1
The 13th Warrior – Antonio Banderas stars in this period adventure epic that had a bit of a troubled production but has its moments and more than a few devoted fans.
Demolition Man – Mellow greetings. Grab some Taco Bell and watch one of the best sci-fi action films ever. Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Denis Leary—pure perfection at every turn.
The Descent – What Jaws did for the ocean, The Descent did for caves. A group of women goes into a deep dark cave just hoping to explore and uncovers some hellacious monsters. It’s an awesome, awesome movie.
Judge Dredd – The Karl Urban film is excellent but this isn’t that. It’s the earlier Sylvester Stallone version which, while pretty bad, is noteworthy and worth watching just to see how differently Dredd was handled in 1995.
Predators – Robert Rodriguez’s entry into the Predator franchise can, at times, be overlooked in a world with so many reboots and sequels and spinoffs. But it’s a mostly entertaining entry into the canon that at least tried new things.
Scrooged – Bill Murray’s timeless Christmas movie can, and should, be watched and enjoyed at any time of year.
Stargate – Kurt Russell and James Spader lead this sci-fi epic that, on its own, is pretty good—but becomes even more important when you realize what happened next: lots of spinoffs.
Young Frankenstein – Mel Brooks’ unforgettable, screwball monster comedy is an all-timer.
Available March 5
Boss Level – This Hulu original is from A-Team director Joe Carnahan and stars Frank Grillo as a man stuck in an infinite time loop who has to fight his way out of it. It’s a video game-influenced roller coaster ride.
Disney+
Available March 5
Raya and the Last Dragon – The second Disney film to arrive on its streaming service with an additional charge, Raya is the latest from Walt Disney Animation Studios. We’ll have our review up before long but it’s worth the price of admission if you like large-scale animated epics in the vein of Zootopia, Frozen, and Wreck-It Ralph.
Available March 12
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Tim Burton has never made an X-Men movie but he did the next best thing. He made Miss Peregrine, which is about a home filled with kids with special powers. It’s pretty dark for the Disney+ crowd, but it’s decent.
Marvel Studios Assembled – In the week between WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier comes this brand new show. It’s a making-of feature in the mold of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian and will dive into the making of WandaVision.
Available March 19
The Falcon and Winter Soldier – The second Disney+ Marvel Studios show launches, starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in a story that picks up after the events of Avengers: Endgame. It’s going to run six episodes, each of which will be about an hour.
HBO Max
Available March 1
Blade – Wesley Snipes kicks ass as the daywalker Blade in the 1998 comic book adaptation that spawned a full franchise…with a new version on the way from Marvel.
Constantine – Keanu Reeves stars in yet another comic book adaptation. This one is decidedly darker than most others and has quietly built up a nice little cult following in the years since its release.
The Lost Boys – One of my all-time favorite movies is about two kids who move to a new town and become engrossed in its vampire culture. A true staple of ‘80s cinema that’s not to be missed. I still believe.
Red Dragon – Certainly not the best of the Hannibal Lecter movies, this star-studded remake might still pique your attention since the Silence of the Lambs franchise is enjoying a little resurrection.
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride – Though you can’t go wrong with basically any animated film that Tim Burton is involved with, Corpse Bride is probably the least beloved of the bunch. But, again, it’s still a Burton stop-motion animated film.
Available March 17
Superman: The Animated Series – This Bruce Timm animated DC series isn’t talked about nearly as much as Batman: The Animated Series series but it’s still a pretty damned good take on one of the most famous superheroes of all time. And now it’s all on HBO Max.
Available March 18
Zack Snyder’s Justice League – And here it is. The long-awaited, much-anticipated, four-hour reimagining of Justice League by the film’s original director, Zack Snyder. Everyone is curious about this one. Everyone.
Available March 31
Godzilla vs. Kong – Debuting in theaters and on HBO Max is this showdown of epic proportions between two of the most famous monsters of all time. We can’t wait to munch on some popcorn for this mega-blockbuster.
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