Science fiction is full of characters, set pieces, and scenarios that few other genres could ever get away with. Due to its often speculative nature, the most accomplished sci-fi movies can sometimes require a bit of work on the part of the viewer. Yet as fans of the genre understand, when it's done right, a great sci-fi film is well worth the mental gymnastics that watching it might demand. Speaking of sci-fi done right: Whether you're a lifelong genre devotee or have never even sat through a Star Wars movie to the end, a little guidance can go a long way--and that's exactly what we've got for you. When you're ready to take your mind on a cinematic journey, check out any one (or all) of our picks for the very best science fiction movies you can watch right now.

Whether it's down to our own hubris, the disastrous effects of unbridled wealth accumulation and social division, war, the climate crisis, plague, a space rock or perhaps unfriendly aliens – we'll one day be dust caught in cosmic winds, lost to an indifferent universe. On our pale blue dot, the remnants of once-great civilisations and vanished peoples that we unearth already show us that advanced development is no guarantee of perpetuity. In sci-fi, humanity's naive yearning to fight on despite this realisation often proves a point of curiosity – and sometimes inspiration – for alien species. This is front and centre of the Mass Effect trilogy of video games, in which our imminent annihilation is given form in the tendrils of creatures called Reapers: ancient, building-sized, alien-robot hybrids that wipe out most life in the Milky Way every 50,000 years. Originally released between 2007 and 2012, the games were reissued this year as Mass Effect Legendary Edition, an updated complete trilogy, and there's a compelling case that they are among the best sci-fi ever made.

Aliens may look like giant jellyfish with orange bottoms, a leading space scientist has claimed. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a satellite expert and government adviser, said it is likely that there is extra-terrestrial life - it is just more alien than you'd imagine. Rather than being the little green men so beloved of Hollywood directors, they may look like football-field sized jellyfish, complete with onion-shaped appendages and an orange underbelly or bottom. Generated from silicon, rather than the carbon that is the basis of life as we know it, the creatures are able to live off light absorbed through their'skin' and chemicals sucked in through their giant mouths. In physical terms, for example, wings and eyes have independently emerged among animals through evolution at several different times over, and birds in ecologically isolated New Zealand have evolved behaviours typically seen in mammals elsewhere.