Trust the prolific absurdist auteur Quentin Dupieux (“Deerskin,” “Mandibles”) to come up with a comically metaphysical take on time travel. This beautiful movie rewards patience - and heck, that final battle on a monorail is awesome, too. While “Jung_E” starts off like a riff on “Edge of Tomorrow,” it quickly becomes obvious that Yeon is interested in more complicated matters, including the moral standards of cybernetics and the perils of the grieving process. In a key wrinkle, the project is led by Yun’s own daughter, Seo-hyun (Kang Soo-youn). The goal of one such company is to transfer the brain of the comatose war hero Captain Yun Jung-yi (Kim Hyun-joo) into an exact replica to create a mighty combat android. Three of those stations have attacked the others, leading to a decades-long war, and Earth is now dominated by the military-industrial complex.

The starting point is a post-climate apocalypse Earth in which millions of people have relocated to orbiting shelters. with a degree of emotional sensitivity rare in a film that also deploys virtuosic whiz-bang fights. Now Yeon is back with “Jung_E,” which considers A.I.

The South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho burst on the international scene in 2016 with the insta-classic zombie actioner “Train to Busan,” then he delivered more undead with the sprawling “Peninsula” (2020). And if you just want badass action with robots, brawls, devious scientists and grand futuristic landscapes, it’ll do the job, too. If ethical and emotional issues pertaining to artificial intelligence are your jam, this Netflix original is a must-see.

Science fiction best movies 2017