An ambitious Netflix sci-fi forgotten in an instant safeguards the future on a rival streaming service

Having continued expanding its horizons when it comes to both the quality and quantity of original content, dozens of Netflix originals to have been released within the last several years alone have long since been forgotten to the sands of cinematic time, although 2019’s turgid sci-fi IO has managed to embark on a resurgence on an entirely different streaming service.

Director Jonathan Helpert’s ambitious tale of trying to stave off the death of the human race only hit its home platform in January 2019, but you’d have to be a dedicated diehard of the genre for the film to even show up on your homepage, such is the way it’s been disregarded by the algorithm.

Margaret Qualley and Anthony Mackie front the ensemble as scientist Sam and mysterious interloper Micah, the latter of whom remains adamant that there’s a long-term future in amongst a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the entire planet has been rendered so toxic it was abandoned in favor of colonizing one of Jupiter’s moons.

Sparks fly as science gets pitted against belief, with the pair butting heads over whether or not there’s any way of turning back the biological clock to ensure Earth becomes habitable once again. The response to IO was generally muddled, with decent performances being overshadowed by a narrative that all too often leans so hard into formula you might become convinced you’ve seen this exact movie before.

Either way, having been buried on Netflix, IO has been rewarded with another shot at redemption elsewhere, with FlixPatrol revealing the long-forgotten flick to have found a new home on the Rakuten most-watched rankings.