The Martian in 3D

New York high school student Peter Parker finds his life turned upside down when a bite from a most unusual spider gives him special powers. This reboot of the Spider-Man series is led by two-time Best Actor nominee Andrew Garfield as Peter and two-time Best Actress winner Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. The rare superhero adventure shot in 3D, this lively reboot from director Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer) boasts state-of-the-art visual effects and an exciting score from Oscar winner James Horner (Titanic).

The adult sons (Dennis Quaid, John Putch) of Amity Island’s beleaguered police chief, Martin Brody, discover that leaving home does not necessarily mean leaving sharks behind, as they find themselves and their loved ones menaced by a great white at a Florida marine park. Jaws production designer Joe Alves moves into the director’s chair for this thrill-packed 3D extravaganza that launches the shark into the audience’s lap, with a screenplay by original Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and sci-fi/horror master Richard Matheson (I Am Legend).

In the dystopian America of 2045, people escape the hopelessness of their lives by spending time in the virtual world of OASIS, pretending to be anyone or anything they wish. After the death of OASIS’s creator, a young orphan named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) enters a contest for ownership of the virtual world, facing tough competition from fellow players as well as the corporation’s unscrupulous CEO. Director Steven Spielberg brought Ernest Cline’s best-seller to the screen in dazzling 3D, and the film received a nomination for its visual effects (Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler, David Shirk).

For his first fully stop-motion feature since the classic The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Henry Selick directed this stylish and delightfully creepy horror fantasy, the first feature-length production from LAIKA and a nominee for Best Animated Feature. Dakota Fanning is the voice of Coraline Jones, a bold 11-year-old who passes from her new house through a mysterious little doorway and into a seemingly perfect alternate home and family, but things are not as ideal as they seem.

The survivors of a horrific bridge collapse think the worst is over, not realizing that—as it has for so many cinematic survivors before them—death is still coming to claim them one by one. The last of the original Final Destination films until the 2025 reboot marks a high point of the series, filmed in 3D with top-notch visual effects, inventive set pieces, and a surprise-filled screenplay by Oscar nominee Eric Heisserer (Arrival).

The unexpected deaths of two scientists in a top-secret underground base is just the start of a deadly chain of events involving two state-of-the-art robots named Gog and Magog. The third of producer Ivan Tors’s films about the fictious “Office of Scientific Investigation,” this sci-fi mystery has imagery that foretells such genre classics as The Andromeda Strain and The Power. Released at the tail end of the 1950s 3D boom, this is a rare chance to see Gog in its original format, and a rarer chance to see a flame-thrower-wielding Herbert Marshall fight off a robot.

“The unexpected love child of Wong Kar-wai and Andrei Tarkovsky” is how one critic (Eric Kohn, IndieWire) described this one-of-a-kind second feature from Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan (Kaili Blues). The time-shifting storyline tracks a man (Jue Huang) looking for his lost love (Lust, Caution star Tang Wei), but more than halfway through the film the narrative swerves into a dazzling 3D dream sequence, shot in one 59-minute take, that helped make the film an international art-house sensation.

A family of retired superheroes must cope with a new menace as well as the challenges of raising a super-powered infant in this follow-up to the 2004 animated hit. The return of the mysterious Screenslaver bounces “Elastigirl” Helen back into the crimefighting business, straining her otherwise happy marriage to “Mr. Incredible” Bob (Craig T. Nelson). Reuniting the top-notch voice cast of the original film, this blockbuster sequel also benefits from stylish comic book imagery and a witty score by Oscar winner Michael Giacchino (Up).