“Beam Me Up, Scotty!” Perhaps it’s the impending Star Trek big screen reboot that’s getting filmmakers all moony on the subject of space, but there are so many out-of-this-world movies coming out in the next few weeks, it’s noteworthy. Here’s a quick look:

Alien Trespass – Limited Release, April 3rd

Alien Trespass is a lavish, if low-budget, love note to the ’50s era of atomic sci-fi. Everything is perfected to the letter, but it lacks the oomph of homage movies like Pleasantville, or the fun irony of social satires like Fido.

While it’s not incompetent and not as tedious as quirk-fest The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Alien Trespass is most similar to that film…which I also didn’t like very much. Set in 1957, the story follows a family man and astronomer whose body is borrowed by a benevolent, Gort-like spaceman named Urp. Urp is a policeman, of sorts, who’s on the hunt for a dangerous, human-killing creature called The Ghota. Urp needs the human form to move undetected through society…but, of course, his cover doesn’t last for long and he has to team up with the earthlings to help him round up the bad monster.

Alien Trespass has a lot going for it: a sweet, simple story; excellently wooden, pre-Method styled acting by Eric MacCormack and Robert Patrick; uncanny videography which approximates 35mm Technicolor; noteworthy attention to poodle skirt and Cadillac fin detail; a strong, proactive female character well-played by The 4400′s Jenni Baird; and some really kooky, cheesy space invaders straight out of a B-movie I’d expect to see lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

What Alien Trespass lacks is much-needed corniness. While it’s a bold move to try to make a movie that isn’t supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, the fact that it isn’t at all funny is what sinks it.

Sleep Dealer – Limited Release, April 17th

This allegorical science fiction movie is a little bit Philip K. Dick with a touch of The Matrix thrown in…all in Spanish and on a small, intimate scale. The saga follows dreamy teen Memo (Luis Fernando Peña) from his small town casa to the big border city of Tijuana where, in the near future, Coyotes are known as “Coyoteks.” These cyber-smugglers will hook you up to a computer hub that allows you to become an undocumented, untaxed worker anywhere in the world without ever leaving home.

Exploring the themes of technological takeovers, imperialism, globalization, the exploitation of foreign labor (”It’s the American Dream!” says a factory manager to a virtual employee, “They get all our work, without the workers”), Sleep Dealer also has a love story and strong themes of redemption though humanity. It’s a good story and is well-acted and nicely shot, but its pace is disappointingly plodding.

Moon – Limited Release, June 12th

Noteworthy at first blush for being the feature directorial debut of space-obsessed pop singer and actor David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, nee “Zowie Bowie,” Moon has more to offer than just a curio factor. It showcases indie-sensation Sam Rockwell as a lone research astronaut stationed on the moon and features the voice of Kevin Spacey (I know…) as The Robot.

Slightly slow-mo and surreal along the lines of classic, pre-space opera science fiction films like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris, Moon is about the human condition and how Man might react when hermetically sealed (reminds me of some Elton John song lyrics: “I miss the Earth so much I miss my wife. It’s lonely out in space, on such a timeless flight…”).

But what if our protagonist is not a man at all? Does he exist because therefore he thinks? It’s all very existential but overall well-done, entertaining and thought-provoking.

While it shares the same pacing issues as its two cohorts reviewed above, Moon is definitely one of the better science fiction movies to come out since Children of Men and Sunshine.