The science fiction genre has been primarily a den of downers over the past decade, featuring alien invasions, ecological disaster, rampaging dinosaurs, artificial intelligence run amok, and various riffs on totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and dystopianism. This is hardly new, of course, since science fiction has always lent itself to portents of doom. Just look at the 1950s, the decade that made sci-fi a contender genre: While the decade began with upbeat films about space travel and the excitement of landing on distant planets, it was soon overrun with pods, blobs, and Martian invasions. The genre's darker contours have largely ... Read More