Science Fiction

Aaron Guzikowski says his futuristic HBO Max show, which centers on two androids raising human children on a distant planet, was inspired by his own experiences as a father of three.

The nefarious Empire is building a giant weapon in the latest installment of the Star Wars saga. Critic David Edelstein says though Rogue One is part of a series, it also works as a stand-alone film.

Amy Adams plays a professor tasked with talking to eight-tentacled aliens in Denis Villeneuve's new film. Critic David Edelstein says Arrival is a strange and tantalizing puzzle.

Brad Bird's new sci-fi adventure film features George Clooney, Britt Robertson and an endless sense of possibilities. David Edelstein says the film makes a "near-hysterical case" against pessimism.

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's latest collaboration follows five friends who reunite for an epic tour of 12 suburban English pubs. Critic David Edelstein calls the sci-fi comedy "the year's most uproarious movie."

The writer-director of District 9 returns with Elysium, a dystopian sci-fi/action story with Matt Damon as the hardscrabble hero. Jodie Foster plays the severely chic Big Bad in a saga where the rich live a literally out-of-this-world life above a dying Planet Earth.

The 12th film based on Gene Roddenberry's '60s sci-fi TV show is the second to star a new group of actors as Kirk, Spock and their crew. J.J. Abrams returns as director, and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch plays the memorable villain.

Joseph Kosinski's sci-fi adventure, starring Tom Cruise, is the most incoherent piece of storytelling since John Travolta's Battlefield Earth. It had critic David Edelstein crying, "What? What?" over the din of the explosions.

The sci-fi Western Cowboys & Aliens and the low-budget British film Attack the Block both open this weekend. Critic David Edelstein says both movies bring people together from different walks of life — but only one is really worth seeing.

Super 8 director J.J. Abrams says the inspiration for his latest science-fiction thriller came from his own childhood obsession with filmmaking. He shares his thoughts on the film industry and on trying to make movies more enjoyable for audiences.

J.J. Abrams' science-fiction thriller Super 8 was inspired, in part, by Steven Spielberg's earliest works. Critic David Edelstein says the film hits home in a way more impersonal franchise pictures don't.

Christopher Nolan's new sci-fi flick stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a man trying to extract and plant information in people's heads while they dream. Critic David Edelstein says the movie is "lumbering and humorous and pretentious, with a drag of a hero."

James Cameron's trademark blend of grandiosity, jaw-dropping technology and cornball populism is back — and mightier than ever — in Avatar, a vertigo-inducing sci-fi epic that's as predictable and tin-eared as it is savvy and technically adept.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Science of Sleep, the new film from Michel Gondry. Previously, Gondry directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

We speak with writer-director Richard Kelly. His 2001 cult film Donnie Darko has been released in a new director's cut version. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The film mixes time-travel, coming-of age drama, sci-fi and surreal suburban angst.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Matrix Reloaded, starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne.

Film director Barry Sonnenfeld. His latest movie is Men in Black II, the sequel to his film Men in Black. Both films star Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Sonnenfeld's other films include Wild Wild West, Get Shorty and The Addams Family. Before directing, he worked as a cinematographer. He did three films with the Coen brothers - Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Miller's Crossing. He also worked on Misery, When Harry Met Sally and Big.

John Powers reviews Solaris, starring George Clooney, directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Film critic John Powers The Mothman Prophecies starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, and Alan Bates.