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Better Late than Never

Facing his crew after a stunning discovery, Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the transport ship Serenity faces his crew. “Y’all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all come to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave.”

For the first time since Blizzard’s release of Starcraft, I want to own a piece of digital media and pay for the original copy. I, advocate of free *cough* torrents *cough* media that I am, will buy the original CD’s for Serenity when I see them, because it’s just that good.

It’s even preposterous for me to call this post a review; it’s flat out unabashed, unashamed, drooling praise for the best sci-fi movie I’ve ever seen - yes, even better than Wrath of Khan, arguments as to what is and what is not sci-fi notwithstanding. And as rabid a trekkie as I am, that’s counting for a lot. Of course it helps that I’m a Buffy and Angel, two other shows by Joss Whedon, although I never saw an episode of Firefly (the TV series Serenity is based on). And the Buffy/Angel link shows, too; Serenity is full of the hilarious one-liners that made someone like a William the Bloody come off as adorable, like this one: “This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight… turbulence… and then explode.”

Personality-wise, the characters are very well developed - which I suppose is natural, seeing as how it had a season’s worth of time to flesh them out. But the fact that it has a backstory shouldn’t prevent anyone from enjoying this movie, as everything just falls into place and you know exactly what they’re talking about. No insider jokes or obscure tidbits only fanboys can relate to.

I guess what impressed me the most about Serenity isn’t just that it had a good story to tell, but that the story was told well. As profound and moving as some of the concepts that were presented in the movie were, it wasn’t masked in metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, no allusions to hidden meanings. It’s a space movie that’s frank and in your face, a fantasy flick that’s very very real.

Orson Scott Card said that it’s the kind of movie he wants Ender’s Game to be, and I agree. It’s also the kind of movie the Matrix would have been, if only the Wachowski brothers weren’t so long winded.

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