Serenity - a review

I first have to state that I'm not an early Firefly adopter. As a matter of fact, I haven't even finished watching all 13 episodes. Friends in my gaming group have been touting the series as a must-see ever since the release of the DVDs, when it seemed to show up on our collective geek radar.

Seeing as the movie was coming out, I borrowed the Firefly DVDs from our new gaming group recruit, Cory, and started to watch them with my wife. We are big Buffy fans, having watched the entire collection via Netflix, so come on - Joss in Space didn't take too much of a leap of faith.

Before seeing the movie, I had not yet finished all of my Joss Whedon rabid fanboy space Kool-Aid, but was sipping contentedly. Heather and I were definitely enjoying the series. Good, solid TV Sci Fi. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly give me hope that actual *good* TV sci fi is here to stay.

Back to the movie though, my family and I bopped out through Sundays disturbingly relentless, pouring rain to check out Serenity, our good friend Jon in tow. We'd all seen and liked at least some of the Firefly series, from Jon's full season viewing to my son's occasional snippets. The movie, however, floored us all. Even the annoying, talkative, fidgety family that sat behind us slowly quieted down to a hushed calm by five minutes into this two-hour celebration of what sci fi can and should be. Like he rest of us, they were too busy trying to pick their jaws up off the sticky theater floor to talk.

For the cinematic presentation of Firefly, Mr. Whedon pulled out all the stops. I was expecting a good, solid movie. I wasn't ready for Serenity. Possessing in equal parts the pacing of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the epic swell of Star Wars, and the fresh take on sci fi a-la The Fifth Element, this remarkable movie tumbled us through a washing machine of sudsy, far future fiction splendor and spilled us out onto the theater sidewalk, reeling, excited, talkative, and thoroughly satisfied.

Universal Studios, my brain has been washed. Assimilation is complete. Joss Whedon is my master now. More movies, please!