Under the Fold:

Can't Stop the Signal

I'm afraid the vast majority of mainstream filmgoers are prepared to shrug off the opinions of sci-fi fanboys without consideration.  I know it to be true, as I myself have ignored the chatter about Firefly for a few years.  And so it would be quite easy to ignore me, but please, hear me out for just a moment:

Go see Serenity.

Seriously, that should be all I have to say.  Rarely do I insist on deciding others' minds for them, but this is the one in a million.  If you enjoy good writing, creativity unleashed, good laughs, good action, somber moments, unbelievable character rapport, and especially if you think these things are all in short supply, it is your obligation to see Serenity.  This "franchise" (if it may be called that) has so many of those qualities and more in spades, and the potential for even more.

How do I know?  Can I prove it?  Well, I can only tell you what I experienced.  A week ago, I'd barely heard of Serenity or Firefly.  The trailers looked interesting, so I saw the movie, and walked out hesitant but forced to admit that...  yes...  it's better than Star Wars.  Better than any Star Wars, even Empire.  More than that, it inspired the same amount of awe and thrill in me now--a full blown adult--as Lucas's flicks did in my childhood.

So having seen Serenity, I was compelled to see the Firefly series on DVD.  Tracked them down, and between Thursday and Saturday, I watched all fourteen episodes, fifteen hours of footage, and watched many of them a second time.  I fell in love with this story.

Yes, I fell in love.  I'm as jaded about film and especially television as the next person, and I'm only the most casual sci-fi fan, but in less than a week I became absolutely enamored and hooked and...  heartbroken.  I'd fallen in love with a show I knew was already dead, and I'm just in time to watch the film incarnation enter a similarly gloomy death rattle at the box office.

I can't just sit back and let that happen.  "Can't stop the signal," so they say...  And it's my turn to pass the signal on.  Please, go see the movie.  We're talking $8-10 bucks for a ticket and I promise you, it's worth it.  If you walk out underwhelmed, you never have to listen to me again.  I won't even go so far as to suggest you watch the complete series on DVD, as I'm so confident that you'll want to.

Just go see Serenity.