Serenity
Okay, so maybe I'm just a geek. I loved this movie.
I first saw Firefly last summer when I was staying with my friend Sean Gaffney in LA. I was there for the Act One: Writing for Hollywood workshop, and there were a few late nights when I'd sit up and watch his Firefly DVDs. Malcolm Reynolds (Mal), played by Nathan Fillian, captains a space ship, a freighter of the "Firefly" class (hence the name) called "Serenity" (hence the name of the film), some 500 years in the future. Mal and crew live and work among the "outer planets" a place where the Alliance (read ruling government) won't bother outlaws like Mal. Back in the great war of the time, Mal served on the wrong side, the side of the "Independents." This powerful leader still carries scars and bitterness from that losing cause, and as he captains his "boat," his wounds often drive his action. Unafraid of ruthlessness and compassion, Mal is an unpredictable character with a rich cast of interesting folks around him.
The film asks some provocative questions, such what would it cost us to try to fabricate a perfect society, a perfect world? With all the news of genetic engineering, sports doping, gene alterations, as well as the well accepted mind altering drugs that treat various degrees of depression and anxiety, it's worth asking what price such practices may exact from our humanness. Serenity also questions the idea of blind belief, and the ethics of pursuing that belief, especially if that pursuit wreaks monstrous havoc on the self. What will it take to open our eyes to some truth that we refuse to see? And just what truth is worth dying for?
See it...
4:47:42 PM 
