Serenity

This is a completely spoiler-free post, so it's of necessity going to be short. :0

We just got back from seeing Serenity tonight. Wow. Just ... wow. Go see this film. Even if you've never seen the series. Even if you've never really liked science fiction, go see this film. If you've never seen the series, you'll love this movie as-is, for reasons we'll discuss. But if you have seen the series, there is a masterfully done deeper layer to the dialogue that makes the movie even better. When the series was on television, I saw the first episode, but couldn't really figure out what was going on and said, "Eh, I don't like westerns, so I'll give this one a miss." It turns out that for some bizarre reason, the studio decided to start the series with the third episode. Go figure. I later learned about the series from someone who tends to have similar tastes to mine, so we bought the DVD set.

We watched them all straight through.

The characterization in this series is the best I've seen on television. The protagonist is a hero who's an anti-hero who is really a hero. The plots and conflicts are rich and meaningful, both inner and outer. The movie, however, takes all of that and does it even better. It's a beautiful example of how you can layer meaningful conflicts through character and setting. You literally don't know how they are going to get out of the jams they are in, as things keep getting worse (in both the inner and external conflicts) and turn in ways you never expected. Outstanding. Every science fiction or fantasy writer should go see this film twice. Once to just enjoy it, because you shouldn't deprive yourself of that (and you also need to know what it feels like to be an audience for this calibre of fiction). The second time, go see it to learn.

Amazing. I was prepared for a flop -- just about every series that's been made into a movie has ranged from mundane to simply terrible. Serenity did it right.