Movie: Serenity (based on the Firefly series)

I never saw the first (and apparently only) season of Firefly, but now I wish I had. Maybe I can find them on DVD someplace. The movie is more like a Western in space than a science fiction show, but it still keeps a lot of it's sci-fi-ness. The plot moves really fast, which makes more sense if you know that it only made it through 1 season of television shows, and that the movie is the rest of the unmade tv seasons basically condensed into a single movie. I suggest watching it with someone who has seen the tv show or read wikipedia or a fan site about it if you want to understand all the side stories.

It reminded me a lot of the end of the Time Machine (at least the the movie from 2002) with the Ravers equaling the Morlocks in a way. I think that it's really interesting how many science fiction writers like to turn humans into monsters and other species that devour each other and such. One race or group of humans becomes demonic and animallistic, often while another is emphasized as full of determination and free will (Firefly) or innocence and love (Eloi). They use the realm of science fiction and technology to explore the question of what makes us human or if we are really more like animals than the intelligent, enlightened beings that we like to think of ourselves as.