Serenity Response

Okay, this movie started out great. It had a Minority Report/Matrix feel to it, and some great science fiction elements. There was the exodus from Earth due to overpopulation and the advancement of the government into the “Alliance.” Technology was heightened. Humans were able to travel huge distances into space for sustained periods of time and were subsequently able to find other planets and moons to inhabit. Also, it is interesting that humans found a way to alter the makeup of a planet so that it could sustain human life, rather than finding planets that could already do so on without intervention.

Then, everything seemed to go awry. The movie suddenly became less science fiction and more of a bad horror film. Suddenly, I felt like I was watching The Hills Have Eyes or Rambo on crack. The deaths began to get progressively gruesome as the death toll continued to skyrocket. I can’t say I enjoyed the notion (or sound for that matter) of a woman being raped and eaten alive by human cannibals. I also didn’t appreciate the planet full of repulsive, contorted dead bodies due to a government’s stupidity and need for control. (Did it even occur to them to test these “calming” chemicals before coating an entire planet?)

Just when I thought things had taken a turn for the better, I got to see one of the main characters stabbed through the chest with a piece of metal. Would it have been too simple to shoot him? Yes, and there wouldn’t have been nearly enough gore, which seemed to be a primary goal for the film producer.

I will admit that there was poetic justice in the Reavers attacking the Alliance members who created them out of their need for control. It was also ironic that members of the Alliance became just as ruthless and inhumane as the Reavers (killing children to capture one girl).

Despite the fact that this film repulsed me, there was some good stuff there too. I appreciated the science fiction elements and a somewhat happy ending. I felt that the film could have been better if they had concentrated a little less on the shock and gore and a little more on the story line. The attempts at romance were also pretty poor. The best part of this movie to me was that the common man won a huge victory. They managed to get out information to the people and lessen the power of the “Alliance” regime. To me, this is the most important lesson to take away from this. Governments can be overthrown. The power ultimately rests with the people. (though I do find it hard to believe that such as powerful government wouldn’t be able to cover up the whole scandal as falsehoods spread by an enemy to the “Alliance”)