Serenity

Wow. This movie was a little...strange. I'm not really fond of science fiction movies and I'm not a fan of westerns. Combine the two and it's probably something that's not for me. I'd never watched the series on TV (though I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon- Hello, Buffy the Vampire Slayer! lol.). Perhaps if I had, the movie would have been a little more significant. However, I did appreciate the messages in the movie.

Overpopulation seems to be the root of all the problems which obviously fits right into the theme of this week. Had it not been for overpopulation, everyone may have been able to stay on Earth and avoid the problems with the other planets. Additionally, I feel like overpopulation of the universe in this movie was a central theme. There were many fights among those from different realms of the universe. Each planet that the crew travels to finds a different problem awaiting. There just is not enough room for everyone to live peacefully. Had there been a proper number of people in the universe, everyone could have maintained their own boundaries without having to resort to such violence.

The problems with overpopulation presented in this movie are not uncommon in today's world. I am a firm believer in overpopulation resorting to violence. I think that many of the fights, wars, and violence that occur in our world are as a result of too little land for everyone to live happily. Just look at any typical suburb in America. In Charleston, the highest classes of neighborhoods have houses basically on top of one another. There just isn't enough room for everyone. While advances in healthcare are a wonderful thing (I am a health science major so clearly I support this) they can also be a curse to our environment. Modern medicine helps people live longer while also saving more newborns from dying at birth. Therefore, we are seeing more and more people inhabiting our Earth. I don't think we'll ever see such an extreme measure of overpopulation as in this movie (at least I hope not) but I do think that there is a problem. The scary thing about it, though, is that there's really not much we can do about it. We want our loved ones to live longer and we want to see more children on our planet. However, all of this comes at a price. The predicament is finding a way to balance it all in a healthy way.