Serenity
Reviewed By Pastor Mike GunnSerenity is an adventure Sci-Fi spin off from the popular sci-fi channel’s “Firefly” written and directed by Josh Weldon. Firefly, which began as a comic book series, is a story of a renegade captain and his crew, flying around the universe 500 years into the future in search of sustenance (Food, money, etc.). The earth has been severely damaged due to nuclear fall out caused by world war three (Gee that’s original?) and its people has been forced due to overpopulation to pioneer colonies on distant planets. This is where Serenity begins.
First of all I want to say that Serenity stands on its own as a movie, and it is not imperative that you are familiar with the TV series to enjoy this film. Director Josh Weldon does a brilliant job of inviting you into his world, and the adventure that ensues. Serenity is a cross between movies with compelling spiritual themes like the “Matrix” and Lord of the Rings, and the fun sci-fi adventure of “Star Wars” minus the forced “Cuteness” of Ja Ja Binks and the Ewoks (Thankfully).
In Serenity the humans have set up an interplanetary government that has as its main agenda to abolish wars by mitigating aggression (Called sin often in the movie) in humans. (Spoiler coming) They decided to do so by putting a drug in the air that would diminish aggression, but it back fired by creating two groups of people. There were those that lost complete ambition and the will to live, and simply died, and the “Reavers” who became ultra violent, and were now a problem to any sentient being. While the desire to alleviate the world of wars and fighting remains an honorable goal for any government, the movie high-lights the dangers of human engineering in areas that it’s lack of omniscience can create. Basically the movie’s plot is not an original. Movies like “Equilibrium” and “Minority Report,” as well as other TV sci-fi series like Babylon 5 attempt the similar goal of eradicating the “sinful” condition of mankind, while reminding us of our innate humanity that breeds both sublimity and contempt. The enlightenment question is asked over and over in these types of stories, “Can humanity save itself?” This movie was great for nothing else than answering that question with a resounding no, reminding us that our solution isn’t found in the reason and concoctions of man, but of a hope found somewhere else. Now, like the movie “Contact” the hope that the movie turns us to may be something other than a god or religion. There are some obvious references to spirituality and “faith,” but like many Hollywood epics, that faith comes up a bit empty. While there is clear uses of words like sin, God and Christianity, the main dialogue between Captain Malcolm Reynolds (The representative atheist) and Shepherd Meria Book (The obvious Christian theist, and mentor of Reynolds) capitulates to a faith in faith itself. This is made fairly obvious in two quotes from Shepherd when he says, “I don't care what you believe in, just believe in it,” and “When I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?” Josh Weldon (Writer/Director) pipes in with his answers to specific questions of spiritual themes in this movie during an interview stating, “I had one definitive statement to make, which was simply [that] the power of belief, the power of something greater than yourself doesn’t necessarily have to mean religion…Shepherd Book himself says that. He doesn’t say, ‘Find God.’ He says, ‘Find your way.’” In a movie reminding us that collective humanity does not have the mettle to save us, the movie’s answer appears to lie within the “Uberman” the individual, existential hero that finds salvation in his “Own way.” I would of course totally concur with Josh Weldon that the power of belief in something greater than ourselves should not lead us to “religion,” which as Marx aptly stated is the “Opiate of the masses,” but it either brings us to a reality greater than ourselves (God), or it can do nothing but contradictorily lead us back to ourselves, which according to the movies plot is the problem in the first place. This thinking accentuates man’s take on sin. Sin is always something out there. It’s systemic, corporate, but it isn’t personal. Governments and corporations sin, but individuals don’t. While I loved the theme that mankind can’t solve our greatest problems, and that there is potentially something greater than ourselves, it left me with the emptiness of my own fragile humanity. While the church often errs in the idea that there is no systemic evil, the secular mind tries to explain evil outside of the individual. Both of these camps are poor attempts to define a real evil that begins at home and extends itself to the masses. Biblically we are compelled by scripture to realize that both of these camps are true. We are by nature sinful, and subsequently we do sinful things both corporately and personally. Since the problem is internal, our only hope comes externally, and leads to utter failure when collectively or personally try to control the uncontrollable.
All in all, I found the movie to be quite entertaining and fun, and am looking forward to the obvious sequel, as well as, getting a copy of “Firefly” (The First Season), to feast a bit more on the wisdom of Josh Weldon.