I had the exceedingly good fortune to be able to attend one of the 10 pre-screenings of the upcoming Joss Whedon movie Serenity last night and felt the need to share the love. There is much love to be had, since the show sold completely out a few hours after tickets went on sale last week. Fans (called Browncoats) of the cancelled TV show upon which the movie is based dove upon the tickets like rabid piranha (can piranha get rabies?) and much begging, pleading, and general mayhem ensued.

This leads me to my First (and only) Theory of Serenity: “Serenity is the new Star Trek.” The similarities to the original Trek series are obvious to the trained eye, or even to mine: they’re both sci-fi, both had pretty short runs, both feature an ensemble case anchored on an ass-kicking captain, both were resurrected due to huge amounts of fan outrage and love. Except that “Firefly” was really more western than sci-fi, “Firefly” had a much shorter run, and Kirk didn’t really kick that much ass. Hrm. Nevermind.

I saw the Boston screening with a couple hundred of my new closest friends. I’ve been to a couple of other early screenings of films, but never seen anything like the energy and camraderie that I saw last night. It felt more like Woodstock than a shiny corporate-owned movie theater. I had an extra ticket that my wife kindly gave away via the Browncoat forums, and we came away with a shiny new friend. When I had trouble carrying the vast quantities of food back to my wife and friends, a complete stranger that I stood next to at the drink station offered to help me out and carried a bunch of junk for me until I could get everything balanced. There were random, but enthusiastic outbursts of “The Hero of Canton.” Children were conceived. Terrifying space monkeys got loose.

How about the movie? What did I think about that? As a fan, it is difficult for me not to give it the review that I’ve seen so many times since I got out yesterday: “Best. Movie. Ever”. In fact I overheard the poor lady who was getting audience feedback actually ask people to stop saying that to her. It was good. Very good. Probably my new favorite film.

It had all of the parts I love about everything that Joss does: the Whedonesque dialogue, excellent acting, great characters, and attention to detail. It also had the big budget shine that you would associate with a summer blockbuster, which really didn’t add a lot to the show’s already high production values. What really makes “Firefly”/Serenity stand out from everything else Whedon has done is the truly dark feel, gritty documentary-style cinematography, the lighting, and the love. All of these are present in the movie at least as much as they were in the show. But the love… love infuses this movie, fills it, bloats it, leaks out of it’s pores. It is the love of the fans, reflected back and amplified, and that’s what really made it great.

Sure, what we saw was a rough cut. It’s “pretty close to done,” but still had some placeholder footage, some missing soundtrack, and some special effects work to be done. None of this detracted from the experience for me, and no one I’ve talked to has complained about any of it. The fact is, movies are made to make you feel, and this one does a better job of that than anything I’ve seen in recent memory. People laughed. They cried. They shit their pants. What more can you ask?

Before the movie was shown, a short film Whedon had sent along was played. Partially it was a thank you to the fans for getting the movie made. Partially it seemed to be an apology for having spent a good chunk of the movie on backstory to ease folks new to the series into the story. Mostly it was an excuse for Joss to do (quite good) stand-up comedy.

I’ve seen some questions bandied about on various forums, and have chosen this place and time to address them authoritatively:

• Is Serenity really nothing more than the unmade half of the first season of “Firefly” compressed into a couple of hours?
  Maybe, but who the hell cares?
• Is it wildly different in tone or direction from the series?
  Nope.
• Does it contain the patented Joss Whedon Sucker Gut-Punch Moments (TM)? Um… no! Of course not! :: shuffles feet, stares at ceiling ::
• Will it enthrall new fans and become the next huge sci-fi franchise?
  Remains to be seen, but if Pitch Black can get a sequel I’d say chances are good.
• Will people new to the universe be able to understand and enjoy the movie?
  I’m biased here, but I think they will. Some of my favorite characters had to take a back seat to squeeze plot time for n00bz, all I ask in return is that they swear unending loyalty to Joss and be willing to give up their lives to get the show back on the air.
• Are you wearing man-garters? Hey now! That’s beyond the pale! They’re “sock suspenders,” and no.

Whether or not the movie is a phenomenon of Star Wars-ian (TM) proportions, it should make plenty of money on the backs of Browncoats alone. The most important thing for me is that Serenity’s still in the air. And that’s enough.