I finally have a brief moment to update you all on the Serenity Preview I went to on September 27th!
I arrived at the AMC Olathe Studio 30 an hour early, as requested, to find what looked like a huge line waiting to get in. I asked the ticket ripper for the Universal Pictures representative, and was told to go get in the line! I was beginning to worry that I was going to get some lame seat. As I am standing in line, I finally figure out most of the people are there as guests of a local rock station. They all have passes and seem to know one another.
Finally, the line begins to move and move fast! When I get to the person checking passes, she directs me to check in with the guy wearing a black polo shirt inside named Steve. I get inside and find Steve zealously guarding two prime seating rows. Each seat in the row had a 'Reserved' sign taped to it. He looked at my print out, compared it to his list, them informed me I could choose any two seats marked reserved. Thinking about all the bloggers sure to show up, I went down to the middle of the aisle and chose a seat leaving just one empty seat between me and two ladies who were the only other occupants in the row.
This must have been way too close for comfort, because they immediately moved another seat over. So here I am offered two seats when one will do and moved away from, and I just got there! I was sure hoping things would improve soon!
I went ahead and left the reserved sign on my seat and went to buy a small popcorn and a bottle of water. The Blogger Bonanza rows were about half full when I returned and stayed that way through the movie. I did not know any of the bloggers or podcasters attending, but did talk to one lady who sat near me about our blogs, firefly and the movie. She was here to learn how to write better. Guess I needed to read the article she was referring to to really understand.
Before the movie started, the Rock station gave away a stack of CD's to folks who knew answers to FireFly trivia questions mixing the questions with announcement of upcoming rocker events. Very effective. There were also a couple of trailers for up coming movies from Universal, but just a couple, thank goodness. I sure cannot stand spending 20 to 30 minutes watching ads before I get to see a movie! The trailer for Doom, patterned after the video game, looked especially intriguing.
Serenity is an awesome flick and I wholly recommend it. It's funny, exciting, and full of action. It answers a lot of questions left from the series, but is accessible to people who may have not seen the TV series at all. The story could have taken place in the dusty west just as easily as the far reaches of space. It was very violent and had some scary characters in it, so I would say it definitely earned its PG-13 rating. I was disappointed that one person died and hope they are resurrected should the TV series ever get another chance. One thing I really like about the show is that it showcases a married couple who love each other very much. It is a rarity in SciFi and Fantasy for such characters to exist.
Now for my teaser, Chris, you do not, under any circumstances want to get into a fight with River!
Serenity opens today all over the country, get out and see it! I do thank Unversal Pictures, Grace Hill Media, the Podcasters list, and Townhall.com for the opportunity. I hope it works and us Bloggers can help get the word out about great stuff!