I may get to see Serenity early

Which is exciting, because I am looking forward to it, if not quite so much as I was looking forward to Revenge of the Sith. Hey, I'm old-school. Since this is a potentially packed weekend, what with the films of Alex de la Iglesia at the Brattle, the return of the Midnight Ass-Kickings at the Coolidge, WizardWorld Boston, the frightening monthly need to extract rent from my roommate, and, of course, an exciting birthday (I turn 100,000 in binary!), it's a potentially packed weekend for this movie-loving nerd. I'm kind of surprised that there don't appear to be any Serenity guests at WWB, actually - you'd think they could get someone for opening weekend. Unless it's supposed to be a surprise.

I liked Firefly, quite a bit, even if I didn't get all angry and take it personally when Fox canceled it: The show was a longshot, neither pilot/premiere was quite perfect, and people were turning away even before baseball started. I was happy to get the DVDs when they came out and liked seeing Whedon & Minear re-use the cast whenever they got the chance. Sometimes it worked (Gina Torres on Angel), sometimes it didn't (Nathan Fillion on Buffy), and I feel terribly foolish for not having watched the Jewel Statie episodes of Wonderfalls yet (I mean, I traded my copy of Serenity #2 with someone else in the comic shop so I could get the Jo Duffy cover featuring the lovely Ms. Staite).

Oh, what is Serenity, you ask? Well, here's a synopsis helpfully provided by the Universal/Grace Hill Media PR people that are apparently in charge of deciding which bloggers get to watch the movie early and which of go home to watch the Red Sox game and fight the crowds during the weekend:

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

More, of course, at The Official Website.

I'm expecting a good movie, but - and this probably marks me as a bad fan - none of the trailers have blown me away. The uniformly deadpan delivery worries me, since one of Whedon's occasional weaknesses is making characters sound the same, and the "second pilot" for Firefly initially didn't impress me not because I thought it was confusing without the original pilot being aired first (a hugely overplayed complaint), but because everyone seemed to have the same wiseass voice.

But, I won't know if I've gotten in until tomorrow night. Since the consolation price is coming back home to watch the Sox, I can deal.