Guess we’re still waiting for the geek revolution: Serenity, which last week I’d speculated might herald the coming of a new geek utopia, fared rather poorly at the box office this weekend, earning only a little over $10 million. Now, I hate the industry’s emphasis on opening-weekend numbers as pretty much the be-all and end-all marker of success, but the sad fact is that Hollywood will look at that paltry $10 million and conclude that audiences don’t want smart SF films, no matter how well the film does over the long run and how many damn DVDs it eventually ends up moving.
Maybe part of the problem is that folks just can’t get past the idea of geekiness as something to be laughed at. The review of Serenity in the San Francisco Chronicle starts off like this:
"Serenity" is the movie version of "Firefly," a 2002 television series so spectacularly unsuccessful that only a handful of episodes aired before the Fox network canceled it. If longevity is the criterion, Hollywood should have produced films based on "Fastlane," "Murder One" and "After MASH" years before this project arrived at a theater near you.
Which leads you to suspect that the commentary that follows is going to be harshly negative. But no: confused critic Peter Hartlaub goes on to lavish praise on the film:
Yet as challenging as it must have been to pilot Joss Whedon's space opera from the TV junk pile to the big screen, the finished product is a triumph.
Though for every positive thing he has to say, Hartlaub seems to feel the need to denegrate the film, Joss Whedon, and the audience:
"Serenity" was clearly written by someone who grew up worshiping at the altar of Han Solo and the space marines in "Aliens," but this genre picture is still a thrillingly original science fiction creation.
...
Choosing between his hard-core fans and mainstream audiences, Whedon will always side with the geeks -- leaving Universal to bank on the fact that every computer techie in the country will see this movie five times on opening weekend. (Don't laugh. It might happen.) But he never insults his audience, no matter who shows up in the theater.
No, only Hartlaub insults the audience.
And then there’s this:
If "Serenity" isn't the next "Matrix," it will at the very least become this generation's "Highlander." Mass audiences may ignore "Serenity" the way they did "Firefly," but the comic book convention crowd will still be hailing this film 30 years from now.
Translation: "Serenity is a great film, but I’m ashamed of being the kind of geek who gets it, so let me serve up a big helping of self-hating geek bashing."
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