I never watched Firefly when it was on TV.  In fact, I wanted to see Serenity just based on the trailers at the theaters.

Ron and I decided to see Serenity because it at least looked cool when so many of the movies coming out of Hollywood just plain sucked.  We weren't expecting much, since we hadn't seen any of the series (and, in fact, didn't know there had been a series until a few days after we saw the movie).

I loved it.  Ron walked out of the theater without saying "Well that sucked", which means he at least liked it.  (He says "Well that sucked" to just about every movie he ever goes to...it has become a running joke amongst his daughters and I about how long it will take him to say it after he gets out of the theater.)

It was a movie that had real characters in it.  True, we didn't understand some of what was going on, since we had never seen the series, but the story was complete enough for us to still enjoy it, the action was great, it had some very funny scenes in it, and the acting was very good.

Now that I have the complete series and the movie, I have to say that I think it is a shame it wasn't given enough time to build an audience.  I really think it is one of the most original science fiction series I have seen in a very long time.