SERENITY

cast :: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Summer Glau...
writer :: Joss Whedon
director :: Joss Whedon



review date :: 10/01/05
written by :: suj
rating :: 10/10

THE PLOT_________________

Captain Malcom Reynolds finds himself running from a skilled Alliance operative who wants River Tam, and who will stop at nothing to get her; meanwhile, River's capabilities become more clear to the crew of Serenity.

THE REVIEW_________________

Joss Whedon is like a God to me. I'm a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and his current run on the Astonishing X-Men comic book. I also adored one of this most underrated of achievements, that being the short lived television series, Firefly. The show was a whimsical tale merging science fiction with western. It approached history, culture, and science in such an impeccable way (for a show set in the future). The characters were rich and the dialogue was grand. But alas all good things must come to an end, and the show was quickly canned and forgotten. That is until Whedon hatched a plan to bring his beloved television show to the big screen. Enter Serenity.

As a fan of show I thought the film did a really nice job of expanding and enhancing the mythology that had already existed. It also did a nice job in catering to fresh eyes with its opening ten minutes explaining and setting up what the uninitiated needed to know, exposition is the buzzword. The film picks up several months after the end of the canceled series. River Tam is a mysterious teenage girl who harbors a very dark secret regarding the ruling government known as The Alliance. She is rescued from a top secret base by her doctor brother Simon. The Alliance in a desperate attempt sends out a ruthless unnamed and “unofficial” Operative to get her back. While River and Simon find refuge within the crew of Serenity, a junk spaceship operated by Capt. Mal Reynolds and his “family” of former freedom fighters. And with that the film gets going with every scene pushing the story forward. It’s like an epic space soap opera, with budding romances, bewildering action pieces, and lush dialogue. Whedon is at his best when it comes to the long-term relationships with his characters. And here, he puts them through a world wind of trials and tribulations, abuse and torment; to the extent that when they are face with the ultimate test we are able to deeply empathize with them. It’s staggering at how well Whedon shapes his characters to you have you completely sucked into the drama of their journey.

Serenity succeeds like no other sci-fi film before, simply because it doesn't fall into and rely on the immense technological-jargon, strange theology, all in the hopes of creating an unnecessary understanding. It succeeds because of its astonishing space battles. It succeeds because it celebrates the power of friendship and collaboration, and how the world can be a better place if we stand up for our beliefs. It succeeds because Whedon has done something rarely seen in these types of movies: a great emphasis on its characters. And it’s because these notions that I had an amazing time with this movie. It felt like revisiting an old childhood memory and experiencing those joyful sensations and the sheer excitement of it all. It left me wanting more, wanting to experience more of the lives of these engaging characters, to branch out and be whist away into another adventure of pure grander. Serenity harbors the aura of an old school Western, putting you right in that sensational frame of mind and hitting everything it aims at. It’s continuously funny, it’s heartbreaking at the most unexpected of times; and its chock full of action and real danger every step of the way.