Serenity - Ray's Review

Serenity (2005)119 min

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Starring:

Nathan Fillion .... Mal
Gina Torres .... Zoe
Alan Tudyk .... Wash
Morena Baccarin .... Inara
Adam Baldwin .... Jayne
Jewel Staite .... Kaylee
Sean Maher .... Simon
Summer Glau .... River
Chiwetel Ejiofor.... The Operative

Official Synopsis:

"Beloved television cult director Joss Whedon (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL) makes a spectacular first foray onto the big screen with SERENITY, the cinematic adaptation of his wildly popular but short-lived sci-fi series, FIREFLY. A mix of space western, comedy, and drama, SERENITY follows captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his ragtag crew as they trade their way around the edges of civilized society. Of particular interest are two passengers they take on, Simon and River Tam (Sean Maher, Summer Glau), a brother and his telepathic sister on the run from the corrupt governing Alliance. As notorious former members of the anti-Alliance opposition, Mal and his crew make it difficult for Simon and River to stay hidden. Everything goes completely awry when a government assassin is sent to retrieve River. As Mal is forced to choose between his close-knit crew and the brother and sister newcomers, it becomes apparent that River harbors both a dangerous secret and astounding fighting powers, and Mal decides that discovering the truth about what she knows might just be worth his time."

Ray's Opinion:

Having watched Star Wars EPIII the night before I saw Serenity, I have to agree with many critics thoughts: "George Lucas, eat your heart out"... Yeah, exactly! While Serenity lacks the massive scope - and massive budget - of Star Wars, it has something that Lucas's wooden script lacks: energy. Serenity is bursting with life and Whedon has a seemingly endless barrage of funny character observations that had me perpetually smiling (I'm not the type to laugh aloud often, but many in the theatre did). I had read several reviews that noted the lackluster or "budgety" nature of the graphics and I'd have to disagree. I work in the graphics industry and I found very little CG that wasn't polished and inventive. Whedon sure knows how to make a budget go a long way!

As a screenwriting enthusiast, the biggest pleasure for me was how fresh Whedon's script was, he had two things that almost all scripts lack these days: Genuine characters and genuine surprises. I was almost shocked by having these feelings again, and realised how long it had been since I felt surprised or truly involved in anything I've watched in a long time (the last time I can think of was in the amazing Korean film OLDBOY).

Whedon's other TV creations - Buffy and Angel - never appealed to me, but having recently read several interviews with Whedon and being impressed by his approach to storytelling I thought I had to give Serenity a shot, and I'm glad I did. I haven't seen a single episode of the series (Firefly) this film is based on, but having throughly enjoyed Serenity I look forward to renting the show's season and delving deeper into this unique world that Whedon has created. It is a Sci-fi world with obvious Western influences - my two favourite genres - and the mixture worked for me. One of my few issues with it was the fact that there are references to previous episodes which meant nothing to me and made me feel left out in the cold, but then, if he didn't pander to his fans (dubbed "Browncoats") they would be rightfully upset, so I can understand the inclusion of certain elements for the "in crowd".

O.K. so what about the story? Well, I guess it wasn't incredibly original and at times felt like Star Trek meets Star Wars, but once again, because the characters were interesting - particularly Captain Mal - I cared about their plight and consequently was absorbed from start to finish. I think the sysnopsis at the top does a better job than I ever could in summing up the story - and I detest explaining plots - but I will say this: The plot is solid, but it's not the point of the piece, at least it didn't seem that way to me, I just enjoyed being in the crew's company for two hours and once Whedon made me care about them, I would have gone wherever they took me. In fact, when the film finished I could have watched the (hopefully) inevitable sequel immediately.

The action scenes are fairly well staged. The hand to hand combat was fluid and well shot, but at times felt like a television show. The space combat on the other hand was extremely exciting and I relished every moment. I dislike comparing one persons art to anothers, but having just re-watched Star Wars epIII it occurred to me how much more involved I was in the aerial combat, the opening scene in epIII was technically impressive but never affected me on a visceral level, where as Serentiy's space battles had me clutching my seat's armrests and holding my breath. Was it because I cared about the characters more, or was it because the space fights were so raw in style? A bit of both I think.


I don't feel I'm in a position to really analyze the characters - I'll leave that to the hardcore fans who are far more familiar with the character's backgrounds - but the highlight for me was the Captain of the ship, Mal. I thought Nathan Fillion did a great job of balancing Mal's badass side with humanity and depth, and I was excited to see him go places that many gung-ho heroes never will, including mercilessly executing a few people - think Han Solo meets Eastwood. Out of the remaining crew I most liked "Wash" the pilot, followed closely by "Jayne" the gun crazy brute, I found the others were merely average. The antagonist was very cool - I don't know if he was ever in the series - and I liked the way he was self aware of his role as a heartless "Monster"; Whedon did the impossible and made a sword wielding nemesis unique and fairly interesting, a difficult task when we've endured so many action film baddies. The one character who grated on me was the Captain's old love interest Inara, she leant very little to the proceedings and I assume she was there because she played a more prominent role in the series and may have been missed by the fans had she been excluded.

Overall, even with the few shortcomings that are inevitable when basing a film on an established series, I enjoyed Serenity and recommend it highly. It is briskly paced, with involving characters and laced with witty one-liners and exciting action scenes. The music is unusual and cool too.

8.5/10

Footnote: Now that I've witnessed Whedon's aptitude for Sci-Fi and character development I can only dream of how good Alien Resurrection may have been, had they not butchered Whedon's screenplay.