Review: Serenity
An extremely well done sci-fi movie, based on the TV series Firefly.
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau. Written and Directed by Joss Wheddon.
Rating: 10 / 10
Just a note in advance, I'm reviewing this movie from the point of view of someone who only watched the first shown episode of "Firefly" (The Train Job) the evening before seeing the movie - so I'm hardly a drooling fanboy.
There are plenty of opinions floating around on how to class Serenity. It's a "Space Opera", it's also likened to things like Cowboy Bebop (Space Western style), and "What Han Solo would be like before the time of the Star Wars movies". It's a good old fashioned adventure set in space, without too much focus on the technology. It's about a small band of outlaws flying around the fringes of a new solar system engaging in smuggling and crime to try and get rich. Serenity is the name of the spaceship they all fly around in, which is a transport of the Firefly class.
Earth could no longer sustain our population so large numbers left to a new solar system, with lots of planets and moons. The new solar system was terraformed and settled. The Alliance controls the solar system, after a civil war where the Independents tried to stop the Alliance imposing their will on all worlds. We also see at the start a girl, River (Summer Glau), on whom the Alliance are doing some sort of brainwashing/conditioning. It is apparent that River is a psychic amongst other things. She is saved from an Alliance facility by her brother Simon (Sean Maher).
Summer Glau - bendy!
So that's, roughly, the backstory. Simon and River are hiding out on Serenity. Serenity is captained by Mal (Nathan Fillion), an Independent soldier from the Wars, and it's crew includes fellow (female) soldier Zoe (Gina Torres), her husband the pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), mercenery Jayne (Adam Baldwin), and young female mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite). It seems two of the characters from the episode I saw - Shepherd Book and Inara (Morena Baccarin) aren't on the ship, I presume these departures happen at some point during the series. Both are however in the movie.
Morena Baccarin - whore!
The movie plot revolves around the Alliance actually making a concerted effort to get River back, as it has become apparent that some Parliamentarians were in her presence and the Alliance is afraid that due to her abilities she knows their dirty secrets. The movie has a good mix of action, humour, and suspense - including some Aliens like moments.
Stylistically the movie is part Western - with dodgy bars, desert planets and revolvers, part Asian culture - with samurai swords, martial arts, cursing in Chinese (Mandarin?) and the occasional bit of Kanji, and finally part "rough space" - with busy and dirty space ports, and old ships. Add to all that the occasional bits of the Alliance we see, which is all bright colours, "Utopian society", and smooth new space craft. It all works together rather well, the CG is of a high quality, and integrated well enough that it doesn't detract from the flow of the movie - unlike say the dodgy cow riding scene in Episode 2.
Jewel Staite - Canadian!
With an estimated $40M budget (according to IMDB) it manages to be a lot more fun and entertaining than movies like War of the Worlds or the Star Wars "prequels" for that matter. This is pretty typical, most "low budget" (relatively) films aren't as negatively influenced by the studios/George Lucas.
The main appeal of Serenity is the characters though. They all have fairly rich back stories (explored in Firefly no doubt) and aren't typical cookie-cut action movie characters. In parts for someone who hasn't seen the series it might not be so obvious as to what's happening, for example in the movie when they visit Shepherd Book it is inferred but not obvious that at one point he was on board Serenity. It certainly doesn't detract from the movie though, it can stand in it's own right.
Apparently the plan, which seems fairly common in Hollywood these days, is for a trilogy of movies - dependant on performance of the first. The movie certainly leaves itself open for a sequel, and assuming the style can be kept up without being compromised then Joss Wheddon will surely have a cult series of movies on his hands to be grouped with the likes of the original Star Wars series in the minds of Sci-Fi fans.
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