Movies Reviews
Movie Review: Serenity
By Andy McKeague Aug 26, 2005, 21:40 GMT
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The movie, for fans of the TV series, is a wet dream come true, Whedon proves he can direct not only a sci-fi flick, but handles the action with skill and the dialogue is whip crackingly good. I am a fan of the TV show and still find it inexcusable how Fox cut it from the small box, and perhaps this will open up the doors again for more of Mal and Co. But that might be the problem with this review dear reader, I am a fan and unashamedly so, so please forgive if you are new to this world but please note there is much for you to enjoy here too.
Taking place almost six months after the episode 'Objects in Space', and taking more than a few parts of the plot with it, we are introduced to the hardened space truckers on board Serenity, a Firefly class spaceship, that is in dire need of a serious overall. The crew are all present with two exceptions, the Reverend Book (Ron Glass) and Inara (Morena Baccarin), who have gone their separate ways. And the Reevers are much more prominent and just as deadly as before, these marauders seem to be getting further into every corner of space. Before they were only the bogeymen in stories told to frighten children, but right from the start of the movie their scary presence is felt.
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Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew; feisty sidekick and warrior babe Zoe (Gina Torres), her husband and homeboy pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), sweet and smiley winsome engineer Kaylee (Jewel Staite), bad boy Jayne (Adam Baldwin), and the Tams, Dr. Simon (Sean Maher) and troubled psychic River (Summer Glau), are on their latest job where they encounter more problems. Mal has been taking River on the jobs as her powers as a ‘reader’ comes in handy, much to her brother’s displeasure. On this latest smuggling escapade things are cut short with the deadly Reevers wreaking havoc and River playing a psycho killing machine on a rampage. Mal is faced with the reality that what is on board his ship might just be as deadly or worse that the human munching mutations that are running amok.
Into the mix are The Alliance, who want River back in their grasp and are keen to do this with as little haste as possible, an Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is sent out to retrieve the girl. She has been the pride experiment and he is a monster on a mission; suave and deadly like a samurai knight of old with a strange sense of honour and loyalty who believes he is ultimately doing good. This is one of the many trump cards that Whedon is just so good at. The ‘Toy Story’ scribe has created wonderful nasty creatures in his TV shows and this one is just plain chilling in his ordinary human but kick ass self.
The action is breathtaking; Whedon brings out an Action Queen in Glau, playing the melancholy River, an extraordinary fighting machine with lethal accuracy. She is one of the movies many bright stars, showing more range of emotion that what she could on the show. After the credits roll one cannot forget the edge of the seat space battle, which can rival anything in those later 'Star Wars' eye candy episodes, and the last half hour is so much fun, pain, sadness, excitement and more all rolled into one interstellar package.
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The dialogue carries over that worldly feel that was so prominent on the TV, showing no particular favouritism to any cotenant we have a hash of Mandarin speckled amongst the English, mostly in the expletives department. This is in the set design too, and for a $30m movie, every cent is up there on the screen.
On the negative side the movie does concentrate more on Mal (Nathan Fillion) and River, the roles of Inara and Book serve their point but are not given enough to do in the movie, we, as fans of the show almost miss their appearance in the opening minutes, then again this might not have the same effect if looking on this with virgin eyes. But that is perhaps a little unjust, as the whole cast do great in their roles bringing it to the big screen.
This might have some flaws, but on the whole, this is the best popcorn munching movie this year has produced.
At present this is being shown as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and will be on a general release later in the year.
You can read more about the movie in our database.
You can read more about the movie in our database.
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Older Talkback
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I cant wait until Serenity comes out! I dont really care if its any good, I bet it will be though. I just want to see the Firefly crew back together, it was such a great show. I'm sure Serentiy will be awesome.
Andy,
Is this movie is to follow for people who never watched Firefly? I never caught the series, but kind of want to see the movie.
Patrick, the movie can be watched easily by all, obviously they do take some things for granted and with the knowledge of the show behind you, you can gleem much more from it, but I would not say this is for fans only.
Lets hope it does just that and we get to have more seasons made !
Excellent review Andy. I gave it the same rating. Could've gotten a 5, but I think it does take at least a little for granted as far as prior knowledge. It's a lot like watching Empire without having seen A New Hope. Still a great movie, but even better if you've seen A New Hope.
And... I think some of the effects were a little weak. Not all, it has some good moments, but a little bigger budget and maybe a little less CGI would have helped.
But otherwise, fanastic sci-fi movie. Let's hope we get more.
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AntPAug 27th, 2005 - 09:30:58
Nice review, Serenity sounds pretty good, will more than likely check it out when its out.
Anthony
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