Serenity (2005)

Premise: Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) captains a firefly class spaceship, Serenity, with his first mate Zoe (Gina Torres); their pilot - and Zoe's husband - Wash (Alan Tudyk); a mechanic with an engine fetish, Kaylee (Jewel Staite); and a mercenary for hire, Jayne (Adam Baldwin). Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher) and his younger sister, River (Summer Glau), are passengers aboard the ship. An operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) depolyed by the Alliance seeks to terminate River in order to keep her secrets at all costs, reeking bloody havoc along the way.

For the Browncoats: The movie picks up shortly after the series left off, with Inara (Morena Baccarin) and Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) having moved on.

For the newbies: It's a space western, okay? Deal with it. Like most westerns, the crew may be outlaws, but they're not the bad ones. The Alliance (i.e. nefarious non-specific government organization) is much worse.

Writer/director Joss Whedon does what he does best here: create a large surrogate family whose close bonds are masked with heavy sarcasm. The white hats are never truly white with him, and his characters are all the better for it. Whedon excels where most TV writers fail daily: complex characterization, unique, catchy dialogue, and tightly paced plots.

In this big screen treatment for a pet project dead before its time, Whedon blends the exposition for those unfamiliar with the show seamlessly with plot elements. In lesser hands, the plot would have to come to a screeching halt for these moments.

And it's the moments we watch for. Browncoats (a term inspired by Mal and Zoe's background in the show and applied to fans) filled my theatre, and their shock, laughs, and tears were heartier than those I witness during even the most compelling movies. When was the last time you saw a movie where the entire audience gasped simultaneously?

That's the joy I derive from Whedon. Having been a faithful Buffy and Angel follower, watching anything he does is like re-reading a favourite book (you practically have the shot list memorized), and Whedon still manages to captivate and surprise you.

Fillion and Torres convey a crackling yet lived-in intimacy. A "hero" with nothing left to believe in, Mal depends on Zoe to function as his moral compass, who does this largely through deadpan humour. Frankly, if I had half of Torres' deadpan abilities, I wouldn't be sitting here writing about someone else. Of course, I suppose being that sexy helps as well.

Mal and Zoe find their perfect counterpoint in the ship's two refugees, Simon and River. Maher wears his heart on his sleeve as a brother obsessed with protecting his younger sister at all costs. Glau's insanity can be grating at times, but the love between these two serves as the film's emotional core.

Baldwin, Staite, and Tudyk fill out the rest of this lovable crew of soft-hearted, hard-bitten cynics with hearts of gold (tm, Shack) with humour, warmth, and another healthy dose of sex appeal.


Seriously, how could a show with some many good looking people get cancelled so quickly? Evil Fox.

Props for David Newman's score. Good use of fiddle.

As much as I love Whedon and could easily put him on a pedestal, and as much as I appreciate him solving two of the three lingering mysteries from Firefly, there are moments when the cast struggles with his crazed, future-Western dialogue. In addition, the ship is so lovingly photographed that it seems like hours before you ever get a good look at a single character, and it's a fleeting one even then.

Also, I can respect and understand the Chinese-Americana combo as an explosion of Earth That Was' last two superpowers (in Whedon's belief), but why can't we have a subtitle or two for the Mandarin?

When I started to write this review, Serenity was sitting in the number two spot in terms of box office receipts, having pulled in a modest $10.1 million at the box office. The crux of this review, of this movie, doesn't occur on screen: if Whedon finds silver screen success, the chances of him returning to the small screen seem to diminish with every ticket sale.

And yet, he deserves it.

So here's to you, Joss. Browncoats should see this movie. Whedon fans should see this movie. Western fans should see this movie. Sci-fi fans should see this movie. Anyone who has ever wanted to see something they could enjoy, who has ever wanted to find characters they could root for, who wants to see some good looking men without their shirts on (sadly not Jayne, though), should see this movie. A

P.S. Watch what you say when you come out of the movie. People are very sensitive to my theories about the characters' sexual predilections.

After you see Serenity in theatres, if you are interested in cuddling up with a nice romantic comedy, check out It Happened One Night (1934).

I tell you truly, if you've seen any romantic comedy ever, at least one element of it came out Frank Capra's classic.

Plus, it's the first movie that features a man without his shirt on. And when that man is the lovable, bodice-ripping rogue Clark Gable, who can argue?