Serenity
How excited can one become about a movie that was adapted to the big screen from the ashes of a cancelled TV show? Well,
there's two distinct answers to that question. On the surface, we have a film in Serenity has almost polarised the
online community between the 'haves' and the 'have nots', or in plain terms, there's a rabid community of fans who seem to
view the movie as their equivalent of the second coming, whilst conversely, there's an equally passionate crowd who've
grown incensed that their regular stomping grounds - their message boards and forums - have become a selling field for
Universal's online, fan-based marketing experiment.
So there's a crowd who hold some genuine excitement about the release Serenity. The film studio has used that to
their advantage and called into action an online community called 'The Browncoats', a website whose members converse and
discuss not only the cancelled TV series, but have formed a working relationship with Universal to bring the movie
version of the property to a wider audience. Both have motives of their own; The Browncoats know a successful
Serenity means a sequel, and Universal would at the least, like to make their money back. A perfect symbiotic
relationship to be sure. But unfortunately, wherever there's a positive a negative will naturally occur to counter it,
that's a fate never more certain than with an online community patronised heavily by science fiction devotees. The birth of
a counter-weight for Serenity came into existence simply because there was room for it, exacerbated by this unique
marketing strategy. However, this is digression of sorts from the review at hand, although some background context is
required.
The second answer to that first question is the wider audience, the general public, just how excited can they get? Just so
we're clear, for the question, we're of course ruling out those likely to have already participated in the 'online
community' half of the question in previous two paragraphs. Now you're asking people on the street, co-workers and friends
who have no idea what Firefly is. 'How excited about Serenity are you?'. Discounting the obvious response of
'What's Serenity?', before watching the movie there'd be very few people declaring their excitement. Serenity
is simply burdened by its nature of being a cult property, and it's a right shame too, because if you were able to ask that
same question again after they'd seen the film, it's a great chance that they would answer with a 'pretty damn good'.
Serenity's is a continuation of the TV show 'Firefly'. Created by Joss Whedon, Serenity's story takes place
in another solar system, long colonised by humanity after an exodus from Earth. With dozens of planets and moons reliant on
inter-planetary trade, a variety of legal and not-so-legal assignments allow the captain and crew of Serenity an air of
freedom of travel. The crew of Serenity is overseen by captain Mal, a former Browncoats resistance fighter who purchased
his ship so as to keep as independent from the system's Alliance rule as possible. Although Serenity's crew of 9 all
appear in the film and each are given a courteous allocation of screen time - and their required lines - only two of the
ships crew are central to the story of Serenity.
It would have been nice to hear twice as many lines from each of Kaylee, Inara, Wash, Zoe, Simon, Book and Jayne, although
the focus of the film is elsewhere. A crew of 9, fully flushed and rounded characters really can't be achieved in a
119-minute big-screen film, that end is more suited to a weekly TV show where each can be given the respect and time they
deserve. Joss knows the strengths of this big-screen outing, and they're Mal and River, the rest of his characters are
utilised as efficiently as possible as support elements, while not ignoring or insulting their importance in the make up of
what is essentially a family. And that's what cements the importance of each of them in Serenity, they're seven
supporting characters of a family, and it's that family that gives drive to Mal. Looking after 'his and his own' has been
an ongoing theme of his character, retained in Serenity and given credence by a believably human crew.
River - sister to Simon - has psychic capabilities, and as was established in the series, suffers from a large deal of
confusion, nightmares and visions related to some cerebral tinkering conducted by a secret Alliance organisation. It's an
oddity then, that the 'two by two, hands of blue' men that hunted them in the series have been replaced by an assassin known
as The Operative. This is a mute point to those that haven't seen the series, however, The Operative and his mission to
neutralise a secret is a far more effective plot device for a 119 minute film than the 'hands of blue' men, whose goal was
simply to continue their experiments. A finale involving a 'poke or not to poke' scenario in River's brain obviously
doesn't hold up as well.
There's plenty of character interplay, but aside from Simon continually doting over River, if any two people are talking in
this film it's almost always concerning character X and Mal. The spread of character X is an even split between a member
of the crew and the film's new characters. We have Serenity on the run from an evil Alliance Operative. He's the face of
The Alliance in this film, and it's not a friendly one. His introduction is quite effective, cold and unnerved, he later
declares himself as a necessary evil. River is the main driver behind the film's plot. She knows a secret that the
Alliance doesn't want discovered and regard her as a threat to be eliminated. However the Alliance's experiments on her
psychically-active brain have not only left her mentally disturbed and unable to remember the secret, they have also
enhaced her natural ability to excel at pretty much anything she does - including kicking ass.
For its evolution to the big screen, Serenity has seen its action and effects amped up considerably; they're in
sync with what one would expect from a sci-fi movie, and on grounds of technical prowess, they're nothing more than that.
However, the way the fight scenes and action pieces unfold is a key to their effectiveness. Both in terms of any space
action or the River vs. Whoever fights, they work extremely well. Perhaps it's because there's little expectation. It's
essentially a character-driven story, so to see well executed action applied to that, well, it's a new thing in today’s
sci-fi films where characters are usually secondary. The people and the action each take a bow on centre stage in
Serenity and it makes for damned entertaining viewing.
'Firefly' was some of the best sci-fi that's graced the small screen, especially in terms of acting and writing. Terrific
characters that had essential charm and watchability - you actually liked them. There was a reason the show achieved the
fandom it did, and thankfully that 'magic' has been well utilised in Serenity. It's rewarding to see that this
film was for a purpose, as Serenity holds its own as a legitimate creative success in the often brutal world of
Hollywood where great potential is usually forgotten.
out of ten
Reviewed by Paul Boschen
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