Thursday, November 24, 2011

Review: 'Serenity' is excellent movie, not just revision of aborted TV series Firefly


Serenity   PG 13         
            Joss Wheden (Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), returns to the screen with his defunct TV series cast from Firefly, to make a reimagining of his show. Nowhere else in Hollywood would this ever happen. The premise, River Tam is a super solider mutant, (Summer Glau), who is freed from a Federation security ward of a hospital complex, (their Federation are bad guys), and taken back to the Firefly, the hardy rust bucket of a ship the crew has been using for 2 years. Captain Mal Reynolds, (Nathan Fallon) and his crew, including gruff Jayne, a comfort woman, and a rebel fighter lady, and a goofy pilot, the brother Doctor, and the spunky female chief engineer, run from the law in a future where humanity has colonized several planets adjacent to our solar system. Whedon's keen eye for details, snappy dialogue and clever pacing makes for a rip roaring space western, as the intrepid crew race across Reaver territory (space cannibals from the series), trying to escape a sword wielding assassin. The cool thing about this is you don't have to have seen the series. It's all spelled out quickly in the first few moments. A cousin of Star Trek, in a way, and of Star Wars, with the dusty cowboy feel of the Falcon, and the dark brooding feel of the Borg, or the gruff Klingons. Someohow though he doesn't make it a riff on either series, but a sendup to the old westerns both Star Trek and Star Wars, and Firefly, were trying to be. The best science fiction movie of 2005. Sorry Lucas, Star Wars III wasn't that great compared to this, whereas it had more effects but really bad dialogue, this had really excellent dialog and the effects helped it along. Joss has a way with ladies with awesome superpowers. Maybe even the best movie of 2005. Even those who aren't Browncoats will love it. 
Review by Adam Browne

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