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As I wrote in a previous post, Joss Whedon's Firefly is one of the most unique and entertaining shows I've had the pleasure to watch. Showcasing amazing special effects and an eclectic cast of characters, Firefly, in its abbreviated run on television, was one of the most promising shows Whedon had produced yet. Unfortunately, due to its nature and Fox network's botched launch of the show, it never got a fair chance and was canned before the it even kicked into gear. Luckily, after a massive outcry from Whedon's fan-base, the Firefly was released on DVD and since made enough money to justify a movie continuing the storyline from the shows. I was again lucky to catch on to the phenomenon and see Serenity on its last day in the box office at its very last showing.

Serenity is the name of the ship our illustrious crew flies on. The opening of the film sees a few of the crew from the show departing. This leaves us with the mostly original cast of Captain Malcom Reynolds (Nathan Fillon), First Mate and war buddy Zoe (Gina Torres), ace pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), expert engineer Kaylee (Jewel Staite), Jayne the mercenery (Adam Baldwin, no relation), Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher), and his telepathic sister River Tam (Summer Glau). Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) and Companion Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin) have both left the ship to pursue their individual interests but maintain frequent contact with Serenity.

The movie begins by introducing us to the beginnings of the Alliance. Earth, as it turns out, was very overpopulated at the end of the 24th century. As a result, large portions of the population departed to the nearest suitable star system and, once there, terraformed the existing moons and planets to suit their needs. Eventually, political problems arose with the pressue to unite under a single government. War broke out. When the dust settled, a single entity called the Alliance controlled the galaxy. During its research into psionics, it found River Tam. River was, for lack of a better word, gifted. Able to master even the most difficult tasks in minutes, she was taken into a specialized government "Academy" which took the liberty of making modifications to her brain to suit their own mysterious ends. It didn't take her brother, Simon, long to figure out that she had been kidnapped and needed a bit of rescuing. Being a well to do doctor on the core worlds, Simon exhausted his entire accumulated wealth to spring River from her labcoat-wearing captors. They find refuge aboard Serenity and, at the beginning of the movie, have been hiding on the ship (on the fringes of space) for nearly a year.

It turns out that River was a favorite pet project of the Alliance brass and that they frequently visited the Academy to check on the progress of her new psychic abilities. Her new abilities also come with a myriad of negative side effects including uncontrollable hysteria, babbling nonsense, and violent outbursts. The brass' visits gave River ample opportunity to explore her captors' minds and learn the Alliance's closely guarded secrets. Knowing this, the Alliance deploys The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to bring River in or make sure that no one learns these secrets. Serenity is where the hunt begins.

To reveal any more of the plot would probably spoil the movie for fans of the television show. Serenity is a very fast paced movie. As wydren put it to me shortly before seeing the film, "It's like an entire season packed into one movie." For example, that whole paragraph up there that introduces the movie? That's all laid out in the first ten minutes of the flick. This is also to the film's detriment, as fans looking forward to another light-hearted romp through the galaxy are in for a rude awakening. The meandering, relaxed pace of the television show is nescessarily sacrificed in order to appeal to a broader action/sci-fi demographic. So instead of a space Western, for the movie, we wind up with a pretty typical sci-fi action flick.

Thus the question becomes: "Is it still Firefly?" The answer is a resounding "YES!" Serenity strikes all the right chords for fans of the show and, I'd imagine, will draw a new movie following as well. writer/director Joss Whedon deftly weaves Firefly's intricate story in with a brief introduction to the story-thus-far and the characters and manages to do it all within the first few minutes of the film. While "newbies" to Firefly's universe will benefit greatly from a knowledgable friend who can help them fill in the blanks, the movie stands well enough on its own. However, Whedon has not forgotten the people who helped him get the movie onto the silver screen in the first place.

Serenity is an extremly well thought out piece of filmmaking and Whedon obviously had fans of the series in mind when he wrote the movie. Most of the questions we had following the last episode of Firefly are answered in Serenity, although not as completely as I would have liked. The main issue the movie addresses is the purpose of River's brain modifications. This movie is very much about River, illustrating her hallucinations, and demonstrating her purpose. Simon and Kaylee's relationship finally moves forward as well. Without giving any more away, this is the second season that fans have been waiting for since the show's untimely demise.

Attributed to the accelerated pacing I mentioned earlier, Serenity is a different animal than the television series. While I could use countless superlatives to describe what Serenity does with Firefly's storyline the same cannot be said for the special effects in the movie. I don't mean for the reader to take this statement as "The special effects suck." On the contrary, Serenity boasts special effects far and beyond its television incarnation. Huge and beautiful, the special effects in the movie keep it on its feet and accomplish what they need to on the screen very convincingly. The problem lies with the fact that they're overused in Serenity. Going through the same movie change everything else did, Serenity's special effects are abused rather than used sparingly. One of the television show's many charms is that it didn't require enor-mungus special effects to advance the story. On the other hand, Serenity forces these events onto the screen like Anakin Skywalker forces his "Noooooooo...!" out. I would like to reiterate: this is a change, not a negative. I knew going in that Serenity was going to be pretty heavily "movieized" and it is. However, I feel it is a nescessity to mention given the movie's audience.

While quite a bit of this review has been neutral/negative, this isn't the impression I want to give of the movie. Given the absolutely spectacular quality of the movie, I felt it was only nescessary to point out the blemishes. Joss Whedon has once again crafted a piece of entertainment that anybody can connect with regardless of age or gender. And writing that feels like I'm not doing the man justice: he's a bonafide genius and this movie backs that up. The shirt that says "Joss Whedon is my master now" is telling the truth. As far as creative ingenuity and quality of writing is concerned, Whedon's work will steal your imagination and take it to places you'd never thought you could go again - Serenity is that good.