Serenity might be the name of the spaceship but it’s anything but fitting for this film! Based on the short-lived but much loved cult TV sci-fi series “Firefly” and featuring the same Director / Writer (Josh Whedon) and actors, this is a science fiction film with a rather different feel to it than most.
I’ll admit now, I’ve still never seen more than a couple of five-minute clips of Firefly, so I went in with no preconceived idea about what it would be like. (My sister-in-law is quite a fan however, and she was happy with the film so this bodes well if you are a fan.) The ship Serenity is a patched-up job and looks somewhat like a giant mechanical goose, as do many of the other craft encountered in the film. It’s a far cry fro the sleek designs you see in most sci-fi films but somehow it works, since the whole thing has a distinctly quirky feel to it. Captain Malcom “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Filllian) has a lot on his mind – mainly how to get jobs, how to get the jobs done successfully, how to hold his ship together with such limited finances, how to keep his crew fed, etc. He has other problems though, which are about to push themselves to the fore – what to do with two of his passengers – the troubled young woman River (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher), who Mal dislikes, what to do about his failed love life… and even more importantly, what to do about the strange events that threaten to plunge him and his crew into more trouble than they can handle… Mal also seems to be finding it difficult to adjust to his rogue smuggler / mercenary role after having been a hero in the war against the Alliance, who control the inner planets and tried to broaden their influence to the outer planets also…
Adding to the nightmare are an Alliance operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on the tail of River, and a race of savage humans (in the loosest sense of the word) called “Reevers”, who you really wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley… or at all, in fact. In true conspiracy theory style there is of course something much bigger and more sinister going on than anyone imagines…
Being the original cast of Firefly, the cast are naturally comfortable in their roles right from the start. Fillian in particular was impressive and all of the cast were good, though I found Maher’s character (Simon) intensely annoying in almost every scene. There’s plenty of action, in fact it’s almost non-stop and gets pretty intense in places. Rather like the recent Batman Begins however I felt that they rather overplayed everything, such that the action sequences lost much of their impact – for me, at least. (Or maybe I'm just getting old and cynical?!?! :-D) There was plenty of humour throughout the film and it all worked well, not only being funny but adding to the quirkiness of the film’s atmosphere. The plot is well put together although seemed a little obvious in places, since many of the twists and turns could be seen coming.
Technically there’s nothing to fault in Serenity, the special effects were superb and the music, while hardly being a normal science fiction film score (it seemed more like an Irish jig to me for the most part!), suited the film well. There are some rather abrupt screen transitions, which are intentional but I didn’t feel they worked particularly well. The photography was generally very good and occasionally rather dizzying.
The MPAA rating is PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references, but I think the UK rating of 15 (not suitable for anyone under 15) is more appropriate. Some of the violence was very intense and scenes with the Reevers, who among other disgusting practices engaged in cannibalism, were pretty gross. Runtime is a minute short of 2 hours, which felt just slightly over-long.
Overall I did enjoy it, but despite it being rather different and (the series) having a cult following, it didn’t really strike me as anything out of the ordinary. Rather like another recent sci-fi film, The Island, I’m glad to have seen it but am unlikely to do so again.
Having now seen and enjoyed Firefly, I rewatched the movie and really had much the same feeling about it - worth watching but didn't love it.
Will Firefly end up in my Top Ten Skiffy Series? Not sure... if it had been given the chance to branch out and develop some of its more interesting subplots then I'm sure it would, but with just 16 episodes... probably not. I'd love them to resurrect the series, of course!
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