Serenity, a review by Jon
Serenity
4 out of 5
Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, now ekes out a living aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew, but when Mal takes on two new passengers - a young doctor and his telepathic sister - he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, and so Serenity finds itself caught between the unstoppable military force of the Alliance, the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers - and another danger lurking at the very heart of the spaceship...Taken on its own merits, Serenity is a great film. A wonderful unique cast of characters, sharp, witty dialogue and action scenes that are literally breathtaking. Plus a well developed back-story that stands being picked at. The only problems with the film come from it being a compromised big screen version of Firefly, so it isn't quite the second coming the Browncoat massive were hoping for, but it does reward perserverance. New viewers don't have to persevere at all and just strap themselves in! If only it hadn't have been so tough to market, a worthy franchise could have been born and the real strengths of the series could have come through in a sequel. As it is, it must have been a hard film to get the balance right.
Most of the people I know who saw this film before Firefly, did enjoy it, did understand it and did look up the series afterwards, so that tells me it did a good enough job. Plot wise it does do well to present an intricate world and introduce the characters without getting bogged down in exposition, but it does undermine a lot of the work done by the series, and that is such a shame.
The opening sequence shows Simon rescuing River. While it's a visually stunning introduction and a great insight for fans into something we never knew the details of, detail is the issue. Simon is actually told by the doctor what they have been trying to achieve with River, yet throughout the series he had no idea and was as shocked as anyone when she turned out to be a capable and deadly weapon. Even if you think that point can be argued, he knew a phrase to put her to sleep which would be a big clue. Also, his relationship with Mal and more importantly, Jayne, is as strained as it was in the pilot, yet they had come through so much. I wish it didn't have to be disregarded.
Leading on from that specific point, the chemistry between all the crew is awkward. It didn't strike me as the same group of people Mal asked
"will you still be here when I wake up?" at the end of the Out Of Gas episode. Interesting that when you watch the gag reel (which you
must do; Fillion always does excellent gags!), that chemistry is clearly still there, but they just couldn't quite capture it in 'Movie World' until about halfway through. Deleted scenes also show moments more typical of the series (Mal and Inara flying back to Serenity), so its clear hard decisions were being made about this screenplay.
The thing is, a TV episode plot is frequently uncomplicated, but played by complicated characters who don't change much across that one story, but tease little details into an arc over the whole run. A film is usually the opposite, with less detailed characters who are visibly altered over the course of a narrative. Think of Rick in Casablanca, or Mal's pop-culture granddad, Han Solo. By essentially resetting the crew to default settings, the film has something it can work with immediately.
The other thing a film needs is a strong lead that makes things happen and for those things to have a tabgible cost. Captain Mal usually just deals with what's in front of him, but now he's the lead character in a movie, he needs a quest and a good reason for it. For my money, I think the screenplay in this respect is quite brilliant because it's usually the thing that causes TV-film adaptations to fail so spectacularly. I'm going on about this because...
Shepherd and Wash had to die. You might not like it, but Shepherd died to give Mal enough fire for a quest (
"I don't care what you believe in, just believe in something!", he tells him, which would be a difficult conversation for the TV format), plus the legend of the Reavers is sacrificed (the series could have used them as bogey men for years). In a TV show, character deaths are normally something contemplated over several episodes. This was needed right now. In similar fashion, Wash had to die to demonstrate the cost of that quest and to make sure we the viewer knows how much this hurts. And oh my, did it ever. "I am a leaf..."
It also gives Zoe something to have a journey through.
In fact, all the characters get something to have a journey about. I think Whedon has shown a great deal of maturity and skill through this screenplay and his direction. He could easily cut it with big boys, if only someone would let him have a go! The final moments of this film are the best, possibly of the whole run, series and film together. His conversation with River, the quiet lashing of the rain and then the beautiful image of Serenity plowing through a storm. Then a typically Firefly full stop!
"What was that?" 
I was disappointed that it had to lose some identity (it's a sci-fi action movie, with barely a sniff of a Western), but loved the film overall. The style of music is kept largely intact (all credit to David Newman, but why couldn't Greg Edmonson have got the gig?), as is the rougher CGI to some extent. And listen right to the end of the credits for a nice instrumental version of the Firefly theme...
(From Serenity on February 28th, 2010)
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May 22, 2024, 03:56:25 AM
