"Take my love
Take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care
I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out
To the black
Tell 'em I ain't comin' back
Burn the land
And boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity You can't take the sky from me"
The above words come from the lovely Ballad of Serenity, written by Joss Whedon and performed by Sonny Rhodes. It served as the theme song for a very special, very wonderful television series entitled Firefly. You may have heard of it; you probably haven't seen it. Who could blame you? It had terrible marketing ("Cosmic Hooker," "Girl in a Box," or "Pilot Savant," anyone?), it was repeatedly pre-empted for baseball games, and, oh yeah, the geniuses at FOX saw fit to air the episodes completely out of any kind of order. I mean, they aired the first episode last. Need I say more?
If there's a slight bitterness in my voice, I apologize. But to have something so great, something you love so much, suddenly ripped away from you after only 11 episodes? It hurts. Like, gaping hole in your chest hurt. I remember when FOX finally did air the first episode, on December 20, 2002. I sat there, knowing the show had been cancelled, wondering how anyone with a soul could axe something as beautiful as Firefly. Even after the DVD set came out--every episode intact and in chronological order--it felt like I would never again have the chance to set foot back into this dusty, lived-in, and lovable 'verse. But that fear is long gone, ladies and gentlemen. My Big Damn Heroes are back, and in Joss Whedon's very own Big Damn Movie...and what a movie it truly is, both for fans and newcomers.
For the many of you in our ranks who find yourselves amongst the uninitiated, here is a quick rundown of Firefly's basic premise: It is 500 years in the future, and Earth is now barren and unusable. Thus, mankind has moved out into the galaxy, terraforming newly-discovered solar systems in which to establish colonies. The Anglo-Sino Alliance (comprised of Earth's only two remaining superpowers, America and China) have taken it upon themselves to unify all the planets under its rule. Not everyone liked this idea. The Alliance's Unification resulted in civil war, the rebellious Browncoats (where the hardcore Firefly fans crib their official fan label from) fighting an uphill battle against the dominating force of the Alliance. Ultimately, the Alliance overwhelmingly defeated the persistent Browncoats and the universe has thusly been ruled under their cold, controlling grasp.
Flash forward six years and we find ourselves in the company of a crew aboard a crude yet sturdy and reliable Firefly-class cargo/transport vessel called Serenity run by one of those aforementioned Browncoats, Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). Mal has had his faith destroyed by the war, and has become hardened and bitter, as well. He has a wit as sharp as a wooden stake and is not above killing enemies over whom he has unfair advantages. He lives by a moral code, though it is not easily definable. The other eight members of his crew consist of his tough right-hand woman Zoe (Gina Torres), who is married to the extremely gifted and hilariously funny pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Alan Tudyk); the greedy and rough but essentially likable muscle Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin); the cute-as-a-button enginer Kaywinnit "Kaylee" Frye (Jewel Staite); the beautiful Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin), who serves as a Companion, a highly-respected geisha of sorts; the wise yet very enigmatic preacher Shepherd Derrial Book (Ron Glass); the once-wealthy doctor Simon Tam (Sean Maher); and Simon's sister, the dangerously unstable psychic River (Summer Glau).
And now, at last, we enter our film, Serenity. Simon had gone to great lengths to free River from the Alliance academy at which her brain was being tampered with by high-ranking officials (from what little we discovered in the series about River's inflicted brain damage, it seems that her migdala has been removed, meaning she experiences everything she feels at the exact moment she feels it). She knows too much, and the Alliance wants her back. To accomplish the mission, they send an unapologetically evildoing assassin, who states he has no name and no rank, being only referred to as the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The Operative is a gentleman, and never once snarls; he is always calm, collected, and quite polite. This makes him all the more terrifying. Mal's ragtag family must elude the Operative, all the while avoiding the cannibalistic Reavers that float about on the edge of space and searching for what it is the Alliance wants kept secret. Mind you, all of this is treated with the robust flair and mannerisms of the Old West mixed with new age Eastern mysticism.
If this sounds like too much to handle, then it is my own rambling, fanboyish fault. Writer/director Joss Whedon explains everything within minutes, and does so in superb fashion; it's a brilliant entryway back into the 'verse for Browncoats, and an engaging introduction for non-fans. It is one of the great strengths of Whedon's screenplay that nothing is too unaccessible to newbies (though getting much out of Book and Inara's roles will depend on how well you know Whedon's world), and nothing is repetitive to the hardcores that have literally done the impossible in giving Whedon the chance to make the film, making them very mighty indeed.
But to say all of this is still only to scratch the surface of what lies within Serenity's shiny confines. First of all, Whedon fans will be happy to know that the sight of his keen eye for character development has not dimmed whatsoever in the three years since Firefly, and his brilliantly witty dialogue remains completely intact. There are so many great lines and huge laughs in Serenity that, though this is his first time up to bat as feature director, it's hard not to feel compelled to rank him with Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder as one of the great film dialogue scribes. Serenity's world feels so real and so tangible that resisting it is almost impossible. The characters are all fleshed-out, three-dimensional people, bringing a fresh human element to a genre that has long been stale.
Whedon's talent as director is also remarkable. We are introduced to the crew via a minutes-long tracking shot through Serenity that calls to mind the cabana sequence in Goodfellas, only better. There are several fascinating dream sequences, each fuzzy, bright, and beautiful, sometimes glistening with a factory-made plastic surface that doesn't lay blame on Whedon's skill, but rather calls to mind the manufactured control that the Alliance is abusing River with. There are also several absolutely mind-blowing action sequences...none of which has the action drowning out the characters, as Steven Spielberg's dull take on War of the Worlds did just a couple of short months ago. Serenity is a character-driven piece, and no matter the amount of shoot-outs, fistfights, robberies, or epic space conflicts, our heroes are always complex, believable people.
This is in no small part due to the acting chops of Whedon's cast. They worked for a year together on the set of Firefly, and their chemistry is just as alive and fascinating as ever. Nathan Fillion does a fantastic job as Mal, and if he is not Hollywood's newest risen star after this, then may the studio execs burn in the hot place. Gina Torres is a commanding and powerful presence in the role of Zoe, providing yet another of Whedon's counterstereotype heroines (the other most notable example being, of course, the title character from another of his ingenious television endeavors, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Alan Tudyk is hilarious as Wash, Adam Baldwin likewise is returning to his favorite role of his entire career as Jayne, Jewel Staite is still as cute as she was on Firefly, and Sean Maher is an in-over-his-head and surpisingly courageous secondstring hero as Simon. Summer Glau is, in a word, amazing as the brilliant but insane River Tam. She nearly manages to steal the show away from Fillion's indomitable command, and actually achieves in doing so in a scene near the end of the film that is so wild and intense that I can't bring myself to describe it any further. You need to see it for yourself, dear reader.
For those looking for something deeper than your usual science fiction shoot-'em-up outing, then this is your absolute best ticket. Not only does Whedon bless each one of his characters with rich depth, but he also manages to do the same for his story. It is not as straightforward as the description may make it sound. There is simply so much more to the movie. You can say it's a libertarian message, you can say it's a conservative dig, you can say it deals with the subjects of evangelism and religious fanaticism, and how it's not right to unwillingly inflict your beliefs on others. It may do so, but to me, and other legions of fans, Serenity is a movie about lonely people finding each other and protecting each other. It's a movie about family.
I laughed uproariously. I bawled my eyes out. I jumped two feet out of my seat in surprise or shock. I fell in love with Mal, Zoe, Wash, and the rest all over again. I had the best time I have ever had at a movie theater.
Here's to us, not just Browncoats, but movie fans in general. This is a delightful treat for anyone who loves a great movie or great storytelling, plain and simple. It is the year's best film, and one of the most vibrantly imaginative films in decades.
Try as they might, FOX simply could not take the sky from us.
