Serenity
For those of you who don't know, the tale of Serenity, Joss Whedon's latest film, is much like the tale of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, only in reverse. Instead of a hit telelvision show spun off of a failed movie, this is a hit movie spun off of a failed TV show. Only, Firefly, the TV show, was actually pretty good, and never should have been cancelled in the first place.
The film picks up several months after the last episode of Firefly, and follows the crew of the Firefly class ship Serenity. The captain, Mal, is a hard, yet loveable type. His second in command, Zoe, fought with him in the war and is loyal to the end. Jayne is hired muscle, Kaylee is the spaced-out, yet cute engineer, Wash is the pilot and Zoe's husband. They all live on the ship, and treat each other like family. During the series, they took aboard three passnegers, a shepard named Book and a doctor named Simon, with his sister River. River is a gifted, yet disturbed young girl, and Simon has rescued her from the hands of the Alliance. She has some pretty terrible secrets, most of which get revealed in this film.
The plot of the movie boils down to an Alliance agent following Serenity, trying to get River at any cost. This includes going after anyone that Mal has any association with. Mal is intent on protecting River, which is his way. He sees himslef as a great protector, and keeps his crew safe. This Alliance agent first goes after Inara, a comapnion who spent time on Serenity, but left at the end of the series. She somes back, after the first encounter with Mal and the Agent. After they dissapear, the agent kills anyone who had ever harbored Serenity, and this includes Book, who has a safe harbor on Haven.
At this point, Mal kind of loses it. They find that River has information on Miranda, a planet beyond the edge of Reaver space. These Reavers are dangerous characters who eat Human flesh and kill for no reason. No one knows where they came from, and no one wants to know. Well, the crew makes Serenity look like a Reaver ship, and they sneak to this planet Miranda. On it, they find a dead populace and information that the Alliance created the Reavers here. It then strikes Mal that they should let the rest of the Universe know.
They try to enlist the help of another contact, Mr. Universe, but the Alliance has gotten to him first. It becomes a struggle between Mal, the Reavers and the Alliance on who will get the information from Miranda. After a brilliant space battle, Serenity crash lands, Mal heads off the find a broadcast point, and the crew tries to hold off the Reavers. Mal and the Agent have one last battle, and he succeeds in spreading the word. After most of the crew is injured, River fights off the Reavers single-handedly. And only one more crew memeber dies: Wash. He was impaled during the crash landing in a sudden and surprising fashion.
In the end, the Sertenity crew are mostly safe, and they fly off for more adventures
Now, this show has developed a very strong, cult-like following. They refer to themselves as Browncoats, and even up here in northern Alberta, the following is strong. I saw this show at 9:40 on opening nite, and I could not believe the nerd following that was there. It kind of reminded me of when I saw Underworld and there were all these crazy goths there. Nerds as far as the eye could see, I tell you. Body odor and glasses, and bad acne running rampant.
Anyway, in terms of the film, it could not have been better. It took the same mindset of the show and expanded on it a hundredfold. The story drove the picture rather than the action, and the cast fell back into their roles with ease, and it was a pleasure to watch them. Joss Whedon's labor of love has become a great movie, and you can see his dedication to details. All in all, it was en enjoyable romp, and probsbly the best real sci-fi picture to hit in years. 10 of 10, all they way.
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