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The thrill of a fistfight in a movie was altered for me forever the day I visited a set and watched the sound men beating the hell out of a Naugahyde sofa with Ping-Pong paddles. There is a moment in "Serenity" when I remembered that moment -- no, not during a fistfight, but during a battle in interplanetary space. There are so many spacecraft, so large, so close together, it looks as if collision is a greater danger than enemy fire. Imagine spaceships in a demo derby.

As the battle continued and the heroes were hurled about inside their own spaceship, which at times looked curiously like the interior of a loading dock, I made a note: "More banging than in your average space movie." Then something shifted inside my ears and I somehow knew I was hearing sound men, pounding the hell out of garbage-can lids, sheets of steel and big piles of pots and pans.

I say this not with disapproval, but with affection. "Serenity" is an old-fashioned space opera, and differs from a horse opera mostly in that it involves space, not horses. It takes place in a solar system of a dozen terraformed planets and "hundreds of moons," and there is a war going on between the Alliance, which runs things and wants everybody to be happy, and a group of rebels who begin to make disturbing discoveries. As the film opens, a psychic named River Tam ( Summer Glau ) is rescued from Alliance mind-washers by her brother Simon ( Sean Maher ), and then we learn that River was unwisely exhibited to a roomful of important Alliance parliamentarians. Because she can read minds, she knows their secrets.

River and Simon are soon enough allied with a team of free-lance smugglers on a banged-up old ship named Serenity. Malcolm ( Nathan Fillion ) is the captain, and his crew includes the pilot Wash ( Alan Tudyk ), his wife, Zoe ( Gina Torres ), the engineer Kaylee ( Jewel Staite ) and the tough guy Jayne ( Adam Baldwin ). On their trail is the most competent and feared of the Alliance's agents, The Operative ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ).

Science fiction fans will recognize the plot line and most of the characters from a short-lived Fox series named "Firefly," which (I learn in a letter from Stephen McNeil of Sydney, Nova Scotia), was canceled in mid-season, but not before the episodes were carelessly shown out of proper order. What a crock, especially considering that Joss Whedon , the TV series author (and writer-director of "Serenity") earlier created "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," and so deserved the benefit of the doubt.

"Serenity" is made of dubious but energetic special effects, breathless velocity, much imagination, some sly verbal wit and a little political satire. Turns out the Alliance was simply trying to bring contentment to its crowded planetary system, by distracting them from their problems and making them feel like they had a life. River is in possession of a secret about this process that the Alliance would do anything to suppress. Like Brave New World and 1984, the movie plays like a critique of contemporary society, with the Alliance as Big Brother, enemy of discontent. But as River observes, "Some people don't like to be meddled with."

Some of the dialogue sounds futuristic, some sounds 19th-century, and some sounds deliberately kooky. (Captain Mal: "Do you want to run this ship?" Discontented crew member: "Yes." Mal: "Well, you can't"). There are also unanticipated scenes of real impact, including a planet where -- but see for yourself. I'm not sure the movie would have much appeal for non-sci-fi fans, but it has the rough edges and brawny energy of a good yarn, and it was made by and for people who can't get enough of this stuff. You know who you are.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Serenity (2005)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references

119 minutes

Sean Maher as Simon

Jewel Staite as Kaylee

Ron Glass as Shepherd Book

Adam Baldwin as Jayne

Summer Glau as River

Gina Torres as Zoe Warren

Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative

Written and directed by

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The Movie Review: 'Serenity'

S erenity , writer/director Joss Whedon's exuberant space opera, opens with one nod to the power of love and closes with another: the first concerns a brother's affection for his sister; the second, a captain's for his spaceship. (Tellingly, the latter is, if anything, more touching.) The two scenes form an apt pair of bookends because, to the extent this can ever be said of a major Hollywood release, Serenity is a product of love--that of fans of "Firefly," the cancelled TV series from which the film was spun off, of the cast, and most of all of Whedon himself.

Following the successes of his cult hits "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," in 2002 Whedon left the horror-comedy realm to launch "Firefly," a picaresque, Western-themed sci-fi series that followed the interplanetary wanderings of Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a former soldier in an unsuccessful interplanetary rebellion, and the crew of his ship, Serenity . (The movie is named for the vessel, which in turn was named for a battle Mal fought in--none of which could be accurately described as "serene.") Created for Fox, "Firefly" was Whedon's first big-network experience ("Buffy" and "Angel" aired on the WB and UPN), and it wasn't a happy one. In their inscrutable wisdom, network executives decided to air the series out of sequence; when it struggled to find an audience, they pulled the plug after eleven episodes.

But, as fans of "Buffy" and "Angel" know, Whedon has a penchant for bringing things back from the dead. "Buffy" itself was raised from the ashes of the eponymous movie, for which Whedon had written the screenplay. Unhappy with the way his dark comedy had been lightened during rewrites, he resurrected his heroine for the small screen. "Firefly" faced the opposite--and more difficult--challenge of persuading a studio to back a film based on a cancelled series. But while the show's audience was small, it was committed. Calling themselves "browncoats"--after the defeated rebel forces in "Firefly"--they wrote letters and showed up at sci-fi conventions and, when finally given the opportunity, voted with their wallets: When a DVD set of the entire season was released in late 2003, it vastly outsold expectations. That windfall, and Whedon's perseverance (he'd even kept several of his cast members employed with stints as villains on "Buffy" and "Angel"), persuaded Universal to bite on a $40-million feature-film adaptation.

And thank goodness. Serenity , released on video last week, is terrific. By turns witty and harrowing, clever and weighty, it is closer in spirit to Star Wars than anything George Lucas has produced in a quarter century. Like the spaceship for which it is named (or, for that matter, Han Solo's Millennium Falcon ), Serenity is pleasantly rough around the edges: In this universe, dust and debris are omnipresent, guns still fire old-fashioned bullets, and heroes are more apt to be petty crooks than selfless monks. (In fact, here it's the bad guy who's the latter.) It's a refreshing change from the hermetic, CGI airlessness and ponderous sanctimony that has characterized the last three Star Wars pics. Even when Mal gets his Big Speech, it concludes on a note as roguish as it is resolute: "I aim to misbehave."

One of the challenges of bringing a series like "Firefly" to the big screen is introducing the show's history and main characters--there are nine of them--without loads of painful, expository dialogue. Whedon manages it with a wicked bit of narrative jujitsu in which a schoolroom history lesson is violently subverted--it is, in fact, the nightmare of a girl undergoing psychological experimentation in a lab--and then that subversion is itself subverted. In the course of this triple gainer, we learn that humanity has relocated to a new star system with dozens of terraformed planets, ruled with quasi-benevolent tyranny by a government called the Alliance. We're also introduced to River Tam (Summer Glau), the young psychic on whom the Alliance doctors are experimenting; her surgeon brother Simon (Sean Maher), who rescues her from their clutches; and the nameless Alliance operative sent to bring her back, a gentle-voiced assassin played with understated elegance by Chiwetel Ejiofor ( Dirty Pretty Things , Melinda and Melinda ). From there we jump to the ship Serenity , where River and Simon have found uneasy refuge, for a fore-to-aft Steadicam stroll that introduces Mal and the rest of the crew--all in the course of a potentially lethal crash landing. ("We may experience some slight turbulence," Mal warns over the intercom, "and then explode.")

And that's just in the movie's first 15 minutes. The crew will next indulge in a good-natured stickup that is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a pack of Reavers, semi-human cannibals addicted to rape, murder, and sewing their victims' skins into clothing. There will be revelations about River's untapped abilities ("Buffy" fans will be unsurprised to learn that among them is an aptitude for spinning back-kicks to the face) and the secret locked in her head which the Alliance is so eager to keep from getting out, something about a planet called "Miranda." (Hint: It has to do with Shakespeare's Miranda in The Tempest , who gave us the phrase "brave new world.") As Serenity unfolds, it deepens from picaresque to epic, from comedy to near-tragedy. By the end, the movie has become a rumination on order versus chaos, the pursuit of perfection, and the inevitability of sin. But don't fret: Such meditations are squeezed in between some exceptionally boss battle scenes.

Serenity has, in other words, pretty much everything you can ask for in an action-adventure movie. Unfortunately, it lacked two key ingredients for box-office success: bankable stars and a big-league marketing budget. (It couldn't have helped that Serenity is probably the most counterintuitive title for an action blockbuster in cinematic history.) Though it was made for a relatively modest $40 million--and the reviews were overwhelmingly positive --it pulled in a mere $25 million in U.S. theaters, a small fraction of the booty earned by such sloppy, self-satisfied summer extravagances as Episode III , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , and War of the Worlds .

Still, as Whedon and his "Firefly" cohorts have already shown, there's more than one way to skin a human (and sew him into a nice little Reaver ensemble). Theatrical box-office makes up an ever-shrinking portion of a film's total receipts (now a mere 15 percent, according to Slate 's Edward Jay Epstein ), with the vast bulk of the revenues coming from DVD sales and rentals on the one hand, and broadcast licensing (pay-per-view, network, and cable) on the other. And while Serenity was never well-positioned for the box office, it should, like "Firefly" before it, make a killing on DVD. (My own exceptionally scientific survey of a couple of local outlets would tend to confirm this: By day two of its release, Serenity had sold out from one and was only available in the less-popular fullscreen version from the other.) Once the movie hits cable, it should be set for life--I envision it running three nights a week on the Sci-Fi Channel for at least the next decade. Will this be enough to ensure a sequel? You can cast your own vote at the local Blockbuster.

The Home Movies List: Short Runs

"Greg the Bunny" (2002). Fox nabbed the puppets-behaving-badly sitcom (a kind of PG-13 version of Peter Jackson's Meet the Feebles ) from the Independent Film Channel, then promptly cancelled it. At least the characters were able to come back to IFC for a "reunion" episode and a few spoofs of popular movies earlier this year. "Boomtown" (2002-2003). A clever (occasionally too clever) multiple-POV police drama in which storylines collided with dizzying force . When the first season drew meager ratings (despite excellent reviews), the network flattened the show out for season two, before pulling the plug just a few episodes in. It's a shame, too: It was nice to be reminded that not all crime drama has to fit the "CSI"-"Law & Order" mold. "Firefly" (2002-2003). The show is not quite as strong as the movie (the latter better captures the sharp wit, unexpected reversals, and encroaching tragedy that characterized the best of "Buffy" and "Angel"), but it is strong nonetheless, and an excellent opportunity to see Whedon's characters and storylines unfold at a more leisurely pace. It also gives Serenity --which is essentially a sequel--a deeper resonance, especially when a few regular cast members meet their ends. "Arrested Development" (2003-2006). Credit Fox with taking chances on some of the most inventive shows in recent network history. Credit it, too, with ruthlessly pulling the plug, often after broadcasting them out of sequence and on irregular schedules. The latest casualty was the funniest sitcom in a decade , which miraculously survived for more than two-and-a-half seasons before apparently getting the ax last month. Though not yet officially cancelled, it had its season abruptly "shortened," and subsequent episodes have been shown at erratic intervals, interspersed with random reruns and other programming. Whatever its ultimate fate (a reprieve? new life on Showtime?), there are still a couple of this season's episodes left. Addicts like me will be laughing through the tears.

This post originally appeared at TNR.com.

Serenity (2005)

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What it's about.

Serenity is a futuristic sci-fi film that serves as a feature-length continuation of the story-line from the TV program Firefly (2002-2003). The story revolves around the captain (Nathan Fillion) and crew of the titular space vessel that operate as space outlaws, running cargo and smuggling missions throughout the galaxy. They take on a mysterious young psychic girl and her brother, the girl carrying secrets detrimental to the intergalactic government, and soon find themselves being hunted by a nefarious assassin (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The first feature-length film from Joss Whedon (The Avengers), Serenity is a lively and enjoyable adventure, replete with large-scale action sequences, strong characterizations and just the right touch of wry humor. An enjoyable viewing experience that stands alone without demanding that you have familiarity with the original program beforehand.

If you havent watched the first (and only) season of a scifi series called Firefly, stop and go there first. You wont be disappointed. If you’re leery because its scifi, DONT BE. Some of the best lines ever written are in this series (and movie). I love Serenity, because, for a second, no power in the ‘verse can stop you. The movie is action packed and gets right to it. Its written as such that you dont have to see the series first, it stands pretty well on its on. Theres plenty of action, story, humor and along the way you manage to fall in love with the characters. I promise, give this scifi a chance… youll be a browncoat forever.

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‘Serenity’ Movie Review (2005)

By Laremy Legel

The snap you just heard was Serenity kicking your ass. It’s better than the latest Star Wars offering and on par with the first Matrix . It’s innovative, compelling, and fully entertaining. If you don’t like this flick you may be dead, which is fine so long as you don’t haunt my dreams. Damn zombies.

Serenity is about a gang of space cowboys (none named Maurice) who are providing shelter to a psychic gal and her brother from the evil ruling government of the world known as “The Alliance.” What the outlaws don’t realize is this lovely lady has some deep and terrible secrets about “The Alliance,” whom her brother helped her escape from. The secrets of the past are revealed one by one as the outlaws become embroiled in a conflict they didn’t want or need.

Joss Whedon has officially won me over here. I never saw “Firefly,” but I’ve got the TiVo set after seeing Serenity . If there is a problem with this movie it may be that it is too damn funny , I couldn’t always hear the dialogue over the laughter! In the grand scope of things there are far worse problems for a movie to have, eh?

Serenity is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll (I’m legally obligated to come up with some type of catch phrase). “Country” as in most of the main characters in Serenity speak in cowboy accents. It seems strange at first but as the film progresses you find yourself enjoying the nuance in this style and laughing at some of the joke deliveries. One example would be learning what “twixt my nethers” means, a highlight to say the least. The dialogue makes the whole movie feel like a western, a western with spaceships. The “rock and roll” portion includes the righteous fight sequences. Summer Glau is delicious in her fight scenes and the wide camera angles help us realize she actually knows the moves. It’s your standard, garden variety comedic sci-fi martial arts western. Wow, Whedon, you’ve captured my heart and my movie going dollar.

The film also has some nice twists and turns. There is definitely an Alien feel to some of the scenes. I can safely say this film has something for most people who like movies. It’s flat out entertaining, extremely funny, and though the resolution is a few minutes too long it goes out on a nice note overall.

As far as specific acting work Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau and Chiwetal Ejiofor carry the picture. Ejifor in particular strikes the perfect balance as a villain who simply has a different opinion and moral compass than the “good guys.” He’s highly refreshing because it’s no hard feelings; he just has to kill you, okay? Summer is wonderful as the psychotic psychic in distress. She hits all the notes in this performance and comes off as a hotter, younger, crazier Christina Ricci. Nathan Fillion plays an extremely nuanced character that is fully fleshed out. He comes off as an actual leader who makes tough choices; he’s funny as hell but also razor sharp when the shit hits the fan.

Serenity should be the biggest box office success of the year if there is any justice in the world. It’s that good. I’d like some sequels too, let’s get these actors on long term contracts. I highly recommend Serenity and nominate it for the crown of best action movie, best futuristic western, and best martial arts alien fighting film for 2005. When a flick starts conjuring up comparisons to archetype films such as The Matrix or Star Wars it is time to start looking for ticket times. Serenity is a “leaf on the wind.” Watch how it soars.

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Looking at Film from Every Angle

Review: Serenity (2005)

Wesley Lovell

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Review Another film which I have not seen since its original theatrical run. At the time, I had very little knowledge about the show upon which the film was based, but was entertained heavily by it. Adapted from the short-lived, but cult Joss Whedon series Firefly, Serenity takes place a few years after the end of the show with two of the original cast spread to the wind, but little else having changed. The film’s plot centers around the government’s attempts to apprehend the escaped military human experiment River (Summer Glau) who currently lives aboard the Serenity, Captain Malcolm Reynolds’ (Nathan Fillion) ship. The assassin they send after her is a humorless Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) whose unwavering devotion to the government makes him a dangerous foe.

When Mal receives a call from the Companion (Morena Baccarin), something similar to a Japanese geisha or a French courtesan, who once rented the shuttle on their ship, he immediately suspects an ambush and is proven right, which sets him on a quest to get himself, his crew and River as far away from the Operative as possible while trying to figure out what kind of experiments have been performed on River.

Now that I have watched the entire series on which the movie was based, my opinion of the film has changed somewhat. I’m not as much in awe of the truncated story being presented. What could have been expounded over the course of multiple seasons is crammed into one two-hour film. In and of itself, that isn’t a very big issue, but when random new characters are inserted and others unceremoniously killed, it makes for a difficult comparison. Were it only that they were trying to draw in an audience unfamiliar with the source, it still makes little sense how they handle characters like Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) whose sudden life of stationary prophet doesn’t fit well with the original and makes for a seemingly unnecessary element. His inclusion seems important only to placate fans of the series by including all of the original, no matter how superfluous those scenes are. And without giving the characters much development over the course of the film, a lot of the events seem like inside jokes to the uninitiated.

Yet, the revelation on Miranda and the subsequent scenes make up for a lot of the more frustrating elements. The quiet and shocking scenes on Miranda are some of the most poignant in the film and the last stand brawls on Mr. Universe’s (David Krumholtz) planet are all effectively cut. However, I still feel like I’m seeing only a fraction of what I should have been shown on the small screen, but I have more to say about that in my review of the final episodes of Firefly below. Review Written September 13, 2010

Original Review

Note: The above review was re-written in 2010. There was a prior review written in 2005, immediately after seeing the film. As such, I’m including it below as a way of comparison.

Six shooters, bar fights and spaceships. The crew of the Serenity moseys through space in a futuristic Old West.

Based on the short-lived television series Firefly , series creator Joss Whedon ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer ) has adapted his cult program into a feature-length motion picture.

Simon Tam (Sean Maher) has managed to rescue his sister River (Summer Glau) from the Alliance, the galaxy’s ruling government, and is hiding about Captain Malcolm Reynold’s (Nathan Fillion) ship Serenity as its doctor. The Alliance wants their secret weapon returned and has sent a super soldier known simply as The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofer) to track her down and bring her back.

The film follows Mal and company as they try to outrun The Operative, keeping River safe while she begins to understand and control her powerful capabilities. A mix of soap opera, western and science fiction action thriller, Serenity is a feast for the imagination.

The film features plenty of exciting action and fight sequences blended with interesting and believable narrative. The characters come alive on screen without the viewer needing to rely on their knowledge of the television series it was based upon.

No one performance dominates all others. Star Trek always had the problem of big name stars dominating episodes and movies by virtue of their popularity while other characters lingered in the background lacking good narrative development. Trek did, however, have a strong, unified cast that worked incredibly well together but they seldom worked as well together as those here in Serenity . Perhaps it’s the lack of celebrity that keeps everyone linked. Ron Glass is probably the most familiar actor in the movie but his scenes are kept brief to allow the other actors time to develop as a cohesive group.

Fillion makes Mal vulnerable yet confident in his own abilities. He’s emotionally detached but a lot of that has to deal with his failed relationship with registered companion Inara (Morena Baccarin). Baccarin appears only briefly in the film and rarely has any substantive dialogue. It is obvious, though, that when Inara and Mal are together, the emotional conflict is prominent.

Mal should look no further than his pilot’s relationship with Zoe (Gina Torres). Wash (Alan Tudyk) may be a wisecracking spacer but his love for Zoe and hers for him is obvious and powerful. It’s hard to think of the two of them apart.

Serenity focuses a great deal on space-borne relationships. Watching the film, it quickly becomes apparent that the film isn’t just about fancy effects or explosions, it’s about the complex fellowships formed between disparate people who share the same goal. There are always conflicts like any big family but the folks on the Serenity do care for one another even if they don’t show it.

Most audiences won’t appreciate the subtle machinations of the plot in Serenity . They’ll care more about the action content. Fear not, there are plenty of eye-popping events, but it’s the characters that really make the film fun. George Lucas should take a look at this film and easily understand why his Star Wars prequels flopped.

-Wesley Lovell (November 11, 2005)

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Common sense media reviewers.

A bit clunky, but entertaining sci-fi.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The Alliance representatives use violent means to

Action violence, including explosions, shoot-outs,

Some sexual references; some women wear midriff- a

Mild cursing (one s-word).

Drinking and smoking in a bar.

Parents need to know that the movie based on the cult TV series Firefly includes some rambunctious action, drawn from both Western and science-fiction conventions. They fight with their fists, guns, and other implements; they also engage in chase scenes on speedy hovering vehicles. Space battles -- between…

Positive Messages

The Alliance representatives use violent means to get their way; the Reavers are ferocious killers who eat human flesh.

Violence & Scariness

Action violence, including explosions, shoot-outs, chases, and sylized, wireworky and time-zappy martial arts.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some sexual references; some women wear midriff- and cleave-baring outfits.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the movie based on the cult TV series Firefly includes some rambunctious action, drawn from both Western and science-fiction conventions. They fight with their fists, guns, and other implements; they also engage in chase scenes on speedy hovering vehicles. Space battles -- between space ships -- result in some raucous explosion and shoot-out scenes. Some aggressive, martial-artsy fighting. Characters drink and smoke in a bar. One couple kisses and looks to be headed to off-screen sex; one character has designed a robot to service him (the implication is that she's a sexual companion). A woman crewmember sees her husband killed, suddenly and brutally. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (15)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Great continuation of the series, but not for kids.

Good movie but has horror & sex, what's the story.

500 years from now, humans are colonizing space, terraforming planets in far-flung solar systems, jumpstarting civilizations in their own image, and wreaking havoc based on assumed values and prerogatives. Two sides have formed amid the expansion, the mighty Universal Alliance and the scrappy independents. The Alliance is not only interested in colonizing worlds, but also minds and bodies. A prominent experiment along these lines is River (Summer Glau), an extra-sensitive telepath, brainwashed in Alliance classrooms as a child, then electro-refitted in an Alliance lab until her brain essentially blew out. She wears gauzy goth dresses and teeters between anxious passivity and deadly accuracy, able to climb walls, cling to ceilings, break bones when "weaponized." Her brother Simon (Sean Maher) rescues her from the lab, and they take refuge on the Serenity, a ship captained Mal (Nathan Fillion). His crew -- tough guy Jayne (Adam Baldwin), warrior Zoe (Gina Torres), her partner and ship's pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), and mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite) -- worry that they are carrying these risky (paying) passengers, as the Alliance is sure to track them down.

Is It Any Good?

SERENITY makes the future quite like the present, and that's not a bad thing. Though occasionally clunky in structure and execution (some images reportedly culled from unused footage from Joss Whedon's TV series Firefly , from which the storyline and characters are drawn), the movie is entertaining and the dialogue often witty.

Styled like cowboys, Mal's team resists the Alliance for all the right reasons. If the brutal, brave, confused adolescent is a favorite trope for Whedon and his fans, the tormented but also irredeemably fated River is also here a sign of resistance to conventional thinking. River's telepathy -- which makes her (seem) crazy and grants her way too much information pertaining to everyone around her -- is related thematically to the film's most idealistic notion, that media exposure -- via a character with access to all angles of dissemination, Mr. Universe (David Kurmholtz) -- might save the 'verse.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the various loyalties revealed in various pairings and groups of characters: brother and sister, romantic couples, devotion to causes and communities as ideals. How does River's wrestling with her training and instinct as a "weapon" serve as counterpoint for the Operator, who sees himself as a "monster" but also believes in his mission to commit murder and mayhem, as a means to eventual peace?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 30, 2005
• On DVD or streaming : December 20, 2005
• Cast : Alan Tudyk , Nathan Fillion , Summer Glau
• Director : Joss Whedon
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 119 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references
• Last updated : April 21, 2024

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Science fiction, fan fiction, fantasy, game reviews, and other sci fi/fantasy themed writing from the Blackwell family

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Movie Review: Serenity (2005)

The crew of Serenity will take any job, even if that job isn't exactly legal. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew take small smuggling and robbery jobs to keep their ship afloat, and to stay under the radar of The Alliance, the galactic conglomerate that not only rules the galaxy, but was on the opposite side of the war Mal lost years ago. But when Simon (Sean Maher) and his unstable, telepathic sister, River (Summer Glau) join the crew, they get in much more trouble than they bargained for. A government operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is after River, because she stumbled onto a secret no one was supposed to know... and the alliance will do anything to get her back.

• Anti one-world government -  "The Alliance" is run by an intergalactic "parliament" which manipulates and controls the masses through the media, and will brook no contradiction. Their agents are brutal and merciless.
• Anti-evolution of man/anti-utopian -  At one point in the film, Captain Reynolds attack's the Alliance's attempts to further mould man in the image they desire through the use of genetic manipulation via drugs saying, "I do not hold to that". The results of their attempts are horrific, but also an extrapolation of where the social engineering in our own world is headed (see the film to learn more).
• Pro- some old-world values -  Although the crew of  Serenity  is rather rough around the edges, the also practice a great deal of self-sacrifice, loyalty, and courage.

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Serenity (2005) - 4K Blu-ray Review

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[tab title="Movie Review"]

Back in the early Noughties, Joss Whedon was synonymous with punchy genre series that, more often than not, dealt with strong female protagonists and thrilling plots. As if cursed by his own success, Whedon tried to branch out from vampires and slayers to the sci-fi with the Fox series Firelfy . But we were all riding (and perhaps blinded) by the wave of Buffy and Angel, and criminally Firefly was not afforded the audience it deserved. It was cancelled after merely 13 episodes.

Whedon admits to being personally injured in this remarkable series’ failure, and determined, by hook or by crook, he was going to bookend this story with the payoff he thought it deserved. He found a willing studio in Universal and in 2005 set to task on finishing his story.

Set in the year 2517, Serenity rounds out the story of Malcolm Reynolds ( Nathan Fillion ) and the crew of the Firefly-class freighter Serenity. An eclectic and disparate cluster of misanthropes you’d never meet again. Two of the latest aboard Reynold’s ship are Simon and River Tam ( Summer Glau )—two escapees from the Alliance (the series’ Big Bad); an oppressive galactic government who was using River’s abilities for their own gain. Hiding in the outer rim, struggling to feed themselves and keep the ship in service, this fringe dwelling crew are discovered when a program planted in a TV ad triggers River’s program. A government assassin (the excellent Chitewel Ejiofor ) is sent to collect her, and will kill anyone in his way.

Whedon kicks off the start of this movie with a masterful one shot, worthy of Scorsese . With this one scene, he reintroduces the bulk of the series’ characters, the background of who they are, and why they are doing what they’re doing, and sets us off for an action-packed enjoyable ride. One actually doesn’t need to have seen the TV show to be sucked into this world quickly; although, having seen the show will make it all the richer. {googleads}

This film was where this reviewer solidified his belief that Whedon was a rare film director that could not only handle large cast and subplots, but make them work like gangbusters. His handling of action scenes, fight scenes, and effect are always about the characters and resonate emotionally for it. They are thrilling, imaginative, and surprising in parts, and looks like a film shot on double its tiny 35 million dollar budget.

The actors, as they were in the show, give it their all and endear themselves to your memory very quickly. For those that saw the show, it is Glau’s River that evolves the most. In the show, what she becomes is hinted at, but in Serenity River is unleashed. Her kookiness is built upon with some gob-smacking displays of athleticism that equals her portrayal of very mentally broken young woman. It’s a truly a remarkable performance that deserves more credit. Lead Fillion is no stranger to success, having gone on to star in Castle and now The Rookie , but as Reynolds he too plays a broken character that hides his pain and past behind sarcasm and grit, almost channeling Harrison Ford .

The effects, for the time, are first rate, especially knowing the budget. They have dated somewhat in the following decade and change since its’ release (I address this more in the 4K section) but bang for your buck value in the visuals are there to see for all.

Unfortunately and criminally, just as the TV show it honored, this film tanked at the box office. It barely made back its budget, and if you know anything about movie making, parity of budget at the box office means the film lost half that out of its bank account, when you account for advertising, distributor and cinema fees.

Serenity deserved to reward the hard work and passion of those who made it. I hope the fact that it exists is some kind of validation for what they achieved. It is almost universally critically praised and has a passionate, if small, group of followers (browncoats) for good reason. It is well worth your time, and easily in the top ten of this reviewer’s top ten sci-fi movies of all time. It’s that good. Go get it.

[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios Available on Blu-ray - October 17, 2017 Screen Formats: 2.39:1 Subtitles : English SDH, French, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Mandarin Audio: English: DTS:X; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1; French: DTS 5.1; French (Canada): DTS 5.1; Spanish: DTS 5.1; Japanese: DTS 5.1 Discs: 4K Ultra HD; Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set Region Encoding: Region-free playback

Okay, this is a transfer up-scaled from apparently a 2K scan. The result is inconsistent. It ranges from jaw-droppingly good to change levels of grain. There are some stellar and detailed close-ups of the stars, and some orgasmic skies and space vistas. Blacks are dense and yet detailed. But there’s a mix of scenes that smack of de-noising and then show a detailed filmic straight after. The mule vs reaver’s scene stuck out like a sore thumb. Having said this (spoiled bloody reviewer, I am) this is a beautiful looking picture that has some really wow moments throughout its run. It’s a mild upgrade of the Blu-ray and HDR just pushed it over the line to worth the change. Not reference quality and a stark contrast to the E.T. disc I reviewed before, but not bad.

Superb. Your speakers will need a massage after this excellent DTS-X 7.1 mix. It is extremely verbose. Dialogue is centre focused and crisp as all get out. Surrounds are punished with thumping directionality. It’s immersive and a grand listening experience. This mix has serious balls.

Supplements:

Commentary :

• Feature Commentary with Writer / Director Joss Whedon & Cast Members Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glas s

Special Features:

• No new 4K features. All ported over from the previous Blu-Ray (also included) and with a digital download. Not unique in today’s lack of supplements for 4K.Feature Commentery with Writer / Director Joss Whedon Alliance Database
• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Director Joss Whedon
• Future History - The Story of Earth That Was
• What's In A Firefly
• Re-Lighting The Firefly
• Joss Whedon Introduction
• Extended Scenes
• Take A Walk On Serenity
• A Filmmaker's Journey
• The Green Clan
• Session 416
• U-Control Access

Blu-ray Rating:

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[tab title="Film Details"]

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references. Runtime: 119 mins Director : Joss Whedon Writer: Joss Whedon Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Chiwetel Ejiofor Genre : Sci-fi Tagline: They're armed. She's dangerous. Memorable Movie Quote: "Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint." Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures Official Site: Release Date: September 30, 2005 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: October 17, 2017 Synopsis : The crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture one of their members who is telepathic.

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Serenity (2005)

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Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway Are Sunk in ‘Serenity’

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

How can you miss with a film noir starring Matthew McConaughey as a fisherman tempted by femme fatale Anne Hathaway to feed her sadistic husband to the sharks for $10 million? And, hell, the script is by Steven Knight, who did himself proud with Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises and directed the formidable Locke with Tom Hardy. And yet the batshit bonkers Serenity fails on every level, first as entertainment and then as a new-agey thumbsucker about a magical, mystical tour through the subconscious. Serenity finds new definitions of bad that almost make the damn thing worth watching for its magnificent flameout.

But almost doesn’t cut it. Serenity goes wrong in ways that are more staggeringly dull than perversely delicious. The movie just plods along as we watch McConaughey, as Iraq veteran turned fishing-boat captain Baker Dill, go tropical on Plymouth Island, a paradise off the Florida coast (the film was shot in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean). Baker and his faithful first mate, Duke (Djimon Hounsou), spend their days taking out rich tourists to hook a tuna Baker calls the “beast” or “Justice” — pick your favorite metaphor. The thing is Baker goes nuts if any of his customers even come close to hooking the fish. Justice, that beast, belongs to him, though he can’t seem to catch him. The allegory overload is crushing.

At night, Baker enjoys sweaty sex with Constance (Diane Lane), who pays him for the privilege and begs him to find her missing cat (more metaphors). Enter Hathaway in a blonde wig as Karen, an old love with whom he fathered a son, Patrick (Rafael Sayegh), a teen who buries his love for his absent father in video games. Serenity is a movie where everyone plays at the “game” of life.

Are you catching the film’s inexorable drift into haunted psyche territory? Serenity plays like the bastard child of Body Heat and The Sixth Sense , minus the heat and the sense. At first, Baker is reluctant to go for the bucks to kill Karen’s husband Frank, played by Jason Clarke like a hateful glare made flesh. Then the creep shows up asking about a place on the island where “little girls will take it in the ass for 10 bucks a pop.” #Eww. If you don’t want Baker to kill Frank instantly you will when you learn that the sleaze viciously beats Karen and the boy. What’s a father to do? Baker seems to be getting telepathic messages from his kid to save him from this predatory stepdad.

Is anyone seeing dead people? The twist in the plot is too left-field to predict, but when it comes you’ll have to suspend disbelief to the point of blindness. Serenity is unburdened by logic or a single good reason for existing. The actors look trapped, pained to utter the next line of dialogue. Young Patrick buries his head in video games, but it’s the audience that gets played. What an infuriating mess the makers of Serenity have unloaded on an unsuspecting public. It’s still only January, but Serenity has already earned a place among the year’s worst movies. Karen can keep her millions. I’d feed this misfire to the sharks free of charge.

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Serenity review – the year's first gloriously bad movie is here

Matthew McConaughey is a gigolo/fishing boat captain alongside Anne Hathaway in a thrillingly awful thriller with one of the most ill-conceived twists in recent history

I f January could be made an adjective – that is, if the trait of being released in the month of January could be assigned a set of aesthetic and thematic criteria – then I would venture that Serenity may be the single most January movie ever made.

The typical January movie has been orphaned by a studio with little faith in its earning potential, banished to the post-holiday moviegoing lull, where riskier strains of badness may freely flourish without attracting too much public attention. (There are also traces of January in late August, after summer movie season has taken its dying breaths.) Serenity was originally slated for an awards-courting release date back in September, then nudged ahead one month for reasons inscrutable to those outside distribution outfit Aviron Pictures, and finally moved once more to its rightful resting place in late January. This merely describes a symptom, however, and not the condition itself.

The January movie stands out not for its failings, but for the confidence and ingenuity with which it fails. Serenity was written, directed, and produced by Steven Knight, who’s proven himself competent in all three disciplines as a one-time scribe for David Cronenberg, the helmer of 2014’s solid Locke, and the creator of such BBC favorites as Peaky Blinders and Taboo. Evidently convinced of his own brilliance, Knight wielded enough industry cachet to steamroll the people generally tasked with keeping ideas like Serenity in the brains of their makers. The January movie is what happens when someone with a lot of vision and a minimum of self-awareness stops hearing the word “no,” and in this particular case, Knight lets his absolute assurance in his misguided mission run away with him all the way to Mauritius.

The minuscule tax-lax African island doubles for Plymouth, an isolated seaside community tucked away in the Florida Keys where the gruff Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey, his Oscar win now a distant memory) has taken up residence. Where he comes from seems to be a mystery even to him, the haunted look in his eyes our only hint at an unspoken dark past. He whiles away his days taking visitors out on fishing expeditions, making extra scratch in his side-hustle as a gigolo – McConaughey’s bare buttocks command more screen time than some of the human supporting actors – and single-mindedly pursuing a tuna he’s named “Justice” for symbolic purposes. Maybe it’s all the cryptic non sequiturs spoken by the townspeople, but something’s definitely amiss.

The arrival of Baker’s femme fatale ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway, blonde) reshapes what could be fairly deemed “The Old-But-Still-Got-It Man and the Sea” as a Sunshine State noir at maximum humidity. She needs Baker to kill the abusive new husband (Jason Clarke, visibly aware of how ridiculous his lines are and fully leaning into it) she won’t stop calling “daddy,” if not for her sake then for the sake of the unseen son they had together. Because it’s filled with garbled word-salad dialogue and a few screamingly awkward sex scenes, his ensuing moral turpitude makes for plenty of unintended hilarity. McConaughey and Hathaway share a mesmerizing anti-chemistry, not only implausible as lovers but as occupants of the same dimension. When she coos remembrances of losing her virginity to Baker in his tempted ear, it’s supposed to be tragically romantic, or at least sexy. Instead, the viewer begins mentally tabulating whether a sixteen-year-old Anne Hathaway bedding an equivalently de-aged Matthew McConaughey would qualify as statutory rape. (It would.)

A dash of the unexpected provides the finishing touch to any January movie worth its salts, and Knight has successfully smuggled one of the most gobsmackingly ill-conceived twists in recent history into multiplexes nationwide. To reveal it here would rob the film of a measure of its great and terrible power, so suffice it to say that it would be like It’s A Wonderful Life ending with Jimmy Stewart discovering that everyone in Bedford Falls was a robot. This reversal of fortune disorients not only in its casual upending of the entire plot and, indeed, reason itself, but also in the totality with which it changes what kind of movie Serenity’s going to be. A complete shift takes place as the film mutates from an overcooked genre piece guided by some exquisitely strange choices to something rarer and more precious.

The cinema calendar is chockablock with faulty efforts built around perfectly serviceable ideas, but realized without a modicum of distinction. Serenity offers the less-common inverse: a magnificently terrible idea, executed to perfection. It is the best kind of bad movie, bristling with more spectacularly dysfunctional personality than one hundred conveyor-belt CGI bonanzas. Its pleasures number too many to enumerate here – okay, fine: Hathaway’s character gets a momentous introduction with a Matrix-style 180-degree swoop – so do yourself the kindness of seeing this zeppelin crash of a film before its unceremonious dismissal from theaters. Insulate yourself from any further knowledge to the best of your ability, and bear witness to the minting of a new gold standard in January movies.

Serenity is out in the US on 25 January and in the UK on 1 March

• Matthew McConaughey
• Anne Hathaway

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