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Serenity (Mark's Take)
01/11/2005 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
TV's series Firefly - cult and cancelled - comes to the screen not as a glorified episode of the series but as a finish to the series and that ties up the loose ends, notes Mark. While the film may be a little terse and telegraphic for people who were not fans of the series, those familiar with the series will be quite please that there were some interesting ideas behind the fun adventures. Buy Serenity in the USA - or Buy Serenity in the UK  It was a pleasure to see what was really happening and also to return to the characters of the series. But objectively I cannot recommend the film for people who were not already fans.
Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
In the fourth season of "Babylon 5" J. Michael Straczynski was told his show would be cancelled at the end of that season. He had expected and planned for five seasons and had a lot more story to tell. All he could do was speed up the storytelling to complete his tale. Then ironically he got a fifth season from another network and could not do much with it.
My guess is that the inspiration for Serenity was that Joss Whedon also had a background story he wanted to tell for the science fiction series "Firefly". That series was cancelled with the major questions left unanswered. The film Serenity actually ties up all the loose ends left from the television series "Firefly". It tells us what would have happened with the story.
Serenity is an aptly named film even if the story it tells is anything but serene. The film is about the attempted serene utopia that the Alliance, a federation of planets, wanted to found. Explained here clearly for the first time we hear about the plans of the Alliance to end strife. We are told how in the outlands that were the setting of the original TV series not everybody wanted to be utopianized by the Alliance.
They had their own idea of what is serene. The film continues the story of the very mixed bag of characters that populated the original series. The series centres on a rogue space-freighter the Serenity commanded, if that's the word, by Capt. Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion looking just a little older and grimmer than he was in the series).
The plot initially is not a lot different from what might have been an episode. An agent of the Alliance (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a bizarre assassin who kills with a sword, wants to track down River (Summer Glau) who is on Serenity as a semi- welcome passenger. River knows something that the Alliance does not want leaked. She also has powers that make a danger to the Alliance. But unlike a series entry, the reason the Alliance wants her will be revealed. What her powers are will be revealed. What she knows will be revealed. Serenity will cap off the television series and make it a complete story.
Serenity is written and directed by Joss Whedon who created the original "Firefly" (not to mention something called "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer") and wrote much of the series. The popularity of that series can be attributed in large part to the witty dialog (quite present in the film version) and the really offbeat comedic situations (mostly missing from the film probably due to pressure of time). As in the series the cinematography is intentionally just a bit off-kilter.
That gives the film a feeling more of realism and immediacy. The entire film seems to be on imperfect films stock. Most of the film looks just a bit washed out. I do not know if this is generally true, but the dialog is often indistinctly recorded. That is a pity because usually Whedon's dialog is a lot of fun. Also the plot is complex and much is carried by the dialog. This is supposed to be a rock 'em sock 'em space swashbuckler so there is a lot of loud shooting and a lot of spaceships fighting in close proximity. Wow.
Speaking for myself I was of three minds about Serenity:
As a fan of "Firefly" I thought it was terrific. It took all the unanswered questions and explained them. It probably was the story that Whedon wanted to do all along and that the cancellation did not allow him to tell. In one neat bundle everything I was wondering about made sense.
As a fan of science fiction films, it was okay. I myself am getting a little sick of all the gunplay that is used so often in science fiction films. The films that originally attracted me to the genre had ideas, not gunplay. Serenity had some decent science fiction concepts. They were nothing to knock me over, but at least some decent ideas.
As a fan of cinema in general it was an ugly little film with a whole lot of noise and violence and a murky look. Some of the dialog is engaging. There is not much human drama as I think of human drama. The visuals were okay but not inspiring or really what passes for imaginative any more. It is not the kind of film I can recommend to someone unless I know they are fans of the series.
On balance I rate Serenity a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
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