Serenity: Flucht in neue Welten

Mankind had left Earth for a new solar system with dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. The inner most planets had formed the Alliance, and conquered the outer Independent planets in a destructive war. Mal (Nathan Fillion) and his ragtag band of former rebels are living on the edge of survival. Simon had bought his way on board and rescued sister River from a government facility. She's a secret experiment with psychic powers and hidden memories of a deadly government secret.

This is the follow up to the short-lived cult TV show Firefly. Although it's not absolutely necessary to know the TV show to understand the movie, it would help to get the feel of the group dynamics. The relationships are what gives the movie its emotions. The characters are pretty easily decipherable. Nevertheless, their backstories would help.

This has the Joss Whedon touches. It has the fast talking inside jokes of a Scooby gang. That's what makes this fun. The CGI is not the absolute top rate, but he makes up for it with inventive energy. The random craziness of the big space battle is something that Star Wars can only aspire to. In fact, Mal is Han Solo. Imagine if Star Wars centered on Han Solo, and you've got this movie.

Serenity is based on the TV miniseries Firefly, but the story is a standalone but i would recommend watching Firefly first.

Earth that was could no longer sustain the number of people there were just too many so they had to find a new solar system with dozens of planets and hundreds of moons, each one terraformed, a process taking decades to support human life to become new Earths. The central planets of this solar system formed the Alliance rules by an interplanetary parliament but the savage outer planets refused Alliance control causing a war which the alliance won.

From its great concept to the fantastic decor & aesthetics, this movie kept me engaged with a simple but decent plot, good acting with Alan Tudyk & Nathan Fillion, good dialogue, and an overall retrospace vibe that i love.

Serenity is the movie sequel to the much-beloved, ended much too soon US Fox television network science-fiction series "Firefly," with all the show's central characters, doing the same fine acting they did in Firefly.

And it's not just a sequel - it rises to the occasion to be a much better story than any of the individual episodes of Firefly.

Serenity's a luminous rebooting of Firefly, and you don't have to have seen a single episode of Firefly to enjoy it immensely. But those of us who knew and loved Firefly will love it more, because it's also more of what we loved and Fox took away from us.

Serenity, like Firefly, is a science fiction story with strong elements of westerns, spy movie intrigue, and lots and lots of spine-tingling action, and wry, irresistible humor throughout - the humor that comes from a cast that has incredible chemistry.

The plot begins with a half-western, half very high-tech bank heist which goes very much awry, then evolves into a cosmic spy drama centered on River Tam, the victim of terrible experiments on her brain committed by a secret, murderous agency of the tyrannical Alliance of Planets, which governs the colonies of a distant star settled by refugees from a dying Earth.

River Tam and her physician brother Simon are passengers on the starship Serenity, captained by Malcolm Reynolds, a Browncoat - veteran of the war between the Alliance and a confederacy of planets who resisted their overreach (along with his first officer, Zoe Washburn, who's also the wife of the Serenity's pilot).

Serenity's crew are the most entertaining bunch of smugglers and mercenaries in fiction, and why so many of us Firefly/Serenity fans wear brown coats. I won't spoil the plot for you - enjoy it for yourself. Then get a brown coat.

The others do a good job gushing about the movie. Sure we're fans and bound to like the movie more than the usual fare, but those looking for an original and thrilling movie experience, this will shock and amaze. The Firefly world introduced a fantasy home for many of us, with characters we truly cared about and dilemmas we could get behind. The best way to describe it is to take the best aspects of the Han Solo elements of the original Star Wars, and build a world around that. There's no grand theme or clear cut good and evil. There's just a band of fugitives trying to make their way in a dangerous sky. It's something folks can relate to, although most of us won't be in a space battle or fighting psychotic creatures anytime soon. The point of the name Serenity is the name of the ship, though in a deeper sense that's what our characters are in search of. Finding freedom and a home, and that's what the ship represents to them, and to the fans. So you understand why so many are so excited about this dinky little scifi flick.

The movie captures that beautiful feeling but takes us on a ride that there's no turning back from. In my opinion, the one thing that makes for a truly GREAT movie is if you walk out of the theater a different person than when you walked in. This movie takes you on such a journey I didn't know if I would leave the theater at all. Sure the visual effects are stunning, but even the unfinished effects I saw meant nothing to me because it was the characters I cared about (and note that the digitally created ship itself is one of them, and I cared just as much for that than any of them). The humor is probably better than anything in the theaters this year, and the action is even greater. My screening actually came a week after Episode 3 was released, and I immediately washed my hands of Mr Lucas, and months later when I saw Fantastic 4... well let's not even talk about that one.

This movie really does have something for everyone, and even in the core of the geek fandom, the range of people is total - men and women split it at least 50/50, uber-geeks and "cool" types, and a surprising amount of attractive people of all ages. Seriously though, don't trust the rants of the fans. Check out the movie for yourself. Give it an honest chance and I promise you will be taken on a journey that will turn you into a fan as well.

Everytime I watch this movie I shed a tear for Joss Whedon's original vision. If only fox hadn't shut him down, we could have fleahed out these stories over many seasons.