Serenity

My husband and I first saw this movie after just reading these excellent reviews and not knowing anything else about the movie or characters. We are both sci-fi fans.

I must say, we were a little puzzled about the great reviews. We thought the one-liners were kind of cheesy, the acting a bit poor, and we weren't at all impressed (except for maybe the fight scenes with River). The cowboy theme music didn't sit well with us either.

However, I have heard only excellent things about the series Firefly and the following movie Serenity. Were we missing something? We even watched Serenity again giving it a second chance. It still didn't click with us. I was very confused.

We were going to give up when a friend loaned us the Firefly DVDs. OK, I'll give it another shot since clearly we *must* be missing something! And that did it.

After just a couple episodes I was really enjoying myself. When I re-watched Serenity again after seeing the TV series, I thought it was excellent. I really appreciated it. The characters were more 3D, the one-liners were amusing, the music didn't bother me a bit (I was starting to like it), and I really liked all the nuances from the actors (I changed my mind - not bad acting). I felt like I knew the characters and story so much better and I really loved how they tied some loose ends together. It was also nice to see the characters again after the series ended (even on DVD).

So bottom line - if you didn't watch Firefly, you probably won't get it, may not like it very much, and you might be confused why there are such great reviews. If you did watch Firefly first (and liked it), you'll love Serenity and you'll have a great ride!

This film was recommended as one of the classic must-see sci-fi films, so I gave it a go. For its low budget and available visual/special effects for its time, this was an impressive endeavor, to the point where I'm now going to binge on the series. Huge props to Joss Whedon for never giving up with all the limitations he had from both Fox for the series, and Universal for this movie. The 119 min runtime was used impressively with spot-on snappy pacing. Bearing in mind I have never seen or heard of the Firefly series, the story was fluid and coherent and really well told. I was however lost with some of the dialogue and futuristic western lingo the cast were using, but I'm guessing had I seen the series first, I'd understand it better. Overall everything about this film was impressive and I now understand its following. Seeing there are many old series and films being revived, this would be a great candidate for a comeback. I just hope if it does, Whedon is given a proper budget without creative restraints.

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.

Read a review from 2006 that claims that this is what Star Wars prequels should have looked like. I couldn't agree more. All the Star Wars that came after the original three were simply cash grab. Had Fox marketed the Firefly t.v. Series, Serenity would have been unnecessary and we'd have probably ten seasons of Firefly. Anyhow, I was curious about this movie but always forget to look for it when I'm in search for a film to watch, until now. I've been advised to watch Firefly first, but for what it's worth, Serenity can be watched as a stand alone film as in is pretty straight forward in the story telling - doesn't get bogged down with character intro because the pacing is well thought out. I discovered for myself that watching the t.v. Series first would have allowed me to score this lower as there are a couple of integral t.v. Characters that didn't have much screen time in the movie. I watched Serenity first. If you watch both Serenity and Firefly, you will not clamour for another (typically awful) Star Wars movie.