Serenity Flies

Review by Jeffrey Perren - Oct 12, 2005

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Serenity, the film based on the Firefly television series created by Joss Whedon, opened in wide release twelve days ago, garnering modest ticket sales in its first weekend.

The story revolves around an ensemble of individualists, centered on Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, a psychically scarred veteran of the war between the Alliance and the Independents set five hundred years hence. The war is long over, and Mal and crew have taken to smuggling and thieving rather than join the bland collectivist Alliance society.

Whereas the TV series provided more or less equal time to each character, the film concentrates on Mal (Nathan Fillion) and River (Summer Glau), the natural psychic made psychopathic by Alliance scientists’ experiments. The movie opens with an Indiana Jones-style chase sequence, in which Mal intends to utilize River’s psychic ability to warn of danger. That danger soon arrives in the form of the dreaded cannibalistic Reavers.

During delivery of the goods in a den-of-thieves bar, River has a psychotic episode while watching a Japanese cartoon and proceeds to flatten a host of thugs. Unfortunately, her martial arts carnage alerts the sinister Alliance operatives seeking to recapture her and physician brother Simon. The hunt is led by an ultra polished Samurai-like nameless villain, who talks of noble death while skewering his victims.

Mal discovers the operatives’ intentions and, after rescuing the alluring courtesan Inara, decides to eliminate the threat once and for all. Over the crew’s objections, he takes the Serenity (the firefly-shaped ship) and her crew through a heavily Reaver-patrolled zone to an outer planet, where the secret of River’s importance to the Alliance lies.

Serenity fleshes out and provides satisfying backstory to many of the questions raised in the short-lived TV series. (Fox canceled Firefly after airing only eleven of fourteen produced episodes, all of which are available on DVD.) At the same time, the film cleverly introduces characters and their interrelationships in a way that doesn’t require previous exposure.

The movie smoothly integrates near non-stop action with well-rounded character development. The special effects are well done, and the music is effective at heightening mood at the right moments without being intrusive. The look alternates from Blade Runner dystopia to sterile Star Trek, contrasting the milieu of the faintly anarchic Independents with the dictatorial world of the Alliance.

The fight sequences are numerous and uniformly excellent, with the standouts being those between the fugitive hunter and Mal, and the balletic River against hosts of bad guys. (The latter, during one fight, contains a stellar Frazetta-like tableaux.)

The best aspect of the movie, as with the TV series, is the consistently fine acting. Whedon picks excellent relative unknowns and gives them good — even sometimes profound — dialogue and the freedom to deliver first-rate performances.

Summer Glau creates a genuine, nuanced, and visceral damsel in distress who is better equipped to rescue herself than anyone else could be. Nathan Fillion gives a subtle, moving portrait of a strong-willed, morally centered leader. With the right vehicles and some judicious career choices, he could well be this generation’s Harrison Ford.

Some of the characters are under-used. The romantic tension between Inara and Mal is subtle yet clearly displayed, but screenwriter-director Whedon foregoes developing what could have been an interesting subplot. The innocent, real, sexually joyous Kaylee, who longs for a liaison with Dr. Simon Tamm, gets only brief screen time. Mercenary Jayne, who had frequent, and often hilarious, interactions with Mal and crew in the TV series, has fewer opportunities here.

With its ‘low’ budget of $40M (about one-third average for films of this type), and modest (but expected) first weekend box office returns of $10M, the movie should at least provide an opportunity for the re-birth of the TV series. (Though Whedon is committed to two projects, including Wonder Woman, for the next two years.)

Whether or not that comes to pass, the theme of the freedom-longing individual vs. smug authoritarian rulers and the engaging cast of characters are enough to merit the price of a ticket.

  

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