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Title: Serenity
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Parents, the violence in this film is pretty intense for a PG-13 film, with blood, stabbings, shootings, and limbs being cut off. Some of it happens off screen, but that's no excuse. Recommended for ages 14 and up. |
Most movies that are from television shows are made for TV themselves. In a rare occurrence they might premier on DVD first. In an even rarer occurrence they might show up as a big budget Hollywood film. “Serenity” is the first film I’ve seen that was made from a show that was canceled prematurely. The reason we get to see this film is because DVD sales were very strong. If the future is any indication, more theatrical films of canceled TV shows might surface if the promise of good DVD sales are there (after all, DVD sales control the movies today, not box office receipts). “Serenity” takes places a few months after the events of the TV show, and everyone on the ship is in a tense mood. Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion) has been getting into fights with his crew members, which has resulted in several of them leaving the ship.
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Kaylee (Jewel Staite) says “it will only be a matter of time before [Mal] scares us all off.” The gang is reunited though when The Alliance comes in on their ship hard, looking to take back River (Summer Glau), who you may remember as the strange girl who was experiments on by the Alliance in the television show. Not only that, but a recent kung fu outburst from River in a bar is making both the crew of Serenity and the Alliance a little nervous. What happened to River at the Alliance, and how does it effect everyone? Oh, and also the Reavers, who were only mentioned in the television show, finally show their ugly mugs and they look like...well, they look like humans with really ugly makeup, which I imagine is how they would look on a television show budget.
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Watching “Serenity” I nodded my head in understanding: Making the movie based around River was a logical direction to go with the movie. After all, out of all the characters in the “Firefly” show River was the only character to have a past that was extremely vague. Shepard came close, but River just freaked all of us out, with her outbursts of anger, mundane dialog, and moments where she would just sort of sit there and do nothing. That said, a kung fu River is no more compelling, and at times gets rather annoying. The fact that River would be brainwashed to be a walking fighter I can believe. The fact that she would have enough muscle power to take down a crowd of Reavers is more difficult to swallow. I also must admit, I think this movie is too conclusive for it’s own good.
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Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m Joss Whedon told the end of the story. Getting the chance to make a movie based on a television show that didn’t survive a full season is certainly not a chance you get everyday, so I can understand wanting to tell the final chapter in the story in the event another chance doesn’t come along. The problem is this story holds too much weight for the characters. It’s clear that this movie was intended to be either the final season of the series, or one of the final seasons. With a couple more seasons under it’s belt, the movie might have had more of an impact then it does. As it stands, we care about the ending, but I wanted to love the ending and I just couldn’t. It felt like too much too soon (though a pivotal moment near the end of the film is unexpected enough for me to deem it one of the great movie twists of our time).
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So the ending is strong, it just isn’t as strong as it could be. Still, I enjoyed it enough to recommend to fans of the series. There are some spectacular action sequences, the characters are still compelling, and the dialog is as sharp as ever. I can’t really recommend it to people who aren’t fans of the show because the lack of back story knowledge will at the very least render many of the main characters as useless extras, but for fans this will be an enriching experience.
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