Serenity: Movie, DVD, HD DVD, Collector's Edition Review

8/25/2007 Posted by Admin

Joss Whedon's first feature-length film, the sci-fi powerhouse "Serenity," is designed to exist on its own terms, which it does, without apology. And that's a good thing.

This lively, visceral film takes stock Asian, sci-fi and Wild Western elements and twists them into an intergalactic space adventure that somehow escaped being tweaked to serve the masses. It's for hardcore sci-fi fans, and as such, it likely will become an underground hit.

Those drawn to it will find a tricky balancing act at hand, with humor, pathos, drama, wit, action and fear all roiling in the caldron of Whedon's rich hybrid of an imagination. Here is a writer-director who is so confident in his craft--and whose vision is so steeped in pop culture lore--that he's able to toy with the references without slavishly adhering to the formula that normally drives them.

From Whedon's script, "Serenity" is based on the director's ill-fated, 2002 Fox television show, "Firefly." If, like me, you never saw an episode, be prepared for an anything goes thrill ride here.

Set 500 years in the future, the film follows Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), brawny captain of the junk space ship Serenity, whose crew is a melting pot of capable misfits facing a civil war that involves a band of zombie cannibals, scientific experiments gone awry and the Alliance, which naturally wants control of the universe.

Spearheaded by an unnamed assassin played with steely reserve by Chiwetel Ejiofor, the Alliance is aggressively seeking River Tam (Summer Glau), a telepathic wreck who knows things about the Alliance that the Alliance would rather keep secret. Really secret. So secret, in fact, that they will kill anything and anyone in their path to make sure this River is dammed shut.

Problem is, River is a martial arts genius with anger management issues who is having none of that. Neither is anyone aboard the Serenity, which makes for a movie that becomes impressively intense as it veers toward an ending whose climax isn't telegraphed. There are genuine surprises here, particularly at the end, which gives this swift movie a formidable kick.

What you admire in "Serenity" is Whedon's nerve--one false move, and this deceptively fragile film, with its deceptively sturdy facade, could have collapsed if just the right tone wasn't struck. And yet it is struck. Whedon's ability to shift between elements of horror and humor is exactly what he did so well in the television series he created, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

As a director, he recalls a young George Lucas before the darkside of marketing, industry and special effects got the better of him. Still, Whedon owes a debt to that director. Since so much of "Serenity" relies on the guts of the "Star Wars" franchise, it's unlikely that it would even exist without the vision Lucas had when Whedon was still a boy, presumably playing with all those "Star Wars" toys.

Grade: A-