Serenity

I want to start out by saying that this movie doesn't have much in common with the show Firefly. Yeah it has the main cast and most of them are still on Serentity, but the tone is completely different and lacking a lot of the humor that made the show great. Instead we get many semi-believable action scenes performed by people who aren't really action stars. The movie does tie up some loose ends from the show, but not in a very satisfying way.

Not shallow and dumb, thanks Sci-Fi Channel. To put my and my wife's enjoyment of this movie into perspective, we had no knowledge of the TV show whatsoever going into our viewing. Despite that, we had no problem following the film's story or getting involved with the characters. The storyline has some Richard Matheson-type vibes that deepens the plot a little more than you might expect from an action-oriented sci-fi movie. The action itself is very fun and exciting, especially the very well-paced finale that has it all (quick but intense space battle, small band of rebels versus hordes of baddies, mano-a-mano fight, one versus hoarde Matrix-style fight, etc). Despite it containing plenty of sci-fi cliches the movie is still thoroughly enjoyable. I said I probably wouldn't go backwards to the TV series after seeing this, but eventually I did and kinda wished I hadn't; the movie is almost better standalone. However, I'd be a big fan of a Serenity sequel to see where they could go with some of these characters and the world they inhabit.

Most of the issues with this movie stem from the fact that it compresses events that should have taken place over many happy seasons of Firefly into less than two brief hours (blissful hours for cult fans, but two hours all the same). As such, even if Serenity's storyline is a very action-packed and constantly engaging one, and its characters are well-grounded in reality (most of the time), it can seem a little bit artificial at times. So Firefly/Fox gripes aside, we couldn't ask for that much better/more fitting an ending for Firefly. As a standalone movie (I watched Serenity before I did Firefly, confusing it with the pilot episode of the same name, and it hooked me on the series), Serenity misses some background - you wonder what is going on some of the time, but the setting is beautiful enough, the action is engaging enough, and probably most importantly of all, the characters are lovable, quirky, and human enough that when Mal asks you "Ever been up in one of these before?" "Wanna?" you jump at the chance to take him up on his offer.