The best space movie in years came out not too long ago. Nope, it's not
Star Wars. It's a movie with a modest budget (for a sci-fi action movie) of $45 million called
Serenity."Sereni-wha??" you might say. The movie might be a little obscure. It defies the norm of the contemporary action movie (no young and impossibly sexy cast, tabloid scandal fodder star, oversaturation of advertisements, flashy CGI, oh-so-cool bullet time slow motion, 11th hour twist, etc.) Its strength lies in the most important ingredient of any movie: the writing.
Serenity is the brainchild of writer/director Joss Whedon. Whedon is best known for his television work. He created the television series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Angel, both of which, in this critic's mind, are two of the best written series of its time
. Serenity also started as a television series called
Firefly. The series, cursed from day one by its horrendous treatment from Fox, is a short lived one because of low ratings. Normally, a cancelled show is dead as the Dodo; resurrecting it needs the foulest alchemy, wicked voodoo, and pure miracle. And a miracle it received. Hardcore fans, the self-proclaimed "Browncoats," bought a staggering number of the DVD boxset. The numbers allow the powers-that-be to greenlight a continuation of
Firefly in the form of a feature length movie.
The story revolves around the ragtag crew of the spaceship Serenity. The captain, Mal, is a former rebel that fought and crushed by the Alliance, a group of planets that want to "civilize" others under their semi-totalitarian grip. Now Mal leads life as an outlaw, leading his band of misfits to raid Alliance banks and transport illegal cargo, while avoiding the Alliance and the Reavers, a pack of space-faring inhuman cannibals. Two of the cargo are the siblings Simon and River Tam, who happen to have mysterious ties to a deep conspiracy within the Alliance. The Tams have a secret so dangerous, the entire Alliance is gunning for Serenity, dead or alive.
That's all you need to know to get things going. In fact, the first ten minutes of the movie establishes the setup I just described succinctly and appealingly. The main cast, each with their own unique characterization and mannerism, are also introduced early in the movie. There's no need to watch the whole season of
Firefly to understand the movie.
All of the original cast from
Firefly returned for
Serenity. None of the actors in the movie are household names. But what the cast lack in star power, they compensate with screen presence, charisma, and genuine acting skills. Whedon has a knack for casting. He always found the right actors for his characters: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz. He did it again this time with Nathan Fillion. Fillion's portrayal of Mal is incredibly fun to watch. He oozes charm and charisma with every line he delivers (the southern tinged accent helps). He's the modern day Han Solo, the lovable and noble rascal that you'll follow to the grave. Fillion is incredibly important because Mal's character arc forms the structure of the story.
The character Mal is one of the many examples of Whedon's strong writing. Whedon, as those that are familiar to his shows know, excels at dialogue. While contemporary action movies are plagued with cheesy one-liners,
Serenity's dialogue is in a league of its own. The playful banter between characters is smart, witty, and lightning-paced. The wisecracks are funny. The serious moments are emotionally charged. Most importantly, nothing seems forced. The dialogue does what it needed to do: to define a character and move the story forward.
Speaking about the story, it flows effortlessly from one plot point to the next. There is one or two convenient plot device regarding the character Mr. Universe, but it's not too jarring to be distracting. The story also packs emotional punches; the Reaver moments are terrifying, the revelation is powerful, the deaths (I'm not telling) are heartbreaking, and the ending is satisfying. The special effects are surprisingly pretty well done for the budget. There are no epic battles (there is a pretty large space battle near the ending, but it's too chaotic to notice details) a la
Star Wars or
Lord of the Rings, but the relatively low scale action scenes are still exciting and thrilling to watch.
Bottom line,
Serenity is the sci-fi movie you have to watch this year. It's not
Star Wars; it's better.
