Serenity Reviews

I wasn't sure about Serenity at first. I knew it was based off the brilliant TV show Firefly, and while I was interested part of me had my reservations too. Apart from a couple of exceptions I have seen a fair number of based-of-TV-show films and they haven't worked at all, the worst offenders being Dragonball Evolution, My Favourite Martian and Wild Wild West, and I remember disliking The Avengers and The Dukes of Hazzard too.

Serenity to my surprise worked wonderfully. On its own it is a fantastic film and is not a disgrace to the show. Firefly as many before me have said was amazing, and one of the worst decisions FOX ever made was cancelling it before it had the chance to blossom even more. Serenity does have a somewhat simplistic story, but it is also a well-written, intense and thrilling one that maintains the tone of the show nicely. The dialogue is often intelligent and thought-provoking too, and Joss Whedon does a great job directing the film.

The action thrills and excites, the music is clever and doesn't detract from the atmosphere and the visuals and effects are dazzling. The actors do do a credible job in connecting to their characters, who may be over-familiar perhaps in set-up but quite likable and compelling thanks to the acting and writing. Nathan Fillion especially is great.

All in all, a fantastic film both as a stand-alone and a successor to a superior but equally fantastic show. For me, Serenity is easily one of the better based-of-TV-show films I have seen. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I was very disappointed with this one. After reading so many good reviews I thought that I might enjoy this.
I like sci-fi movies. I am not really a fan of Star trek and Star wars and I didn't watch the series, maybe that is why I found this movie to be just awful!
I think that it is by far the most overrated film that I have ever seen.
I don't know, to be fare it actually has a potential interesting plot, but then, it just get cliche, with bad script and a few mainstream action scenes, which aren't bad at all, but very predictable. In the beginning it shows great potential, it develops a nice anticipation, but then somewhere in the middle they blow it, and then it is just a regular space/action movie with a meaningless plot.
And also, I found the characters generic and with no real personality, it was also bad acted.(actually Summer Glau acting isn't all bad)
But for those who liked the series, or are interested in cliche space/action movie this might be entertaining.

"I am a leaf on the wind"

Not much left to say. Whatch the series, love the movie
This is why Mr Whedon is in the place where he is, amongst fans and critics.

The space has become a new abode for human race when the population on the earth swelled too much that earth cannot bear all the load. Humans have find another planetary system and start living there in a colonisation rule. The life at the planet Miranda destroyed when the scientist drugged the human race with a medicine to curb the aggression in the gene in search of peace. 90 percent of population become sedative and died devoid of emotion, while 10 percent become extremely violent started munching on human flesh. In between there is a crew on the ship serenity which is in a battle try to evade an assassin in search of one of their psychic member, a girl on the run taking refugee in space ship serenity.

I haven’t seen the “Firefly” series, which was pulled out unexpectedly by Fox and for which “Serenity” is a conclusion, or, as many hope, a continuation (there is enough room left for sequels). The writer-director Joss Whedon perfectly solved the difficult problem of making a movie interesting for “Firefly” fans and understandable by newcomers.

As a standalone movie “Serenity” may be considered as a short, low-budget, and better version of all 6 “Star wars” movies together. It is not overloaded with CGI, and does not suffer from a very convoluted plot as “Star Wars” does. Special effects are not “dubious”, as Roger Ebert wrote, but brilliant and show how much you can get without CGI. And “Serenity” is more human. Most of the characters in the movie are humans like us, just more willing to fight for their freedom if forced. Only River Tam (Summer Glau) is somewhat crazy at the beginning and... I stop here; I hate to give the plot away. Thanks go to Joss Whedon for the total absence of discussions in a galactic parliament and even the parliamentarians themselves (although they play a role).

Surprisingly, in addition to non-stopping action, spacecrafts, a computer geek and other necessary attributes of a space war craft movie, “Serenity” contains a quite important political message. It is packed in few phrases in just two episodes, but it is tremendously important. Roger Ebert tries to dismiss it by saying that “Serenity” contains “a little political satire”. No, these few phrases are about a key aspect not just of the world of “Serenity”, but of our world. Watch for them. And in “a little political satire” one does not expect indirect references to A. Huxley through W. Shakespeare (you will understand everything if you miss them; they are a sort of watermarks).

“Serenity” did not performed as expected at the box office. Well, if you give the director 200 millions instead of 40, actors, known to everybody (Harrison Ford or Russell Crow would fit in nicely), you well get a blockbuster, but a superficial one. If you give 40, you will get a good movie.

Even if you not a sci-fi fan, but still can tolerate nearly steam punk spacecrafts, give it a try.

By the way, “Serenity” is a rare western movie where a futuristic city was filmed on location in the USA and not in Shanghai.

This movie was my introduction to the Firefly series. From the first scene of Mal walking through the ship, I was immediately taken in. What a great set, and a colorful cast of characters. There is something to love in every one of them. After watching the TV series, I felt even more attached to them, making it a bittersweet end to a phenomenal and imaginative universe. The story is that of Mal Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion with such great charm and wit, who captains the Firefly-class ship Serenity… oh, hell. The story is great, but what I really love about it is the interactions between the crew and the lovable crazy genius River Tam and her development into the super-weapon that the government made her into. Joss Whedon is a sharp writer with a keen director’s eye. There is real loss, which sort of magnifies the effects of both the comedy and the drama, which I appreciated. Some fans were upset with the way he handled the end of this beloved series, but I completely ate it up and couldn’t see it ending any other way.

I heard of Firefly. but never watched an episode. Being a HUGE Joss Whedon I watched this movie, and Joss didn't disappoint. I loved this movie so much I went and bought the series on DVD to answer some questions I had. If you're a Joss Whedon fan, and love sci-fi you'll like this movie.

Qué les puedo decir… he visto la película ya 10 veces… y así como esa primera vez, el 31 de diciembre de 2005, cuando la vimos con todos los scoobies, me sigo emocionando igual. Me sigo riendo y se me siguen escapando las lágrimas. Es así, inevitable, es el trabajo de Joss, como lo ha sido siempre...

Para leer más de este review: dabomb.com.ar/woods/2006/09/24/serenity/

Its quirky, offbeat sense of humour is a nice bit of spice to the great fight scenes and softer, more character driven moments. This is the movie that I pull out when I want to laugh intelligently (and sometimes less intelligently) and still see things blowing up and people getting beat up.