Where there's a Bunch of Crazy Fans, there's a Way: SERENITY

A couple years ago there was a show on Fox called FIREFLY. Despite being the latest project by the emmy award winning creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly's episodes were shown out of order and on unpredictable days of the week, and the show was cancelled after only 11 of the 14 episodes aired. But the rabid fans mobilized and got FOX to release the series on DVD and then, based on sales and internet presence, universal decided to make a movie based on the failed TV series. THis history lesson is mentioned just to get you acclimated with where SERENITY comes from, a story that is based on FIREFLY, but stands alone. I never saw Firefly. I hadn't even heard about the series until it had been off the air for a year. And I never watched Buffy. I try not to watch things where the fans plan their weekly schedule around the episodes and are inspired to write fan fiction in which certain characters fall in love with each other... whatever. THis seems more prominent in Sci-Fi. And despite the fact that Star Trek the Next Generation was the one show my entire family could agree on growing up, when I went out into the real world, I found these die hard fans, well, rather frightening. There was a special interest house at Carleton College organized around watching science fiction, They referred to it as BORG house. I still have never seen an episode of X-Files, despite the fact that I dated a girl (for like 2 weeks) in college who died and cut her hair specifically to look like Scully. And I have on ly recently come to terms with one of my best friends being someone who regularly goes to Star Wars conferences (at least he doesn't dress up). I don't know what it is about Sci-Fi that creates this allegiance. And Buffy fans are the worst. It seems that as soon as one Buffy fan discovers another, they must go into their little buffy world and discuss favorite episodes, which DVD features are their favorite, the cancellation of Angel, and eventually break into those really awful 'songs' from the so-called 'musical' episode.

But that being said, SERENITY was a really great movie. Not only did I not feel like I was missing out not having watched the series, I am now anxious to buy it on DVD and watch it. There were onle or two hokey dialogue moments in the third scene (the first on the starship Serenity, a firefly class (see where te names came from ?)) that felt out ofTV and out of place in a movie, as soon as we got through that, the movie was pure sci-fi glory. The universe writer/director Joss Whedon has created (his feature debut) is very complete, it has tons of history, but he never bored us with it, and everything we found out as the story progressed, I felt like it had been perfectly planted earlier. The story follows a rag tag group of space pirates led by captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) who is not unlike a Han Solo type. Their passenger River (Summer Glau), an esapee from a government program for telepaths, is a one-woman wrecking crew. The government has sent an assassin after her to eliminate the knowledge buried in her mind. It's a great story and its easy to cheer for the pirates who unfortunately have a conscience and decide to protect River. Not to mention there is a strong brother-sister bond (River's brother broke her out of the government institution) that hit me hard, as I have a little sister. Actually, every relationship in this movie is well-drawn. Whedon has learned a lot from his time in television, creatin really full characters and managing to tell us almost everything we need to know about them in a few minutes (obviously distilling the series down) and then building from there.

It is Sci-Fi so I would be reluctant to not talk about the visual elements. Whedon's universe helps him a bit as there are no aliens (other than the creepy cannibal human Reavers, if you can consider them that). But there are ships and battles and cities and they all look great. THe effects were done by the same studio that's been working on the new Battlestar Galactica series (which I must admit addiction to... oh, did I fail to mention that before - in my defense, however, it is my wife who travels more to the sci-fi channel website). Its only 500 years into the future, so there are guns, and knives, and the clothing looks fairly recognizable but that becomes an asset here. The design has a real unity and completeness (of course, it has the benefit of a three year preparation that few movies have).

The movie is funny and action packed and probably most comparable to, should I say it, STAR WARS. SERENITY is recommended for all fans of science-fiction, people who love ensemble-based films, anyone who likes to see Fox kick themselves in the ass, and people who generally don't like science fiction because "they're all full of aliens and stuff." Rick's Rating: A.