Serenity

Serenity had been causing a scene on the ratings circuit of Yahoo Movies' Top Rated of All Time (ranked #27/50) and IMDb's Top 250 Movies of All-Time (ranked #153/250), so I decided I would go see it over at Sycamore Mall on Friday, October 7 2005 at 9:30pm.

Serenity is the name of a ship for a gang of raiders who skirt the edge of the 'verse (the known universe) after a war between the outer planets and the Alliance ended. This gang has 2 fugitives on board, Simon Tam (Sean Maher) and River Tam (Summer Glau), who are being sought by the Alliance due to River being a gifted but deadly psychic with information the Alliance doesn't want anyone to know. We learn all of this quickly at the beginning when River's brother makes a daring rescue and sets an Operative whose name we never learn (played by the very talented Chiwetel Ejiofor) onto their trail.

The film itself has a few rough moments amidst many, many terrifically scripted and acted sequences. Battles and fights, escapes and rescues, all are realistically done with a rich atmosphere imbuing each. When we visit an outer planet where the raiders steal money from a security hold, the area feels like a dusty, dirty, outerreach planet. When we visit a bar to do an under-the-table transaction, the bar feels sleazy and eclectic. This is very refreshing given the large crop of recent, cgi-based sci-fi flops where each scene is blank, empty, soulless.

Originally a cancelled one season t.v. show entitled Firefly, the writer/director Joss Whedon built this film into a masterpiece from those ashes. The main character Mal (Nathan Fillion) often talks using speech in bizarre forms as do a few other characters, and like the original Star Wars, some lines come out a bit strange when spoken this way, but the characters and story have depth and originality. Sometimes, people even lapse into curses in Chinese (I didn't originally know this was Chinese, just that they weren't talking in English). Additionally, humor abounds in the movie, which greatly helps to make it very human and approachable.

Throughout the film, I kept thinking first how the movie didn't feel like something produced in Hollywood and second how the director/writer Josh Whedon really loves this story. When a director loves an idea this much, you can feel it in every frame. Like George Lucas for the original Star Wars, Whedon's love for the story helps to push it beyond good to greatness. I hope years from now that Whedon doesn't have a sudden lapse of judgment and begin believing he made this movie for fans (like Lucas did when he claimed Star Wars was prompted by a great love for children, when it was clear his original Star Wars was written and directed because of the story and a desire to tell the story).

This film is without a doubt a great one and I am giving it that rank. It is also the second best movie I have seen this year with Crash retaining the #1 spot. Serenity isn't perfect, but it is original and deep with a prominent role played by Miranda (or maybe it is Miraenda?), so how can I not love it myself? I highly recommend seeing it in the theatre before it is gone as the images are best viewed on the large screen for greatest impact. You do not need to see the original Firefly series to enjoy this one or understand the story at all.

Please feel free to comment on this review or on the movie itself at the forum thread devoted to it at this location.