Serenity

Review by Michael Jaffe

I love Firefly. No question it is one of my favorite shows ever. It combined sci-fi and western film genre’s beautifully with a heavy dose of humor and sorrow. Serenity is just that. When I saw the ship appear on screen for the fist time I felt a chill go up and down my spine, and the rest of the film did not disappoint either. It was like a 2 hour episode of the show. The plot is that Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Mal, and the crew of his firefly class ship pick up some new passengers, little do they know that these are fugitives hiding a great secret. They are then pursued hotly by The Operative, played incredibly by Chiwetel Ejiofor. The crew then in classic fashion joins together and helps the mentally disturbed, yet “gifted” River and her doctor brother Simon Tam. The international governing body, The Alliance, the governing, evil international body, wants River back after Simon rescued her from a research facility. This whole film is just good ole’ fashioned ass kicking fun.

The cast from the show is so used to their characters, they play them so well, especially Nathan Fillion as Mal. Alan Tudyk, better known as Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball is great comic relief as the pilot and husband to first mate Zoe, played by Gina Torres. Morena Baccarin plays “companion,” a polite word for expensive whore, and Jewel Staite plays mechanic Kaylee. Chiwetel Ejiofor is brilliant and perfectly restrained as the operative, the alliance’s assassin believes so strongly in what he is doing, hunting river, is the right thing to do, he sees no flaws in his actions. The writing and directing by Joss Whedon is flawless. It is obvious that he loved this movie and nurtured it with all of his heart. The only problem I have with this work of brilliance is that the theme song from the show doesn’t play during the opening credits. 10/10