Earlier this month I was invited to an advance screening of Serenity. Knowing that my friend Melissa is a great Firefly fan (the prematurely canceled TV series from which the movie is based) I invited her to the screening. The only catch was that she write the review (heh, heh). So, here is Mel's guest review:
A Cowboy Space Opera by Melissa
You have seen this story a thousand times. A small group of people, trying to stay under the government’s radar, discover something of momentous importance. When the government finds out, the chase is on. Sounds ho-hum? Not in this universe.
Based on the television show Firefly, Serenity is set in a future that could be ours, and what really brings this story to life is its characters and their beautifully detailed backdrop of Asian-American influence.
Meet River Tam: schizophrenic, government-trained warrior and meek 17-year old girl all in one. Serenity is really her story. River has been used as a lab rat for the Alliance government to create a psychic assassin. Her brother Simon, a brilliant doctor, rescues her from the facility where she is being held at the very beginning of the movie.
Meet Malcolm Reynolds: Captain of the spaceship Serenity, enemy of the Alliance, survivor of the Alliance and Rebel civil war, sarcastic shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later kind of guy, part parent and part commanding officer. Serenity is his ship. Mal has taken in Simon and River Tam as he has taken in the other members of his crew: First Mate Zoe, a fellow survivor of the war; her husband Wash, Serenity’s pilot; Kaley, their sweet natured mechanic; and Jayne, Serenity’s muscle, guns and thuggery.
If you have seen the television series, you already know how the actors bring these characters together to form a family unit as alive, loving and complaining as your own. If you have not seen the series, you will see for yourself how the actors play off each other to create the tension and force that drives the movie along.
And there is tension. This is a very dark movie, which may come as a surprise to fans of Firefly. One of the drawbacks to a 2 hour time limit is that we don’t really get to see the depths these characters show throughout the series. There are simply too many of them. What we see is a little more one dimensional, the darker, more serious side to characters we have come to love and laugh with throughout the television shows.
But that’s all right. The amusing one-liners from the series are still there. The pointed jabs and in-fighting flow throughout the movie. This movie is one facet of the whole, River’s story, and we get to see sides of her only hinted at in the series. Never before had she used her abilities openly, with the knowledge and understanding of the crew. River is the catalyst that moves the plot along, and the movie flows well with her.
The universe of Serenity is an odd mix of western and science fiction, Asian and American influences. In the simplest sense, two great superpowers, China and America, fused together with onset of space travel. A lot of time has passed since the merge, and what we now see is a gorgeous tapestry of influences throughout the whole.
You will see classic cowboy style clothing next to brocade robes next to body armor, dusty hats, helmets and elaborate headdresses, shot glasses and sake sets. People speak English, but write with Asian characters. Fighting is done with six-shooters, swords, machine guns and martial arts. We also can’t forget the laser guns and hovercraft. The world flows together so nicely you would have to watch several times to see what the different influences even are. The CGI effects are dramatic, but tastefully done only where it makes sense.
You have seen this story a thousand times. But you have not seen the world in which this story is set or the characters with which it is played out. Watch the movie. Let yourself be taken away for a few hours to a unique place that Hollywood, for once, has never visited before.
3 Stars (More fun than Disney's Matterhorn)
