Serenity

(Movie Review)

This is a movie based off of a short lived science-fiction TV called “Firefly”. Which, I suppose, is one of those facts that if you don’t already know, then you probably don’t care.

I was in Japan when this show was aired, so I missed the whole mini-drama about how this show was a big hit with the fans, and then it got cancelled by the network, and then it got enough fan support to make it into a movie.

I did however manage to see the pilot episode of the series. When I was back in the States a couple years ago, a friend of mine had the entire (short-lived) series on DVD, and he insisted I watch the first episode with him just so I could see what a great show it was.

And I have to admit, it did seem kind of cool. It was an interesting combination of science fiction futuristic space movie with an old fashioned cow-boy Western. I’m not sure I found the mix of genres entirely believable, but what the hey, it was a fun idea, the characters each had enough quirks to them to make them interesting, and it was well-acted.

I never felt any need to follow the series any further than that. It’s a condition I attribute to post “Star Trek” fatigue. After spending my adolescence and most of my teens as an obsessive Trekker, and during that time faithfully following the show through 4 different incarnations, I feel burnt out.
There are all sorts of interesting TV shows these days. (“Heroes”, “Battlestar Galatica” which Bear introduced me to) and a lot of other cool looking shows. But I can’t bring myself to get fully involved in another on-going series.

So I never followed the show any further. Although I did keep abreast of things somewhat by reading Whisky Prajer's thoughts on the subject.

But when I saw this DVD in my local video store, I thought I’d give it a try. I was curious to see how everything ended up. And I was curious to see if people like me, who hadn't been following the show, would still be able to make sense of the movie.

I had only vaguely remember the pilot episode I had seen two years ago, but once the movie started up, it started to jog my memory a bit. A few of the relationships and positions of some of the characters have changed since I saw them last, but it was easy enough to figure out what was going on.

The entire show appears to have been heavily influenced by the original “Star Wars”. (I guess most space stories are in the “post-Star Wars era”). The captain of the ship is a dead-on for Han Solo containing everything from the dry sense of humor, to the scoundrel with a heart of gold, to the willingness to fight dirty and shoot first.
And the actor who plays the captain appears to be channeling Harrison Ford, with even his facial expressions inviting comparison.
(The comparison is so obvious, that the movie doesn't even try and hide it, and on some of the DVD extras the staff jokes about the similarities to Han Solo.)

Many of the planets the crew lands on also contain on uncanny resemblance to Tatooine. There are a lot of dusty sandy landscapes. And there’s also a bar full of scoundrels that could easily be a stand-in for “Mos Eisley”.
I believe there’s even a term for this concept in sci-fi circles called “a used-future”. I’m not sure if “Star Wars” was the first movie to introduce the concept or not (perhaps someone out there can fill me in) but there’s no doubt many movies since “Star Wars” have made use of it, and this is no exception.

But if this movie/ TV show borrows a little bit from “Star Wars”, who am I to criticize? Art, as they say, does not exist in a vacuum, and everything borrows from everything else. It seems like the writers have got a pretty neat concept here, and I’m sure it would have been a great TV show if the networks hadn't cancelled it.

As a movie however, I thought it was just so-so. The problem with making a movie out of an old TV show is that fans expect anything on the big silver screen to be bigger and better than regular TV. If it feels just like a 2 hour episode of the show, you feel kind of disappointed. So there’s a lot of pressure on the screenwriters to come up with something that will blow you out of your seat.

And to be honest, to me it felt like a regular TV show. It wasn't a high budget movie, so there wasn't a ton of money to splurge on special effects, and you can tell that watching this.

The script, to be fair, does its best to come up with something that will really shock the fans. I don’t want to give anything away (although I’m sure all the fans have already seen the movie long ago by now anyway) but a few regular characters do get knocked off in this movie. And a few character relationships do develop themselves.
But all this would be a lot more interesting if this was part of a continuing series. Knowing that this movie is the swan song for these characters anyway, it is difficult for someone not a hard core fan to really care. The series is over. Let the writer kill off all of the characters. What’s the difference?

There are some half-decent action scenes. But the directing is not up to Spielberg quality. And he’s obviously working on a small budget. There’s not a lot of tight cuts, amped up dramatic music, or amazing special effects that make you feel like you’re watching a big summer blockbuster. And so, although it’s obvious that a bit more time and a few more stuntman were in the action scenes, it still feels like a TV show.

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Serenity: Movie Review (Scripted)