Review of SERENITY

SERENITY

MALCOLM (Mal) REYNOLDS, heroic veteran of the failed rebellion against the tyrannical ALLIANCE, captains a junk-heap spaceship, the SERENITY.  Among his varied crew is a teenaged girl, RIVER TAM.  River is a genius, a psychic, and an extraordinary martial-arts fighter.  The Alliance, seeking to understand her abilities, had brutally experimented on her, leaving her scarcely sane. Her brother, SCOTT TAM, a physician, gave up his career and wealth to rescue her from their clutches. CHIWETEL EJIOFOR is a brilliant and ruthless Alliance operative who willingly kills for what he considers the greater good, that is, the success of Alliance goals. He is determined to return River to her experimental status or, failing that, to kill her.  Serenity's flight from Chiwetel and their attempts to understand River make up the basic plot of the movie.

The film is described as a continuation-conclusion of the short-lived Firefly series (Firefly being the class of spaceship Serenity belongs to), but it starts with Chiwetel beginning his pursuit of River, and ends with the Alliance still pursuing River and the Serenity. To me, it seems like an overlay rather than a continuation. 

Mal and the crew have many adventures including robbing a bank, fighting REAVERS (insanely violent space-cannibals), rescuing INARA (a respected 'companion', i.e. sex worker), visiting a planet where people became so pacifistic that they died, evading Reavers, sparring with Chiwetel, and fighting Reavers.  These episodes are usually exciting, but there is little logical transition between them, and the film lacks a strong binding theme.

The characters are varied and interesting.  In addition to the ones mentioned, there is ZOE WASHBURN, Mals fiercely loyal subordinate during the rebellion. JAYNE COBB, a cynical mercenary always looking for a fight, and KAYLEE FRYE, the mechanic who's ability to keep the ship flying is almost magical. She has the hots for Scott and doesn't know he has the hots for her as well.

To me, the best character is the super-competent Alliance operative, Chiwetel and his reassuring method of telling people he's about to kill that their deaths will not be shameful.

This is not a great film, but it does have a lot of good scenes.  I suspect people who have not seen the television series will enjoy the movie more because there is a lot of repetitious overlap between the two. Still, it's worth at least +++ - it will get your pulse up to a jog.