Serenity

I finally saw Serenity last night. The Americans (hell, most foreigners) reading this might be thinking “But Serenity was at the cinema months ago…” – over there maybe, but here in good old New Zealand, which despite it’s many benefits has some glaring flaws (mainly in regards to things getting here late), Serenity only just started on Thursday. And since I was working over all the screening times on Thursday and Friday, yesterday was the first time I could see it.

If you’re not familiar with Serenity, here’s a quick run-down: it’s the distant future, mankind has outgrown Earth (referred to as “Earth-That-Was”) and moved out into space to colonise the universe. After settling and terraforming worlds to suit, two factions emerged, the Alliance of the central planets, and the Independents – mostly outlying colonies not willing to be under the Alliance’s influence. War breaks out between the two sides, and we enter the story not long after the Independents are defeated by the Alliance.

The story follows a band of miscreants under the leadership of Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) who essentially work as mercenaries, hiring out to anyone with coin to spare, who travel the ‘verse on a Firefly-class spaceship called Serenity.

If this sounds a little familiar, it is. It’s been done before – same plot, and same actors. This concept was originally a television series called Firefly, created by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame). It ran for a season before sadly being cancelled by the network.

I was a huge fan of the series, having loved Buffy and its spinoff series Angel, and also being a science-fiction fan. The setting was interesting (being a sort of space-western), the writing was superb, the comedy was witty and droll (just my type) – my only complaint was there wasn’t enough of it! On hearing there was a movie in the works, I was both excited and apprehensive, as I’ve seen what movie conversions of popular shows/games/etc have done in the past (read: sucked). Then some lucky friends of mine (whom I still loathe to this day) saw the pre-screening a couple months ago and assured me that it was, indeed, the shizzle.

So it was with great anticipation I walked into that cinema last night. And two hours later, I walked out entirely fulfilled. Firefly was back, in all its glory, and in movie form! It was all there – all the actors reprised their roles, the dialogue was spot-on, the plot fit perfectly, the visuals were straight out of the series… it was everything I could’ve wanted from a film adaptation. My only real disappointment with it was that there was no sign of the Firefly theme song all fans can sing through in their sleep: “Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand…” But then, I guess we can’t have it all.

Of course, I’m not going to reveal plot spoilers here, suffice to say some major stuff goes down. It’s a movie after all, and as Joss Whedon said in an interview:

“I’ve actually said once or twice that the difference between TV and movies is that TV shows are a question, and movies are an answer. And so in this we had to have a definitive statement about freedom and humanity and what we need and what we should be allowed to have as people, which is all our flaws. And then I answer that. I make a definitive statement. I put a period or, hopefully, an exclamation point on that, as opposed to just sort of pursuing the question for years, which is what a TV show would do.”

If you’re a Firefly fan, Serenity is a must-see. In fact, if you were a true fan, you’d already have seen it, and know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’ve never seen Firefly, Serenity is easily watchable on its own – the first few minutes gives you enough backgrounder to get you started (and even taught me a few things about the backstory) and the rest reveals itself as the film goes. If it’s still playing in your part of the world, head along and check it out.

And while you’re at it, pick up Firefly on DVD. Worth every penny, especially for the extras on the DVD.