Serenity, Joss Whedon’s theatrical follow-up to his short-lived Firefly television series, is a big bowl of Thursday. Like Thursday, it is adventurous, with a storage of anticipation for good things ahead, but also carrying with it the baggage of a hard-fought week. And for all it tries to be, Serenity never attains the “Fridayness” of a truly great movie. Serenity’s saving grace is that it tries so hard to be something like the old sci-fi of greater years. Emulating films like Alien and television shows like Cowboy Bebop, Joss Whedon puts an enormous effort into establishing the characters into his custom-fitted oeuvre, which is famously themed around libertarian values (ironically, or perhaps not so, Whedon was also responsible for the anti-authority, proto-libertarian, and damnably bad Alien Resurrection).
Here, the famed “Old West meets New Frontier times Benign Government Corruption equals Altruistic Troupe of Misfits Must Save The World” genre is basically moulded so our current cultural and socio-political climate is brought to the fore. Far-reaching interpretations of Serenity might even find the future of blogging laden within one of its characters, aptly named “Mr. Universe” (David Krumholtz), whose reach into the broadcast is seemingly only limited by the number of high definition flat screen monitors he can fit in his studio.
There is no lack of imagination in Serenity’s plot. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is a battle-scarred veteran of the galactic civil war that left the Alliance in complete domination of the thirty or so developed and “civilized” planets. Rejecting, or rather ignoring the peace the Alliance brings to the galaxy, Mal and his disparate group of misfits slide in and around the galaxy, thieving and smuggling goods and generally attempting to stay off the Alliance’s radar. It isn’t easy. River Tam (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher) are wanted by the Alliance, and rather badly. River is a dangerousy powerful psychic whose escape from a military facility forces the Alliance to send an Operative, played to perfection by Chiwetel Ejiofor, to retrieve the Tams and abolish the threat they pose to the Alliance.
The rest of the crew, including Adam Baldwin as the insecure mercenary heart Jayne, Kaylee (Jewel Staite) the ship’s overworked and undersexed mechanic, Inara (Morena Baccarin) as the hooker with a heart of gold and Mal’s absent lover, and Zoe (Gina Torres) and her pilot husband Wash (Alan Tudyk), is divided on whether they should drop River and Simon off at the nearest space dive or keep running from the Alliance. Simon’s own experience as a medical doctor has been invaluable to the crew, but he brooks and chafes under Mal’s ornery leadership. Likewise, Mal’s Number One outlook comes into conflict with River’s psychotic breakdown, and he is forced into acting against his own selfish interests when the Operative destroys their ties with the galactic criminal element. Meanwhile, Mal and his crew must escape the traps laid by the Alliance to capture them, and evade the dreaded Reavers, a group of mutated humans who have been transformed into cannibalistic pillagers.
If Serenity is overindulgent, it is in the use of colloquialism to drive home the setting. As Greg Piper indicates in his Serenity review, the result is rather crude.

The somewhat hamhanded attempts to cram the Old West’s speaking style into a post-apocalyptic civilization get tired as well. Did the writers really expect the audience to believe that’s how rogue elements talk in the future? Sure, “cool” and “awesome” have more or less stayed in popular slang for a half century, but ProspectorSpeak making a comeback in 2500?

Greg also notices the lack of imagination when it comes to the spacecraft depicted throughout. If the future of industrial engineering and design is flying lego blocks and less-than-aerodynamic contraptions put together with duct tape and superglue, then a fearsomely galactic power like the Alliance is the least of our worries. It is highly doubtful such jalopies could ever be truly safe for space travel. On the other hand, the effects work is rather handsomely realized, if not earth-moving in originality. If you’ve watched Battlestar Galactica (the current reincarnation of the show, not the original), you will have not see anything new in Serenity. Action scenes are pretty fun and given proper life through excellent choreography and amusing one-liners.
One thing Whedon excels at is creating characters that breathe and live on their own terms. They come alive through the expressive acting and the dialogue, which generally shines throughout, adding dimension to what could have easily been stock characters. Whedon invests a decent amount of time to each one; by the end, the audience is emotionally invested in their wellbeing. No spoilers here, but not for nothing is Whedon somewhat famed for having no hesitation in killing off main characters if it will serve the story’s purpose.
Serenity will resonate with politicos. Mal is as anti-authoritarian as anyone can get. Yet he clearly is not interested in changing the Alliance, happy merely to avoid run-ins. The air of individuality is rife. As Greg observes, “The individual is supreme; the individual forms society in spite of authority; the individual may not win, but the authorities know they are never safe as long as a few men refuse to bend the knee.” These are the themes of libertarianism and Serenity. Whedon’s commentary on the importance of the individual to assert himself in society is not subtle. But it is interesting and fun to watch.
Fringe Rating: out of 5