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By DEREK ELLEY

Gina Torres, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau star in 'Serenity,' writer-helmer Joss Whedon's feature film debut.

"I am a leaf on the wind: Watch how I soar," says one character in "Serenity" before being promptly made earthbound. The same could be said of this feature bow by writer-director Joss WhedonJoss Whedon, creator of "Buffy" and "Angel""Angel" as well as cult TV sci-fi oateroater "Firefly," of which current item is a bigscreen continuation. Quirky blend of Western elements, high-end pulp philosophy, decorative Orientalia, old-style frontier dialogue and straight space shenanigans bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars. Whedon's sizable fan base will turn out in droves but this will need a hefty marketing push to post galactic returns.
Following its world preempreem at the Edinburgh fest, pic goes out wide Stateside Sept. 30, a potentially risky gambit for a cult-fueled venture that would benefit from more time to build beyond its card-carrying audience. Though the widescreen movie contains a reasonable amount of action sequences, it was clearly made with considerably less coincoin than tentpole studio fare, and still shows a TV-style aptitude for soundstage sequences separated by occasional exteriors.

The Fox network axed "Firefly" in December 2002 after only 11 of the 14 completed episodes had aired. Series went on to immediate cult status on ancillary, and most of the key actors reprise their roles here. Major addition to the cast is Brit thesp Chiwetel EjioforChiwetel Ejiofor ("Amistad," "Dirty Pretty Things""Dirty Pretty Things" and upcoming "Kinky Boots"), who darn near steals the movie as the good guys' ruthless nemesis.

Familiarity with the original episodes isn't necessary, as a tight opening effectively recaps the backstory. We're 500 years in the future, following a war in a newly colonized solar system that was won by a coalition called the Alliance; the losers, the Independents, roam the outer planets like frontier cowboys, along with the Reavers, thugs who eat their enemies live.

In an interesting idea that largely lies undeveloped -- and has some contempo relevance in a globalized world -- the Independents hate the Alliance because the latter are "in their homes, in their heads, (and) tell them what to think." The Alliance is also inside one particular head -- that of River Tam (Summer Glau), a 17-year-old telepath whose brother, Simon (Sean Maher), rescues her from Alliance boffins and security high-up the Operative (Ejiofor) in a pre-credits sequence that's one of the best in the picture. Tone lightens as the main story and cast show up. Simon was helped in his mission by Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion, channeling a combo of Harrison FordHarrison Ford and the late Eric FlemingEric Fleming from "Rawhide"), who heads the crew of Firefly-class spaceship Serenity, a rusty-bucket transport vessel. Also on board are his deputy, Zoe (Gina Torres), similarly dressed and holstered like a cowboy; Zoe's husband, Wash (Alan Tudyk), the craft's ace pilot; gruff gunslinger Jayne (Adam BaldwinAdam Baldwin, in a good impression of Warren Oates); and corn-fed farm girl Kaylee (Jewel Staite, Whedon's real-life wife), the ship's mechanic.

Main action sequence, realized like a space-age stagecoach-and-Injuns chase, comes early on, as Mal & Co. pull off a payroll robbery on an outer planet and are disturbed by Reavers. Thereafter, most of the action is confined to futuristic interiors -- handled OK but, excepting a late-on mano a mano by River, with no special atmosphere.

Pic's appeal lies in other areas, from its mimicking of period, stately Americana in the dialogue (Mal: "No more runnin'; I aim to misbehave"; Jayne: "She is starting to damage my calm") to the plot itself. Latter leads Mal & Co., via River's half-buried memories, to an uncharted planet called Miranda, wherein lies a terrible secret that the Alliance would like to remain buried.

Hot on their tails at all times is the Operative, plus assorted hungry Reavers. Oh, and there's also Inara (Morena Baccarin), a professional "companion" for whom Mal still carries a torch.

Nobody seems to have told Whedon that many U.S. sci-fiers were already Westerns in futuristic dress, and that cross-cultural Eastern-Westerns were invented 40 years ago. What may have seemed fresh on network TV doesn't look quite so fresh on the bigscreen.

Still, what makes "Serenity" refreshing is its avoidance of CGI, which gives the pic a much more human dimension; the evident chemistry between the cast; and a humor that doesn't rely simply on flip one-liners. None of these smarts, however, may be enough to satisfy mass auds.

Fillion makes a commanding enough lead and is neatly backed up by a buff Torres as his femme sidekick, especially in a hold-the-fort sequence that recalls Jenette Goldstein's character in "Aliens." Staite brings welcome fragility to the hard-assed crew as the tomboy mechanic, and former ballerina Glau brings neat moves to her action moments.

Sets look considerably airier than in the TV series, though Whedon directs his interior sequences in a visually constricted way that shows his small-screen origins. Colors have a mostly dark, unappetizing look that becomes a tad wearisome over two hours, and David NewmanDavid Newman's score does the business but never elevates the material.
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August 22, 2005
Edinburgh Film Festival Report: Serenity Review
Another missive from Richard Brunton in Edinburgh ... you may have seen this one up on The Movie Blog as well, but hey ... Richard offered it to us as well and I've been lusting after this film for a while now.

For me the biggest movie to go and see at the Edinburgh International Film Festival was Serenity. Not just because of two of the most gorgeous looking women on the screen just now, Gina Torres or Morena Baccarin, but because of the excellent writing I had heard while watching the TV series from which the movie continues, Firefly.

I am not quite through the entire TV series, but I am enjoying it, yet I'm not totally hooked. The thing is for me the series is still too episodic and the big story line that runs throughout the movie, River Tam, is far too frustrating to hang in with for a long period of time. I mean her lines really are nonsensical, and I couldn't see connections except on a few episodes where she would mumble something and later in the episode you would see what she was referring to and you realised, she's not just mad. So the series didn't really hook me in enough, but still, I wanted to see the movie because it was big, a premiere, two stunning ladies are in it, and Joss Whedon's clever scripting.


The movie kicks off straight into the action in a very strong way. You're hooked from the opening moment, and not having seen the ending of the series, the opening is a bit of a shock too. Oh, before I go too far I will let you know that I'm going to write this totally spoiler free.

This is a running theme with the movie, it's got some really good action sequences. Actually, no, it's got some excellent action sequences. Something I often notice about movies with set pieces of action is that they stand out, and the gaps between them can often highten your awareness of the sequences and they stick out from the movie. Not here. In this film although there are sequences of action, they don't stand out from the rest of the movie, and the action actually feels constant throughout. I don't think Whedon let's up much throughout the movie.

It's Whedon that does some excellent work here, bringing the movie from the realms of an early evening TV series to a harder hitting, darker and slightly more complex tale. The clever scripting of dialogue and character interplay is still here from the series, and it's been ramped up a bit more too. It's this dialogue and interplay that make the characters so alluring to the audience, making them so different but running with common beliefs keeping them together. Whedon really has to be applauded for that. It bodes extremely well for his coming movies, and hopefully another Serenity or two.

He's added some to the characters too. Making the Captain more complex and revealing a bit more of his darker element, which during the second act seems to hint at a huge group split, this is not the happy band as in the series. Taking this dialogue and the interplay and turning it into a believable performance that the audience can connect with is a big job for the actors, and for the most part they pull it off really well. I'd say that some of the roles do rely on previous knowledge, as does some of the dialogue between them, but it won't spoil the movie if you haven't seen the series, just lessen the experience.

There are some great moments, and really funny ones too. The Press audience I was with (and the mad row behind me of cinema staff) did laugh out loud quite a few times, and all down to the dialogue and most often from the Captain or Jayne. There's a nice little scene early on discussing grenades which tails off into a conversation behind the main dialogue, I liked that and thought it was cleverly done. It was also still keeping the same level of the writing even though you probably wouldn't hear it.

The whole character introduction sequence is very well put together now that I think about it. It wasn't until late on into it I realised I was being taken on a quick tour of introduction, with the camera constantly moving around the ship and talking to each character on board. It was a nice scene for those that have come from the series, and I would think the new audience too.

It's not all great though, looking back on the series the movie story is huge, and continues to build as it progresses. I couldn't help but feel that Whedon was writing this as the last outing of the Universe and that the plot had to be much, much bigger than the series and that it had to have a feeling of completeness, rounding everything nicely at the end. I'm not sure it needed to go so big, and so complete. It feels now that there is nowhere for another film to go.

The ending was also a little bit of a let down, there is a crucial moment at the end which is just too neat for me, and a couple of twee scenes throughout. The before-attack-"I love you" speech was a bit too stock and I shook my head in disbelief at how much it stuck out, but then Whedon managed to pull it back just enough with some of his clever dialogue.

That is indeed the key to this movie, Whedon's writing, it's superb. The dialogue is sharp, witty, quickfire and sarcasm filled. He's also got a great understanding of how to pull the audience's strings. Tension, suspense and impending danger often twist around in a shocking or explosive moment delivering a good deal of the entertainment value. He's without a doubt a great writer and director and he shows it here, he's a great entertainer.

I really liked this movie, it was great fun. However I faltered a little at the end with the storyline, and wished it could have been a little less mammoth, and a little less complete. Firefly fans will positively adore this movie, and those new to the story should love it and be interested enough to return to the series. I think it's a really safe bet to say we'll be seeing more of this crew in the future.

Review by Richard Brunton.

REVIEW: Serenity (Major Spoilers)
August 23rd, 2005 by Chris
Without a doubt the most anticipated movie of the autumn, “Serenity” is the sci-fi epic from Buffy creator Joss Whedon. A spin-off of the brilliant, if somewhat short-lived series “Firefly” that was cancelled prematurely, Serenity is a low-budget movie designed to bring some closure to the series, and also to bring the possibility of a greater re-birth in some form.

After 44,000 people struggled to get tickets for the World Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the movie started attracting plenty of media attention, culminating (for the moment) in the Premiere last night.

Sci-Fi Heaven.net was there in the first audience ever to see the movie.

Here’s how it is.

“Serenity” opens with a hasty run through the backstory of the show, showing humanity leaving Earth for a new system and terraforming her. In the first few moments, the movie does a far better job than the series at giving a sense of where exactly the story is taking place. Before long, the action starts, as Simon Tam (Sean Maher) breaks his gifted sister, River (Summer Glau) out of an Alliance stronghold. It turns out the entire break-out sequence is simply a holographic recreation of the event, being played by the Alliance Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofer) who has been given the task of hunting River down and recapturing her.

Right from the off, the Operative has presence (established predominantly by killing everyone in the room), but its not even the killing - its the manner in which he murders them. He stuns one man with a device while he is standing, leaving him unable to move his muscles. He slowly falls forward onto the Operative’s sword, as he whispers into the mans dying ear that “There is no shame in this.” Chiwetel Ejiofer does a fantastic job at creating a villian that is both complex and unpredictable.

Cutting to the ship itself, we follow the camera through Serenity for about five minutes without a cut, quickly introducing all the main characters in perfect Joss Whedon style. The ship is coming down for a landing, and a rather important component falls off the front of the ship. The Captain, Malcolm Reyolds (Nathan Fillion) is more than a little upset by this, bickering with his pilot, Wash (Alan Tudyk) and heading to the engine room (meeting Jayne (Adam Baldwidn), whom Mal refuses to let bring any grenades to the planet, and Zoe (Gina Torres), the first officer). We soon discover that Mal is planning to do himself a bit of crime, as the crew is out of cash and needs to find money however it can. Touching down on the planet, Mal, Zoe, Jayne and River Tam (she and her brother are now passengers on the ship, on the run from the Alliance) head into town to rob the bank.

Things get complicated of course, as a ship load of Reavers arrive and bring hell down on the operation. Jayne points out things would be a lot easier if only he had some grenades.

Joss Whedon has perfectly captured everything that made Firefly great, and transferred it into a cinema epic. The movie is low-budget, but you would not know it. There wasn’t one moment in the entire movie that I didn’t believe this was a full-budget Hollywood blockbuster. The visual effects by Zoic Studios are top-notch, the acting superb in all corners and the direction is slick and often very original.

For his big-screen debut, Joss Whedon doesn’t fail to impress in either of his roles of Writer or Director. The story is fantastically paced and well written to ensure the audience doesn’t get lost. Not only does Whedon manage to provide closure for the show in a heart-tugging and effective way, he also manages to leave the door open for a sequel (but not in one of those painfully blatantly obvious ways). He answers many fan prayers by exploring the Reavers in great depth, providing plenty of character development and generally making it great fun. Laughs are plenty (though the movie is much, much darker than the show was).

From a directing standpoint, the movie was a success. Many sharp cuts, long camera pans (that incredible 5 minute non-stop walkthrough Serenity) even some bizarre half-screen fades (in which one conversation will be finishing on one side of the screen, yet slowly the face of someone else listening will fade in on the other). The action scenes are sharp, and well-shot. The movie has so many different types of action to convey, from shootouts, to swordfights, to space battles to your regular beat-em-up. All work prefectly on screen, and the sharp and unexpected cuts get more than a few jumps from the audience.

The acting is simply fantastic. For a movie with no “big-names”, and being an unusually large ensemble, the characters are portrayed exceptionally well. Nathan Fillion provides a very strong lead to the crew, Summer Glau plays River with grace and fantastic skill and Chiwetel Ejiofer is simply stunning as the villianous Operative.

The music too is sheer quality. Many of the Western elements from the show remain here (moreso than the actual movie) with carefully crafted compositions and instrumental styles unheard of in modern action movies.

Serenity is a creative success. It is intelligent, sharp, witty and visually spectacular. I can only hope the movie will perform strongly at the box office, but no matter how well its does - it deserves even more. Serenity is the movie the Star Wars prequels could only hope to be.

Rating: *****

Serenity

ALISTAIR HARKNESS

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau

WATCHING the first big action set-piece in Serenity, I found myself trying to work out why I found the scene - which features a band of grungy space pirates escaping from a gang of vicious cannibalistic creatures known as Reavers - almost intolerably exciting. It took a few minutes before the answer hit me.

It wasn't just that the effects work was great, or that the editing was tight or that the score and the sound design were dramatic. It was something about the characters: they were actually interacting with each other and their environment.

It seems like such a simple thing to point out but, in an age of over-detailed CGI worlds full of digital characters and actors reacting against nothing, watching a chase sequence shot in a physically real location, featuring honest-to-god real live trees, and actors talking to each other, actually feels revolutionary.

But that's Serenity all over. The film is the big-screen directorial debut of Joss Whedon, who brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and its spin-off, Angel), and he obviously has such a pure belief in the value of storytelling, characterisation and witty dialogue that he makes concepts and ideas that we've seen a million times before feel fresh and new.

Serenity is a science fiction adventure that riffs heavily on the Western and, inevitably, owes a few debts to the original Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Alien movies. But rather than making you pine for those films, it makes you thankful that someone has learned the right lessons from them.

This is the type of filmmaking that knows how to keep us entertained from first frame to the last. It's a fantastically layered film, with a dense structure, but it's not overloaded with mythological significance, nor does it try to pound us into submission with an inflated sense of its own importance. The plot is tightly constructed, but there's enough room for the actors to manoeuvre and let us get to know their characters. And the script is smart and funny, which keep the atmosphere light when it needs to be, but ensures that dramatic and emotional moments are pretty toothsome, too.

Serenity is based on the short-lived TV show Firefly that Whedon created in 2002. Running for only 13 episodes, it was cancelled mid-season by Rupert Murdoch's Fox network, presumably because it wasn't Buffy the Vampire Slayer in space. Nevertheless, the show's fervent fanbase kept it alive online and with massive DVD sales. What's great about this film version is that it doesn't require you to be a fan to enjoy and understand it. I went in knowing nothing and was hooked almost immediately.

As the film opens, though, you might groan because it does look like a science-fiction TV show - and a really bad one at that. We find ourselves in one of those yawn-inducing antiseptic worlds full of fascistic looking people talking in artificially calming tones.

A teacher is telling a group of pupils about the recent galactic civil war in which a vast coalition known as the Alliance have emerged victorious against a band of rabble-rousing freedom fighters called the Independents. They, we learn, objected to the Alliance's attempts to civilise them with subtle mind-control devices.

The film looks in danger of becoming a boring, humourless, exposition-heavy science fiction melodrama - but then Whedon pulls the rug out from under us, plunging us into a whole new darker environment.

Then he does the same trick again a few minutes later and we realise that we've just been brought up to speed on all the background that we really needed to know from the TV show. It's an audacious move, and as breathtakingly proficient a start to a movie as you could hope for.

Our heroes are the rag-tag crew of the titular Serenity, a hunk-of-junk space ship captained by Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a wily Han Solo-type who fought on the losing side of the war and now scratches out a living robbing government institutions.

Among his crew is River (Summer Glau), a mysterious psychic girl rescued from an Alliance research lab that was conducting experiments on her to turn her into a weapon. She has a secret locked in her memories and the Alliance, desperate to prevent this getting out, have dispatched a cold, logical assassin (Chiwetel Ejiofor - superb) to bring her back.

The film kicks in hard as an action film, with Mal and his crew engaging in some surprisingly ruthless behaviour, and it follows through in spectacular style with a fight scene that will have Buffy fans going apoplectic. But Whedon and his hugely likeable cast nail the dramatic stuff, too.

As the normally self-serving crew find themselves caught in a fight with a higher purpose to it, Serenity becomes that great thing: a blockbuster with a heart and soul.

Serenity Movie Review:


Drawing inspiration from “Star Wars,” various Westerns and, in one scene, “Blade Runner,” “Serenity” is a bold and entertaining movie in its own right, presenting a story that is probably ludicrous, but you’ll enjoy yourself too much to notice. Imagine the bits of the original Star Wars you loved the most, the broken space ships, the wicked one liners, the heroes that were as likely to shoot first as not and you’ll get a good sense of what to expect within. You’ll care and root for these guys. Could you really say the same of Episodes I – III?

Joss Whedon, known as the creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Firefly,” the cult TV series that the movie is based on, directs “Serenity”. I confess to never having seen “Firefly,” and rarely having seen “Buffy” or “Angel,” so I walked in to the movie with few preconceived notions, and was pleasantly surprised by the entertainment the movie provides. No doubt there’s tons within that ties up the loose ends of the TV show, but it matters not a jot for those without any previous experience of the show.

The movie tells the story of a band of renegades who, 500 years in the future, go from planet to planet pulling off heists. They are rebelling against the Alliance, which is the government in control of the universe. The crew is made up of the captain, Mal (Nathan Fillion), a few co-renegades, a doctor (Sean Maher) and the doctor’s sister, River (Summer Glau) who, being a psychic, the government was trying to train as a fighter; at the movie’s opening, her brother rescues her from their evil grasp. She wonders around with wide eyes for much of the movie, predicting stuff and occasionally going into insane-fighting-machine mode, which can be a bit awkward.

Meanwhile, a worker for the Alliance, known as The Operator, and played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, is hunting the crew. Ejiofor also stars in the soon to be released “Kinky Boots” as a transvestite. Here he uses a similar gentle nature in a completely opposite role that adds even more menace to the character.

The CGI in the movie is impressive without showing off, although slightly longer shots of the impressive visuals would have been appreciated. And how often can you say that about CG? The camerawork has a sense of fun, such as at the very start when we zoom through the letters of the Universal logo that sets up the premise of the movie beautifully.

One of the best choices the movie makes it to use largely the same cast as the television show; the obvious camaraderie that the show created with the characters translates well, and all power to Whedon for not replacing his relative unknowns
with stars. As it is, everyone is well suited to their roles, particularly Alan Tudyk (whom you may remember as Steve the lunatic Pirate from “Dodgeball”) and Jewel Staite, who has the cutest face to grace the screen in many a moon.

“Serenity,”does follow the usual conventions of sci-fi adventure movies, this is where Whedon’s writing skills kick in, finding new ways of subtly twisting well worn elements, such as the relationship between Mal and the Operator. Our nominal good guy and bad guy which as you're well aware is usually black and white with little room for any kind of shade. Thankfully that isn’t the case here. The Operator may not be a terribly nice person, but he believes so strongly in his convictions that you develop a certain sympathy for him, even without quite understanding him. All the more delicious to watch.

A lot of people will compare “Serenity” to “Star Wars,” but Whedon has delivered the proverbial kick up the arse that that trilogy so badly needed. Sure, both have the same sources: westerns, adventures and old serials. It follows reliable old conventions without seeming too formulaic; even the ancient lines are more fun in this movie than in the other dozens you’ve heard them in. At one point, a character shouts, ‘She’s sealed off the bridge!’ Uh oh. You always know things are in trouble when the bridge gets mentioned.

If you thought that the new “Star Wars” trilogy was bogged down by joyless, dull dialogue and a general lack of excitement, you may find that “Serenity” is just what you’re looking for. Joss Whedon has the same sort of determined ambition as the young George Lucas. “Serenity” cares about its characters and puts them in exciting and imaginative situations. It’s a lot of fun.