Movie: Serenity

Casts: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Sean Maher, Summer Glau
Director: Joss Whedon
PG-13; Universal Pictures, 2005

Only a Whedon’s fan would understand this movie! said a fellow Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s junkies. And she’s right. If I’m not one of this beloved television cult director’s fan, I would definitely firing away my demurrer’s shotgun right about now.

Serenity was the cinematic adaptation of his wildly popular but short-lived sci-fi series: Firefly (didn’t know this before reading a review). Supposedly to be a mix of space western, comedy, and drama, it told the story of a Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his ragtag crew as they trade their way around the edges of civilized society. The adventure was escalated into deadly terms after they took on two passengers, Simon and River Tam (Sean Maher, Summer Glau), a brother and his telepathic sister on the run from the corrupt governing Alliance. As notorious former members of the anti-Alliance opposition, Mal and his crew make it difficult for Simon and River to stay hidden. Everything goes completely awry when a government assassin is sent to retrieve River. The crew was soon to find out that River harbors both a dangerous secret and astounding fighting powers.

Have to admit though, Nathan Fillion was better at being a felon that a good guy. Hahaha. His Caleb in Buffy’s Final Season, was so blood chilling!

The heavy theme I found in the story was "Do not ask perfection on the human race, that is just not the fate of the human nature". When the Alliance tried to make a perfect-zero percent crime-society using some kind of chemical gas, all they got was a horrific outcome.

I always admire Whedon for his awesome fighting scenes, witty dialogue and his deep observation on human nature. The special effects were "with quite a lot of efforts" and martial arts’ stunts were great. The River character sure was able to kick-ass with a liquid almost like a dance moves. Therefore, I found this movie as entertaining enough. If you didn’t ask for a solid story and a satisfying process to reach the ending of a movie, well, you’ll agree with me on this one. The pace was slow at the beginning, not so watertight, but then too fast at the end. Maybe if I have watched Firefly, I wouldn’t found myself too distracted by the lost details in the story. There were too many character that has good potential to be dug out, but there were not enough time to do it in a single movie; indeed a TV Series would be a proper media for it.