serenity sci fi movie review

Good space opera packs payload

Dancing on the ceiling: The less-than-serene River (Summer Glau) finds she's not in Sunnydale anymore (if she ever was), in Joss Whedon's feature film, based on his TV series "Firefly."

The thrill of a fistfight in a movie was altered for me forever the day I visited a set and watched the sound men beating the hell out of a Naugahyde sofa with Ping-Pong paddles. There is a moment in "Serenity" when I remembered that moment -- no, not during a fistfight, but during a battle in interplanetary space. There are so many spacecraft, so large, so close together, it looks as if collision is a greater danger than enemy fire. Imagine spaceships in a demo derby.

As the battle continued and the heroes were hurled about inside their own spaceship, which at times looked curiously like the interior of a loading dock, I made a note: "More banging than in your average space movie." Then something shifted inside my ears and I somehow knew I was hearing sound men, pounding the hell out of garbage-can lids, sheets of steel and big piles of pots and pans.

I say this not with disapproval, but with affection. "Serenity" is an old-fashioned space opera, and differs from a horse opera mostly in that it involves space, not horses. It takes place in a solar system of a dozen terraformed planets and "hundreds of moons," and there is a war going on between the Alliance, which runs things and wants everybody to be happy, and a group of rebels who begin to make disturbing discoveries. As the film opens, a psychic named River Tam ( Summer Glau ) is rescued from Alliance mind-washers by her brother Simon ( Sean Maher ), and then we learn that River was unwisely exhibited to a roomful of important Alliance parliamentarians. Because she can read minds, she knows their secrets.

River and Simon are soon enough allied with a team of free-lance smugglers on a banged-up old ship named Serenity. Malcolm ( Nathan Fillion ) is the captain, and his crew includes the pilot Wash ( Alan Tudyk ), his wife, Zoe ( Gina Torres ), the engineer Kaylee ( Jewel Staite ) and the tough guy Jayne ( Adam Baldwin ). On their trail is the most competent and feared of the Alliance's agents, The Operative ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ).

Science fiction fans will recognize the plot line and most of the characters from a short-lived Fox series named "Firefly," which (I learn in a letter from Stephen McNeil of Sydney, Nova Scotia), was canceled in mid-season, but not before the episodes were carelessly shown out of proper order. What a crock, especially considering that Joss Whedon , the TV series author (and writer-director of "Serenity") earlier created "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," and so deserved the benefit of the doubt.

"Serenity" is made of dubious but energetic special effects, breathless velocity, much imagination, some sly verbal wit and a little political satire. Turns out the Alliance was simply trying to bring contentment to its crowded planetary system, by distracting them from their problems and making them feel like they had a life. River is in possession of a secret about this process that the Alliance would do anything to suppress. Like Brave New World and 1984, the movie plays like a critique of contemporary society, with the Alliance as Big Brother, enemy of discontent. But as River observes, "Some people don't like to be meddled with."

Some of the dialogue sounds futuristic, some sounds 19th-century, and some sounds deliberately kooky. (Captain Mal: "Do you want to run this ship?" Discontented crew member: "Yes." Mal: "Well, you can't"). There are also unanticipated scenes of real impact, including a planet where -- but see for yourself. I'm not sure the movie would have much appeal for non-sci-fi fans, but it has the rough edges and brawny energy of a good yarn, and it was made by and for people who can't get enough of this stuff. You know who you are.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Sean Maher as Simon
• Jewel Staite as Kaylee
• Ron Glass as Shepherd Book
• Adam Baldwin as Jayne
• Summer Glau as River
• Gina Torres as Zoe Warren
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative

Written and directed by

• Joss Whedon

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Serenity Reviews

You don't need to be a fan, or have watched the show, or even like the genre to appreciate one of the best science-fiction movies of the 21st century.

Full Review | Jun 9, 2022

Sadly, it seems certain that Whedon listened too carefully to the suits at Fox who told him to pump up the action.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2020

Fans are sure to be pleased, but if writer/director Josh Whedon is looking to develop a new fan base, Serenity isn't the way to do it.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Nov 19, 2019

Boasting an intriguing plotline, breakneck pacing, characters with depth and a good deal of knowing humor alongside some gobsmacking special effects, Serenity is the true successor to [Star Wars].

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2019

Thank you, [Joss], for creating this world, for seeing it through, and for giving us die-hard fans the closure we so desperately needed. You just earned yourself a lifetime pass from geeks everywhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Oct 25, 2018

A lovely example of TV sci-fi doing what it does best, and with an amount of money that no TV sci-fi ever had at its disposal.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2017

. . .it's got plenty of sci-fi soul food including tough-talking space cowboys with marshmallow hearts, blistering boobie babes, sassy sidekicks and blood thirsty savages.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2017

Whedon's years in TV have helped him hone a clean, efficient, entertaining style grounded in character, camaraderie and his trademark dialogue...

Full Review | Feb 12, 2016

After suffering through a summer crammed with TV shows being remade into movies, it's refreshing to see a movie based on a TV show that is so entertaining that it actually makes you want to go and see the show of which the movie was created.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 10, 2012

New viewers will be a little bit lost, and old fans won't get quite everything they wanted, but there's enough going on in Serenity and it's all so much fun that it doesn't matter.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 30, 2011

In the end you are left with the feeling that Whedon works better on television than in the cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Hardcore fans will undoubtedly be satisfied but its unlikely this will spread much beyond that audience, and even they will find it lacks that human spark and freshness that made the series distinctive and appealing.

Full Review | Jan 15, 2008

For what it is -- viewed as filmmaking in and of itself -- "Serenity" is tense and smoothly put together.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Sep 23, 2007

A magnificent closer to the series, and Whedon shows how much love he has for his fans by giving us a quality finisher...

Full Review | Jul 10, 2007

Joss Whedon makes a rousing feature-directing debut, exploiting the cult status of his short-lived series Firefly to continue it on the big screen.

Full Review | Jun 6, 2007

Firefly finally has the triumphant finale fans longed for: the excitingly tense, often surprising and even more frequently comical Serenity. Fans will rejoice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2006

The settings and tone are hyper-real, yet the human behaviour is grounded and credible, the moral conflicts complex and involving. Shiny, intelligent fun.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2006

In the context of an action cinema driven by false hope, misogyny and sadism, Serenity is an inspiring respite.

Full Review | May 27, 2006

Go out and see Joss Whedon's witty whizbang of an action movie, or we will kill a kitten.

Full Review | May 12, 2006

The movie is a sci-fi buccaneer swashbuckler; Whedon hits all the obligatory space-opera notes, and he does it with a degree of verbal wit and agile pacing that could teach George Lucas a thing or two.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 12, 2006

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture telepath River. The crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture telepath River. The crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture telepath River.

• Joss Whedon
• Nathan Fillion
• Gina Torres
• Chiwetel Ejiofor
• 1.6K User reviews
• 192 Critic reviews
• 74 Metascore
• 9 wins & 10 nominations

Top cast 48

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• Shepherd Book

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• Lilac Young Tough
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Did you know

• Trivia According to Nathan Fillion, he personally supplied the blueprints used to build the ship set in the film after being informed at a production meeting that the originals had been lost. He was able to do so because, being so excited about being in the original show, he had taken photos of ALL the preproduction materials he had seen, including the blueprints.
• Goofs Security camera footage shows Mal and Jayne sitting at a table with Fanty and Mingo before they enter the bar.

Hoban 'Wash' Washburn : This landing is gonna get pretty interesting.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : Define "interesting".

Hoban 'Wash' Washburn : [deadpan] Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die?

• Crazy credits There is a message in the closing credits: "The filmmakers wish to thank the crew and staff of 'Firefly'"
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Into the Blue/Serenity/The Greatest Game Ever Played/Mirrormask/Capote/The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)
• Soundtracks test Written by abc Performed by abc

User reviews 1.6K

Serenity - is everything but.

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• Jul 31, 2016
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• September 30, 2005 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Diamond Ranch High School, Pomona, California, USA (Miranda)
• Universal Pictures
• Barry Mendel Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $39,000,000 (estimated)
• $25,514,517
• $10,086,680
• Oct 2, 2005
• $40,445,129
• Runtime 1 hour 59 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Movie Review: 'Serenity'

S erenity , writer/director Joss Whedon's exuberant space opera, opens with one nod to the power of love and closes with another: the first concerns a brother's affection for his sister; the second, a captain's for his spaceship. (Tellingly, the latter is, if anything, more touching.) The two scenes form an apt pair of bookends because, to the extent this can ever be said of a major Hollywood release, Serenity is a product of love--that of fans of "Firefly," the cancelled TV series from which the film was spun off, of the cast, and most of all of Whedon himself.

Following the successes of his cult hits "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," in 2002 Whedon left the horror-comedy realm to launch "Firefly," a picaresque, Western-themed sci-fi series that followed the interplanetary wanderings of Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a former soldier in an unsuccessful interplanetary rebellion, and the crew of his ship, Serenity . (The movie is named for the vessel, which in turn was named for a battle Mal fought in--none of which could be accurately described as "serene.") Created for Fox, "Firefly" was Whedon's first big-network experience ("Buffy" and "Angel" aired on the WB and UPN), and it wasn't a happy one. In their inscrutable wisdom, network executives decided to air the series out of sequence; when it struggled to find an audience, they pulled the plug after eleven episodes.

But, as fans of "Buffy" and "Angel" know, Whedon has a penchant for bringing things back from the dead. "Buffy" itself was raised from the ashes of the eponymous movie, for which Whedon had written the screenplay. Unhappy with the way his dark comedy had been lightened during rewrites, he resurrected his heroine for the small screen. "Firefly" faced the opposite--and more difficult--challenge of persuading a studio to back a film based on a cancelled series. But while the show's audience was small, it was committed. Calling themselves "browncoats"--after the defeated rebel forces in "Firefly"--they wrote letters and showed up at sci-fi conventions and, when finally given the opportunity, voted with their wallets: When a DVD set of the entire season was released in late 2003, it vastly outsold expectations. That windfall, and Whedon's perseverance (he'd even kept several of his cast members employed with stints as villains on "Buffy" and "Angel"), persuaded Universal to bite on a $40-million feature-film adaptation.

And thank goodness. Serenity , released on video last week, is terrific. By turns witty and harrowing, clever and weighty, it is closer in spirit to Star Wars than anything George Lucas has produced in a quarter century. Like the spaceship for which it is named (or, for that matter, Han Solo's Millennium Falcon ), Serenity is pleasantly rough around the edges: In this universe, dust and debris are omnipresent, guns still fire old-fashioned bullets, and heroes are more apt to be petty crooks than selfless monks. (In fact, here it's the bad guy who's the latter.) It's a refreshing change from the hermetic, CGI airlessness and ponderous sanctimony that has characterized the last three Star Wars pics. Even when Mal gets his Big Speech, it concludes on a note as roguish as it is resolute: "I aim to misbehave."

One of the challenges of bringing a series like "Firefly" to the big screen is introducing the show's history and main characters--there are nine of them--without loads of painful, expository dialogue. Whedon manages it with a wicked bit of narrative jujitsu in which a schoolroom history lesson is violently subverted--it is, in fact, the nightmare of a girl undergoing psychological experimentation in a lab--and then that subversion is itself subverted. In the course of this triple gainer, we learn that humanity has relocated to a new star system with dozens of terraformed planets, ruled with quasi-benevolent tyranny by a government called the Alliance. We're also introduced to River Tam (Summer Glau), the young psychic on whom the Alliance doctors are experimenting; her surgeon brother Simon (Sean Maher), who rescues her from their clutches; and the nameless Alliance operative sent to bring her back, a gentle-voiced assassin played with understated elegance by Chiwetel Ejiofor ( Dirty Pretty Things , Melinda and Melinda ). From there we jump to the ship Serenity , where River and Simon have found uneasy refuge, for a fore-to-aft Steadicam stroll that introduces Mal and the rest of the crew--all in the course of a potentially lethal crash landing. ("We may experience some slight turbulence," Mal warns over the intercom, "and then explode.")

And that's just in the movie's first 15 minutes. The crew will next indulge in a good-natured stickup that is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a pack of Reavers, semi-human cannibals addicted to rape, murder, and sewing their victims' skins into clothing. There will be revelations about River's untapped abilities ("Buffy" fans will be unsurprised to learn that among them is an aptitude for spinning back-kicks to the face) and the secret locked in her head which the Alliance is so eager to keep from getting out, something about a planet called "Miranda." (Hint: It has to do with Shakespeare's Miranda in The Tempest , who gave us the phrase "brave new world.") As Serenity unfolds, it deepens from picaresque to epic, from comedy to near-tragedy. By the end, the movie has become a rumination on order versus chaos, the pursuit of perfection, and the inevitability of sin. But don't fret: Such meditations are squeezed in between some exceptionally boss battle scenes.

Serenity has, in other words, pretty much everything you can ask for in an action-adventure movie. Unfortunately, it lacked two key ingredients for box-office success: bankable stars and a big-league marketing budget. (It couldn't have helped that Serenity is probably the most counterintuitive title for an action blockbuster in cinematic history.) Though it was made for a relatively modest $40 million--and the reviews were overwhelmingly positive --it pulled in a mere $25 million in U.S. theaters, a small fraction of the booty earned by such sloppy, self-satisfied summer extravagances as Episode III , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , and War of the Worlds .

Still, as Whedon and his "Firefly" cohorts have already shown, there's more than one way to skin a human (and sew him into a nice little Reaver ensemble). Theatrical box-office makes up an ever-shrinking portion of a film's total receipts (now a mere 15 percent, according to Slate 's Edward Jay Epstein ), with the vast bulk of the revenues coming from DVD sales and rentals on the one hand, and broadcast licensing (pay-per-view, network, and cable) on the other. And while Serenity was never well-positioned for the box office, it should, like "Firefly" before it, make a killing on DVD. (My own exceptionally scientific survey of a couple of local outlets would tend to confirm this: By day two of its release, Serenity had sold out from one and was only available in the less-popular fullscreen version from the other.) Once the movie hits cable, it should be set for life--I envision it running three nights a week on the Sci-Fi Channel for at least the next decade. Will this be enough to ensure a sequel? You can cast your own vote at the local Blockbuster.

The Home Movies List: Short Runs

"Greg the Bunny" (2002). Fox nabbed the puppets-behaving-badly sitcom (a kind of PG-13 version of Peter Jackson's Meet the Feebles ) from the Independent Film Channel, then promptly cancelled it. At least the characters were able to come back to IFC for a "reunion" episode and a few spoofs of popular movies earlier this year. "Boomtown" (2002-2003). A clever (occasionally too clever) multiple-POV police drama in which storylines collided with dizzying force . When the first season drew meager ratings (despite excellent reviews), the network flattened the show out for season two, before pulling the plug just a few episodes in. It's a shame, too: It was nice to be reminded that not all crime drama has to fit the "CSI"-"Law & Order" mold. "Firefly" (2002-2003). The show is not quite as strong as the movie (the latter better captures the sharp wit, unexpected reversals, and encroaching tragedy that characterized the best of "Buffy" and "Angel"), but it is strong nonetheless, and an excellent opportunity to see Whedon's characters and storylines unfold at a more leisurely pace. It also gives Serenity --which is essentially a sequel--a deeper resonance, especially when a few regular cast members meet their ends. "Arrested Development" (2003-2006). Credit Fox with taking chances on some of the most inventive shows in recent network history. Credit it, too, with ruthlessly pulling the plug, often after broadcasting them out of sequence and on irregular schedules. The latest casualty was the funniest sitcom in a decade , which miraculously survived for more than two-and-a-half seasons before apparently getting the ax last month. Though not yet officially cancelled, it had its season abruptly "shortened," and subsequent episodes have been shown at erratic intervals, interspersed with random reruns and other programming. Whatever its ultimate fate (a reprieve? new life on Showtime?), there are still a couple of this season's episodes left. Addicts like me will be laughing through the tears.

This post originally appeared at TNR.com.

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Movie Review: Serenity (2005)

The crew of Serenity will take any job, even if that job isn't exactly legal. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew take small smuggling and robbery jobs to keep their ship afloat, and to stay under the radar of The Alliance, the galactic conglomerate that not only rules the galaxy, but was on the opposite side of the war Mal lost years ago. But when Simon (Sean Maher) and his unstable, telepathic sister, River (Summer Glau) join the crew, they get in much more trouble than they bargained for. A government operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is after River, because she stumbled onto a secret no one was supposed to know... and the alliance will do anything to get her back.

• Anti one-world government -  "The Alliance" is run by an intergalactic "parliament" which manipulates and controls the masses through the media, and will brook no contradiction. Their agents are brutal and merciless.
• Anti-evolution of man/anti-utopian -  At one point in the film, Captain Reynolds attack's the Alliance's attempts to further mould man in the image they desire through the use of genetic manipulation via drugs saying, "I do not hold to that". The results of their attempts are horrific, but also an extrapolation of where the social engineering in our own world is headed (see the film to learn more).
• Pro- some old-world values -  Although the crew of  Serenity  is rather rough around the edges, the also practice a great deal of self-sacrifice, loyalty, and courage.

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Serenity Review

07 Oct 2005

119 minutes

The multiplexes are already rammed with the fetid, mewling cinematic offspring of hit TV shows, so why on earth should anyone want to watch a spin-off of a series that failed to even make it through its first season?

Well, firstly: it’s the big-screen debut of Buffy god Joss Whedon, a man with more pop-culture funnies than Scream’s Kevin Williamson. Secondly: everybody knows that these days truly great shows rarely make it beyond a debut run. Thirdly: it’s a hell of a lot better than The Dukes Of Hazzard.

Genre obsessives will already be fully clued up on the seemingly doomed course of the good ship Serenity, which, in the US show Firefly, launched with great fanfare before being buffeted by network execs to such an extent that only the most dedicated viewer could find it on the schedules. But with its complex mix of Western, sci-fi, thriller and comedy, not to mention a sprawling cast and twisting back-stories that 14 episodes could barely touch on, it was Whedon’s most ambitious project, and a show of such wit and originality that naturally it refused to die. Thus, through the power of the browncoat (read: Firefly nerd) and stellar sales on DVD, the lawless cast was given a reprieve and Whedon $40 million to resurrect his project.

All of which should send anybody disinclined to conventions and mint-condition collectables running from a darkened cinema for the sunshine of the outside world. Fear not; herein lies black comedy, spiky romance and action adventure — without an alien to be seen.

You could question Whedon’s wisdom in making this his first foray into movie direction (he’s previously been Oscar-nominated for co-scripting Toy Story), with its demands to satisfy both the faithful few and the indifferent masses. Screw this up and he’s not only dashed the dreams of his die-hard following, but also called into question his big-budget future.

Thankfully, through pluck, talent and enormous imagination, Whedon’s done it, cheerfully Frankensteining the smart mouth of Buffy, the dust of Deadwood and all the fun bits of Star Wars. Which, in some ways, is the movie’s sole problem.Serenity exists on a plane somewhere between cinema and TV. For much of the running time it feels like an extended episode of the series, with televisual staging and a slow reveal strategy that seems to be saving something for next week’s show. A large lead cast (played wonderfully by the original TV actors, all stretching their comedy and action muscles with ‘may never get the chance again’ vigour) demands a great deal of screentime to draw in newcomers.

Whedon’s economical with his exposition,  but with the amount of story to be squeezed in, even a tiny lapse in concentration will leave some scratching their heads during a few of the plot twists.

Gloriously, though, around the halfway point Serenity blossoms, breaking free of its small-screen confines. Whedon lets loose a series of confident action sequences befitting any summer blockbuster, the cast step up to big-screen presence (all hail Nathan Fillion, the new Han Solo!), and the careful seeding of the characters and story bears the fruit of an ending in which nothing is certain, no clichéd outcome inevitable and no crew member safe from the jaws of death. Bring on Episode II.

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