Word of warning people: I have not seen a single episode of Firefly. Not one, never even tried in fact. It�s not that I don�t like Sci-Fi. I do. A lot. And it�s not that I don�t like Joss Whedon. I do. An awful lot (I miss the Buffyverse especially). It just never happened for me. I never felt the need to get involved, and the show got cancelled before I could anyway. The stars just didn�t align on this one, ok? Now get off my back. Given the build-up to the film, the cinematic offspring of a doomed TV series is a rare thing indeed, it�s best not to have watched anything related beforehand. Allows a man to review impartially from the perspective of a newbie, which is presumably what was necessary to make the film a success. Which it, wasn�t, really.
Anyhoo, that was a lot of comma�s eh? And. Short. Sentences. Serenity wasn�t bad, it wasn�t great either but it wasn�t bad. Whedon has crafted an interesting take on futuristic Sci-Fi, attentively melding the dirty world of Star Wars to the vaguely peaceful one of Star Trek, and bolting some Western-style lawlessness on to the side. Our �heroes� are the crew of the Serenity, a ship for hire out among the stars where central control is minimal. When one of their number frees his sister from an Alliance research facility he sets in motion events which are to have revelatory consequences for the Serenity team, and the Universe in general.
Serenity is a competent production which occasionally shows its roots in TVland, and who�s $40million budget often appears stretched in some of the more effects-heavy scenes. The acting is also a little patchy, especially from Jewel Staite as the miscast engineer of the vessel, and Sean Maher as Simon, the resident doctor. The rest of the cast have shown up in other Whedon productions and repay his intense faith in them by being naturally professional and acclimatised to their roles. I�m a big Fillion fan and I think he, along with Joe Flanigan of Stargate: Atlantis, have effectively captured the spirit of pseudo-serious sci-fi male leads.
The most credit though goes, of course, to Chiwetel Ejiofor as the emotionless Alliance Operative hellbent on recovering the girl and stopping what she knows from getting out. The man has the most perfect English accent, and is as brilliant here as he was in Dirty Pretty Things and Inside Man. Unfortunately, despite his performance he is unable to raise Serenity above the merely average as embarrassing lines, and imaginative but small-scale plot, and some dubious directing combine to scupper the films leap for greatness. A missed opportunity. |
