The Principals: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudky, Adam Baldwin, Joss Whedon.
The Premise: Everyone knows that Firefly died before its time, but most didn’t realize this until it was too late. DVD sales of the series were so incredible however that Universal decided to take a chance on the film. It didn’t really pay off for them (in box office dollars, at least) even with a reduced budget, but the cast and crew got one last shot at glory.
Here, we watch as the crew of the Serenity, a motley group of space pirates, seek to protect one of their own against a government agent who wants her back.
Is It Good: It’s ok.
In taking the acclaimed tv show to a film they poorly chose to focus on the single most boring character from the show, River Tam, and what’s more- turn the waif of a woman into an action star. It didn’t work for Milla Jovavich, it doesn’t work here.
No.
The other (far more interesting members) of the cast don’t get nearly enough to do, and the whole “bounty hunter trying to nab River” thing was done better in
the last Firefly episode (“Objects in Space”). While it was nice to
finally see the Reavers and find out why people were so terrified of them, but like most times when old work is revisited they sought to overexplain everything.
Is It Worth A Look: It is, to a point. There doesn’t seem to be enough introduction to the characters for newcomers to really get a handle on them, and the larger vision and story of the film makes the feeling of the show suffer. Sure, the action sequences easily trump anything that Firefly had to offer (it’s amazing what a decent effects budget can do!) but the real meat of the show was always the banter between the characters, the incredibly witty dialogue and interactions. Fans will want to watch it just to see how the characters end up, though- in knowing that this was their last hurrah they really didn’t pull any punches on the main cast.
Random Anecdotes: Consider me a very late convert to Firefly, but thanks to the magic of Netflix Instant (and the prodding of a friend) I finally watched the far too short series, and was blown away. I never really took a shine to Buffy or Angel, but this, this space Western… this I could get behind. It’s just an incredible show, filled with memorable characters and episodes. “Out of Gas” in particular, which might be one of my favorite hours of television ever.
But jumping right into Serenity afterwards left me feeling sadly cold, like maybe I’d have been better off not knowing what happened next. It’s why the Arrested Development film feels like such a bad idea… sometimes things die and people move on, leaving no way to recapture that magic.
Cinematc Soulmates: Battlestar Galactica, Gattaca, Stargate.
19 comments
81% on Rotten Tomatoes is not just "ok"
I agree with pretty much everything you said, Alex. It's an okay that focuses on the most irritating, annoying member of the cast for some inexplicable reason. Although I will disagree on two points: Firstly, I love "The Operative" (or rather, perhaps I just love Chiwetel Ejiofor in damn near anything) and secondly, Milla Jovovich has proven shockingly plausible as an action star, perhaps because of how well she can move in action sequences and do physically demanding fights. Glau, on the other hand, just appears to be doing ballet during her fights. That dog won't hunt.
I honestly would have rather had them focus on anyone else, barring her brother, of course, who's the second least interesting character. Agreed on Ejofor but I just didn't see the need for such a repetitive character, although he definitely brings a helluva lot of sick intensity to the role.
I similarly fell in love with the series. I was feeling so-so about it on its original run on TV, but fell totally in love with it when I saw it on HULU, and got to see the original pilot and the proper episode order. Those characters glowed. It hurt that there wasn't going to any more to the show. I did see Serenity in the theater and my reaction was similar to Alex's. It was the most boring episode in the entire series, with an implausible "Send a message to the entire universe" ending. I honestly wish I hadn't seen it, it marred the effect that the series managed to produce. But with Josh Whedon shows, episodes where he's more hands-on in his involvement tend to suffer, become simplified and cartoonish, when the rest of the writing team manages to flesh out his characters and ideas and make them live.
Mark, are you suggesting that Alex base his reviews on Rotten Tomato ratings?
I mean, I like Serenity too, but that's kind of silly.
See, I'm opposed to the Arrested Development movie because the story of the Bluths… ended, in a pretty excellent way. Firefly didn't get the same opportunity to end, which is why I think the movie works as supremely well as it does (I love the show, the comics, the movie, so I'm coming from a very specific place, admittedly, but for what is probably consistently the only time in my life, I don't care). Consider me firmly on the "magic recaptured" side (I believe this cast can stand toe-to-toe with any other in terms of chemistry – and on a side note, I still fucking hate this verification).
81% simply means that many critics gave the movie a positive review. So technically, it could mean 81% of critics think the movie is OK.
Obviously that isn't the case, but if you want a "truer" idea of the consensus on "quality", you should look at the average rating.
7.1/10 — sounds OK to me. Then again, I think a lot of critics are morons anyway.
Where else would they have focused? The movie basically ties up the loose ends of the TV show.
You can say that it focused on the most annoying character, but the majority of underlying plot from the single season of the series revolved around River and her brother.
Of course I also would have been happy with two hours of Kaylee stripping out of that jump suit, but that's just me.
how did serenity get 80%? it's okay, but it's way too boring to get an 80%.
for me whedon's best work was in the second and thirs seasons of buffy, and the last couple seasons of angel were great, too, there should've been a season 6.
Very fair review. Love the series, but I've only watched the movie a couple times. It hits a couple notes great, but too different and disjointed to be as good as the series itself.
I don't get it. I absolutely love this movie, and there seems to be such a sharp divide between people who enjoy it deeply vs the blah response it gets, especially on this site. The series was definitely not done resolving Mal's character, even though some episodes did it really well, such as out of gas.
I am hoping the Shepherd Book shit still comes out this fall.
I tried several times but never could make it through an entire episode of the show except the one with the hitman on the ship. But I thought the movie was pretty great.
Yeah! You're right! They should have ditched the entire storyline of the show and instead focused on Shepherd Book saying prayers and washing his hair. *Facepalms*
Not that it really matters but I couldn't disagree with this "review" more. Liked the series, loved the movie.
Actually, the single-most boring character in the series is Simon Tam, not River.
I actually saw the movie before the series, and liked it enough to buy the series DVD. And was instantly pissed off that it had been unjustly canceled.
Has the world gone insane?! This movie rocked. River's story was the main arc of the series.
Why is a movie that is "just OK" the Movie Of The Day?
I actually agree with this review up to a point…River was just a damn plot device and Whedon had to go the kick-ass waif route, like we haven't seen that before. I, contrary to you and one other commenter, thought Simon was a compelling character and fun to watch grow (and drug his crewmembers), and was in fact the one that pulled me into the series in the first place (which I saw before the film). He was also the only reason I could stand River in the first place, just because that was a moving relationship…but that had more to do with him anyway. The Tam's story was a driving plot point, and the movie, if it had been able to focus more on the conspiracy of what happened in the core, the underground movement he got involved with, and more of the fallout from the war and what was going on with the Blue Sun Corporation behind the scenes COULD have been an insanely good movie – a great sci-fi and political thriller, but instead they had to go with some convoluted plot which only served to let Joss have his skinny little girl do some completely unrealistic fight scenes. Total waste of the other characters (Mal had some good moments, Simon had a couple, and the operative was really well acted, but otherwise, what a letdown).
I actually agree with this review up to a point…River was just a damn plot device and Whedon had to go the kick-ass waif route, like we haven't seen that before. I, contrary to you and one other commenter, thought Simon was a compelling character and fun to watch grow (and drug his crewmembers), and was in fact the one that pulled me into the series in the first place (which I saw before the film). He was also the only reason I could stand River in the first place, just because that was a moving relationship…but that had more to do with him anyway. The Tam's story was a driving plot point, and the movie, if it had been able to focus more on the conspiracy of what happened in the core, the underground movement he got involved with, and more of the fallout from the war and what was going on with the Blue Sun Corporation behind the scenes COULD have been an insanely good movie – a great sci-fi and political thriller, but instead they had to go with some convoluted plot which only served to let Joss have his skinny little girl do some completely unrealistic fight scenes. It also wasted her potential to become something other than an overdone fetish. The worst part about the film though, was the almost total waste of the other characters and the mangling of their relationships with each other. In short, the film was a letdown after the series.
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