Serenity

I was always a fan of Buffy on TV and have since admired Joss Wheden's writing abilities. He has a great knack of writing good dialogue and interesting characters. However I didn't manage to catch any of his follow up show Firefly, which was cancelled after one series, and ion whic universe this film is set. Serenity picks up from where the series ended, Nathan Fillion plays Mal, the leader of a group of mercenaries who fly around space getting into trouble and generally trying to survive. The story of the film centers around two crew members, one of whom River has a dark past. I won't go into many details, as I went into the film knowing practically nothing about the film and felt it was a fresher experience for it. As a science fiction film Serenity does a great job of separating itself from traditional entries in the genre. Rather then having fantastical aliens and laser beams, the film is a lot more rooted in reality. The ship is run down and the crew very human. The future is not a perfect society, but one as fragmented as it is today and that makes it an interesting world to be sucked in to. The start of the film is quite heavy with exposition and it does a good job of bringing viewers up to speed with the universe, however it didn't have quite the immediate grab I thought it would. It took me a while to get to know and like these characters and I still feel after there are some that are a bit too one dimensional or who aren't that interesting. However the film is fast and fresh and never boring. The plot is also surprising, going in directions I didn't suspect and being always the better for it. In fact at times this is a very dark and harsh film and that is a great thing. If there's one thing Buffy lacked at times it was a sense of gritty reality, here it is present and it makes you fear for the characters more and get into the story. The last hour of so of the film is great and it builds throughout getting better and better. The performances are all good. My only real gripes with the film are with a few of the characters reactions to a shocking turn of events late on in the film, and the fact that Chiwetel Ejiofor's bad guy isn't quite mean or menacing enough for my tastes. Other than that this is an inventive and surprisingly great sci-fi film that squeezes excitement, thrills, great special effects and even some heart into the mix to great effect. A pleasant surprise. Serenity does a great job of filling in newcomers to the universe whilst remaining familiar to fans. The first half does feel a bit wobbly, luckily a strong confident and, at times, brutal ending ensures that this has the guts to go all the way thanks to a strong emotional core that the recent Star Wars films have been severely lacking.