Serenity [Blu-ray]

Serenity in a nutshell is the movie feature farewell, to the much loved cult space western t.v adventure series  Firefly . Created by Joss Wheadon, also known for creating  Buffy the Vampire Slayer  , Angel  & more recently co-writer & director of  Avengers Assemble  as well as many other well known credits, the man is gifted. And kudos to him & the fans who made this film possible, not many cancelled t.v shows get their own movie now, do they.Disc 1: Serenity 120mins.Disc 1: Bonus features: Deleted scenes / Future history / Outakes / Whats in a Firefly / Re-lighting the Firefly / J.Wheadon Intro. / A filmakers journey / Option for J.Wheadon film commentary.The features are nice, filmaking journey, deleted scenes & re-lighting a Firefly make for the bulk of it, around 44 minutes worth, while the rest are about 4-6 minutes or so long, 64 minutes total. It was nice to get an insight into the film from the actors, crew, fans & Mr Wheadon. And that they had the exact same feelings about the show/film as we did watching it. As well as the thought process into turning the t.v series into a film that everyone would understand, editing it & seeing the preperation work that went into Serenity. Mr Wheadon's commentary on the film is great, the option can be turned on in the bonus features, i reccomend that after you've watched the film.Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion- Castle ) an ex-solider who fought against the Alliance(the goverment of the time), reprises his role at the helm of Serenity, a smuggler, Firefly class ship. Along with his motley crew. Pilot, Hoban "Wash" Washburne(Alan Tudyk- I Robot ) his wife Zoe(Gina Torres- Suits ), engineer Kaylee Frye(Jewel Staite) & all round tough guy Jayne Cobb(Adam Baldwin- Full Metal Jacket ).The film Serenity picks up sometime shortly after the series finished. Where upon we witness Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher) rescuing his sister River(Summer Glau) with the help of Mal & the crew, from a top secret Alliance base. They set off escaping the Alliance military, but have a new enemy on their trail, The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor- Salt ), an assassin after the gifted River, due to her unique abilities as a psychic & the Alliance secrets she holds in her head after experiments were done on her(River's abilities were being uncoverd towards the end of Firefly). So off they set once again on an action packed ride, meeting old friends who left the ship, Preacher Shepherd Book(Ron Glass) & lady of the night, Inara Serra(Morena Baccarin- Homeland ) (who with the exception of Mr Ejiofor are crew members in the series & only Inara was setup to leave the ship as the series left it) along the way. All the while trying not to get killed against superior odds, but uncovering some big secrets along the way.Serenity is a great Sci-Fi space western, with a good story & strong likeable cast of characters. The dialogue has a mixture of futuristic terminology, including the use of Chinese/Mandarin used at times in short bursts for emotional moments, mixed with distinct 19th century western tones & humour. Likeweise the appearance is a mixture of old wild west & chinese themes with futuristic spaceships , but the characters wield sci-fi style western 6 shooters etc.. the music also has a very western/chinese feel, with the use of guitar, fiddle & lute as the main instruments & country style lyrics. The special effects are good, and do a good enough job to keep things beliveable, when you consider this is on a tight B movie budget.I've been watching the series after seeing this film, and it's a shame that the series never matured as it had everything going for it to succeed. Lead Nathan Fillion is brilliant(as he is in Castle) with his tongue in cheek/serious acting style, and has a great rapport with all the characters, who in turn are great too. The setting & banter between the crew is a winner, no wonder the series is so well thought of & that carrys over into the film flawlessly, it's like they have never been away. Although i still prefer the series, with that more personal touch with the gradual progression of getting to know the characters & the banter, relationships between the main 9 characters(and the 10th Serenity ;-)).In conclusion, for those who know the series, this Serenity film focuses on River's character, which the series began to focus more upon upto the end, after she was in the background for the majority of the episodes. So it seems quite fitting she gets to be the focus point. It also brings in the Reavers that were only touched on in the series. We get some conclusions to the series sub stories, although not all had the time to be put to bed. And finally, trust me, have some tissues nearby, becasue there are going to be some big developments. Reccomended.

Great movie, carries on nicely from the firefly series :)

(Though it doesn't quite make up for the series cancellation.)

I watched Serenity in the cinema without having seen Firefly. Very simply, Serenity is an outstanding Sci Fi film with a great storyline and laced throughout with wry and gritty humour. Characterisation is very good, indeed, and melds superbly with the aforementioned storyline and humour. Basically the characterisation depicts real people and this makes the difference.Serenity is also an example of the Sci Fi genre making relevant social comment but sadly this probably contributed to the cancellation of the tv series from which it is derived.Joss Whedon (the series creator) has made a space saga set 500 hundred years in the future. With undertones of the Old West, Mankind has been colonising other planets and moons. A bitter civil war between Separatists and the Alliance Government has recently finished, resulting in the victory of the Alliance. This government tends to interfere in every day life, is ultra politically correct, and seems to be in hock to mega corporations..... (Hmmm I wonder what the parody there could be?!!).Eking out an existence among the many worlds, is a survivor of the Separatist forces - Captain Mal Reynolds (played well by a wry Nathan Fillion). His command is an old spaceship called Serenity. Mal Reynolds and his crew smuggle and deal in contraband etc. They also take on passengers on a 'no questions asked' basis.Recent additions to the crew of the Serenity include a young doctor - Simon and his telepathic sister - River. Both are fleeing from the Alliance, and River was a test subject for drug research on psychics. This testing was carried out by the Alliance and the mega Corporations, and both want her returned swiftly. Hunting River and Simon, is an Alliance elite officer/assassin known as an operative. Superbly played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, he is a glacially calm, reflective, and totally ruthless individual, determined to catch River and Simon by any means possible.Apart from the Alliance, the crew of the Serenity have to face other dangers including the Reavers who are horrifically deformed space cannibals who hunt the cosmos, looking for victims to be eaten alive, dead not being to their taste (so to speak).Serenity is a brilliant film from start to finish and will keep the viewer wholly engrossed. I was surprised and delighted with how good it actually was, and went back for a repeat viewing at the cinema. I also bought the dvd when it came out, and again it makes for terrific viewing on the home cinema system. Sound and picture are both superb on an HDMI picture and multi channel sound.I also bought the dvd of the tv series Firefly and really enjoyed this too. In fact I am glad that I saw the film first because if I had seen the tv series first, then I might have had some unrealistic expectations for the film version. Like many other reviewers on here, I am amazed that the tv series was cancelled but there do appear to be a number of reasons for this, and I intend to look at these in more detail when I write my review of Firefly the tv series. The film, however, ties up many of the loose ends from the tv series.Good news for fans is that Whedon and Universal apparently have another two films of Serenity in the pipeline, and I for one cannot wait to see them.