Serenity

***Note***

Mild spoilers and plot discussion ahead. You have been warned!

***End Note***

Serenity is the big screen adaptation of the defunct television series Firefly, whose popularity has steadily risen since the release of the DVDs. Fans of the series will not be disappointed because the humor and the "casual" feel of the show is well transcribed to the movie. Newcomers to the world of Firefly will agree that the way the whedon tells us what has happened without patronizing is refreshing to say the least.

The story revolves around a group of rag-tag space mercinaries/pirates/trades-people. who are just trying to make a living in a less that legal way. As you may be able to tell from the poster (seen to the left), this is a sci-fi flick and thus has all the virtues and the flaws of the genre.

The movie opens to the crew, exactly the same cast as the show, trying to land their crippled ship. The pivot of the movie, a psychic warrior, aptly played by Summer Glau, is thrown into the path of danger and into the hands of cpt. Mal because of fate/bad decisions/luck. The story revolves around a secret that has been kept from the colonists of the outer planets. Whedon does a good job of building up the tension and preparing the audience for the pay off. The movie was highly entertaining because the humor allowed the story to flow and the characters witty dialogue was pretty good too. I would have like to have seen more in space battle scenes and more of Summer fighting. That being said, there was plenty of violence. The visual effects were great and the soundtrack was an interesting choice.

Overall I would give this film a 7/10 or a 3 star rating, a highly entertaining film that worked well in the genre but pushed no boundaries.

Pros:
Story was well laid out and written
Dialogue was as funny as hell
Firefly's legacy carried on

Cons:
Not enough space fighting
Killed off some characters
Not enough aliens