Joss Whedon's Serenity (2.5/4 stars)

I decided to go ahead and see Serenity without having seen Firefly, just for a different perspective. It seems a lot of the people who have seen Firefly rave about Serenity - I wanted to see if the film worked for someone who knew nothing about the "verse" as it is called. Someone who isn't a "browncoat".

For the most part, the film works. The universe is interesting, the storytelling moves at a decent clip, and the story, while nothing new, is sufficiently engaging. Ok, it's not much better than a big Star Trek episode, but Whedon's dialogue, the element he hangs his hat on, is present in some places.

Serenity also carries the weaknesses of the genre - the ensemble cast prevents the film from sufficiently developing any real connection with any of them, and the actors aren't allowed enough time to grow their characters. Even the lead character, Malcolm, makes a jarring character transition driven by screentime constraints. The ending leaves the story open for a sequel, or course, but from current scuttlebutt that's not in the cars as Serenity didn't make enough at the box office to justify one.

The characters a reminiscent of a regular party from a roleplaying game - the rakish, strong-willed captain of the Serenity, Malcolm, the weapons master Jayne, the tech Kaylee, the two pilots (who are a couple) Wash and Zoe, and two newcomers to the ship who are the centerpiece of the story. One is the ship's doctor, Simon, and his sister, River. River is apparently a psychic/deadly weapon that Simon broke out of the "Alliance" facility that was housing her. The Alliance has dispatched an Operative to track her down, and this is the cat and mouse game that threads through the film.

As an aside, the three girls of Serenity range from interesting (Summer Glau, River) to cute (Jewel Staite, Kaylee) to pretty hot (Brazilian babe Monica Baccarin, Inara). At least they have that over Star Wars, as they all are quite a bit more attractive than Carrie Fisher, who never did anything for me despite the Jabba bikini.

Overall, Serenity will engage any sci fi fan for its 2-hour running time. It's not as great as its fans make it out to be, but it's still pretty decent considering the difficulty Whedon had getting it distributed. Well worth the watch, but don't go in with Star Wars-caliber expectations.