I got back from the cinema a couple hours ago now, so figured it would be best to write this while the film was still fresh in my mind. A little background first. This movie is a follow-on from the plotlines begun in the aborted tv series Firefly which only ever had 15 episodes made (and only 12 got aired), you can buy the whole lot on one very nice DVD package. I know, I own it, and very worth the money it is too. From what I've read elsewhere online and comments from the Writer/Director himself, the movie is set about 6 months after the end of the tv series. While watching the series isn't neccessary to appreciate the film, you will gain a lot more insight into the plot from having done so.
So I'm biased. I love the tv show, the characters, the universe that Joss Whedon and his team of scriptwriters created, a future 500 years from now where humanity has moved on from Earth after this planets resources ran out, and instead settled a huge solar system, with dozens of planets and hundreds of moons, all of which got terraformed to one degree or another. The film nicely summarises this backstory in the first couple minutes and then moves into the history of a couple of the major characters, namely the doctor Simon Tam and his gifted sister River. As the tv series revealed, River was extensively operated upon, her brain altered and parts stripped away, granting her telepathic ability, but also removing her control over her emotions. While she isn't the films lead character, she is the reason for what happens in the story.
Serenity itself is a Firefly class transport ship, owned by Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, an independence war veteran who fought on the side that lost and carries a serious grudge against the side that won. His crew consists of: Zoe the first officer, the only other surviving member of his war regiment, her husband Wash the pilot who is also light comedy relief, and whose death provides one of the films most shocking moments. Jayne the mercenary is hired muscle, used by Mal as a strongman on the jobs they undertake, which are frequently criminal in nature. Kaylee the mechanic keeps the ship flying, as well as having a crush on Simon. The other major characters are Inara a companion (high class escort girl) and Book a shepherd (preacher) who both travelled with the ship during the tv series, but have since settled elsewhere. Needless to say both get caught up in events.
I loved this film, it provides a big payoff for several of the major plot threads from the tv series, while still leaving plenty of room for a sequel and I'm really hoping that it gets at least one more film to follow it. I would be very surprised if it doesn't do extremely well for the careers of the actors and actresses involved (I know I'd like to see more of the incredibly beautiful Morena Baccarin, who plays Inara, on screens). It deserves to have sequels, it is not a pretentious film that gets preachy (most of the Star Treks) nor it is flashy for the sake of it (Star Wars prequel trilogy). It presents a pretty believeable view of the future, I especially like how the characters swear in chinese as that and english are the only languages left.
The movie is small in that it is primarily driven by the nine characters on the ship and also The Operative, a ruthless government agent sent to hunt down and kill River Tam as she is believed to know various state secrets that the government want kept secret at all costs. It is also epic, in the scope of the plot, the huge space battle near the end and how it looks. The film was shot on a fraction of the enormous budgets Hollywood likes to throw at films these days, yet looks as good as anything else in its genre, every cent is there on the screen, and from the looks of it, well spent.
If you like sci-fi see this film, if you like clever sneaky characters being clever and sneaky, see this film, and if you want to see a far more compelling vision of mankinds future in space than the utopia of the Federation from Star Trek, then see this film. I loved this movie, arguably the best film I've seen at the cinema all year.
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