FanUnity B(uzz)log

It's hard for me to judge "Serenity" as a stand alone movie, because I enjoyed the TV series it is based on, "Firefly", so much. Thankfully, "Serenity" is full of everything I loved about "Firefly." The witty zingers, the endearing characters, the moxy, the well-divised plots are all present and accounted for. What TV viewers came to expect from Joss Whedon's cult classic "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" TV series, "Serenity" takes to another level.

Although I am not the best person to judge this, I imagine that someone who never saw "Firefly" would have been able to enjoy "Serenity" — assuming their personal inclinations gravitate toward liking this type of thing as mine do — and I can tell you first hand that it is a hell of a lot of fun for a fan. For me, "Serenity" was like a night hanging out with dear old friends, every minute filled with fun and going by way too fast.

"Serenity" reintroduces the story of the crew of the Serenity, and their government-hunted passengers River and Simon Tam. Sneaking Simon and River under the collective noses of the sinister galactic government, the Alliance, the crew takes on clandestine missions and smuggling runs to keep in business and stay afloat. Captained by a veteran on the losing side of the galactic civil war the Alliance won, the gruff Han Solo-esque Malcolm Reynolds, the Serenity's crew is full of fun characters. Eventually, an event occurs that draws the Alliance's attention to the fact that the Tams have been hiding on the Serenity, and all hell breaks lose.

While "Serenity" may have been spawned from a cancelled TV series like "Star Trek", it's really much more an heir to the "Star Wars" tradition of swashbuckling space fantasy. In that it is the stuff that great franchises are made of, "Serenity" is an heir to both of those matured sci-fi sagas. It's a fresh new universe filled with possibility, one that ought to be exploited in sequels.

As a fan, I couldn't be any happier with "Serenity." It will join "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge Of The Sith" as a movie I go to see multiple times this year. With "Star Wars" finished in movie form, "Lord Of The Rings" complete and "Star Trek" sputtering in mediocrity, the world was without a sci-fi/fantasy franchise to anticipate more and more from. "Serenity" fills that hole, and while the world isn't substantially a better place for it, it sure will be a funner place.

5/5 Stars.