SERENITY

Directed by Joss Whedon

Starring Nathan Fillion

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

THUMBS UP FILM REVIEW RATING!

It would be pretty easy for me to bash SERENITY to pieces during this review ...but I won't. The bashings, as some folks at Amazon.com pointed out, can be directed at the lack of advancement in language, limited projectile-type weaponry, and a microcosmic-society inside the spaceship SERENITY that have reverted back to the cowboy-shoot `em-up days.

It could also be considered cliche-riddled with the lone-type gunslinger fighting against far superior numbers and odds, only to win and change the course of everything.

But again, I'm not going to bash these things. So you may be asking, "Why?" Well ...because it works. The film is not really meant to break any new science fiction movie-making ground. It's designed to be entertaining, with exciting gun-battles, eye-popping CGI, and characters who are great to watch. From Mal (Nathan Fillion, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN), SERENITY'S captain who holds a grudge against the all-powerful Alliance, to the beautiful but lethal River (Summer Glau, FIREFLY) who can become a killing machine with the utterance of one word, all of SERENITY'S crew have to battle their pasts and presents and, sometimes, even themselves.

The other thing that made the film fun and easy to watch was the snappy dialogue and frequent use of humor during extreme situations. One scene that comes to mind even now is when River escapes from SERENITY'S brig and takes control of the bridge. Once Mal finds out where she is, he rushes up there to find her typing in coordinates and she quickly draws a weapon on him. Mal says, "You know, I trusted that you were a human being, at least somewhere in there you were. And my crew trusted me on that. So if you're not you might as well shoot me now." "Click!" sounds as she cocks her weapon. Mal swallows, "Or we could just talk some more," he says quickly.

It's really great to see comedy in science fiction (not since GALAXY QUEST have I enjoyed listening to this type of dialogue).

So don't worry about the cliche's or the common plot. This is just a flat-out enjoyable film experience. And one that requires viewing on a big screen (like most SF and Fantasy films).

Click here for the Serenity movie trailer!