Sam's Movie Reviews

A great film. Of course I own the Firefly DVD set, have the DVR set to record the reruns, and have watched a few of the reruns when they were on...

The opening sequence is brilliant - it looks like one long take, but I'm not observant enough to actually tell. It introduces the characters and of course the ship to the new folk, and provides the old folk with that "seeing old friends again" feeling and throws them some references to things in the TV series too. The next scene introduces River's background and provides those who watched the series with some new information, it also gives the impression that the movie is going to have more action than the series.

Joss Whedon let his young female superhero fetish get the best of him. River has more superpowers than in the series (though the series was building up to them it seemed before it's life was ended early) and it feels very Buffy. I like Buffy too, but I considered it a downside, River in the series was better.

Inara and Shepherd Book get short changed too. Which is expected, there are far too many characters for a two hour film - even leaving those two mostly out it's still too crowded and I suspect that those new to the characters don't grow attached enough to care about any of them. Nine is just too many. Which will make those moments that fans of the series find touching/sad/happy less so for the those who didn't watch the series.

There is plenty of action, a little too much even - I would have prefered more character interaction, but I'm guessing I'm in the minority. There's plenty of funny. There's even a few shocks. Interspersed with the funny - enough to make at least one moment where there was laughter throughout the cinema and then silence as the funny moment was ripped to shreds by something most unexpected.

A film with some flaws, but they are more than made up for simply by seeing the Serenity and her crew on the big screen. When the DVD comes out it better have a director's commentary track.

The big let down is that it's missing the theme song from the series, and no an instrumental at the very end of the closing credits doesn't count. The lyrics sum up the series (and the movie) perfectly:

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me

Have no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me

I waited and waited through the credits for that... And it never came :(