Review of Serenity

Set in the universe of the TV show Firefly, Serenity follows the crew of the spaceship Serenity on a quest for knowledge. After having exhausted the resources of our own solar system, mankind has moved to another solar system and created the Alliance, which rules the 'Core' worlds, where most of humanity resides, and ignores the frontier planets, where pretty much anything goes. A young psychic, River (Summer Glau), challenges that authority after she is rescued from an Alliance facility by her brother (Sean Maher). They hire the Serenity to take them to the frontier to avoid the Alliance. The Alliance sends the Operative (Chiwetel Eljiofor) to track them down and return River to the research centre. The Serenity's captain, Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds refuses to let her be taken and does everything in his power to protect them both from the Operative.

The crew of Serenity, is a band of ne'er do wells, former rebels and criminals who cruise the fringes of explored space and find adventure. A quick voice over in the beginning gives the uninitiated the basics, so if you've never seen Firefly, you don't have to worry. This was a good movie that was really made only due to fans on the Net (and maybe DVD sales). Personally, it kinda reminds me of Star Trek, in that fans got producers to make a movie after the original TV series was cancelled, although it took far longer for Trekkies.

The movie has its moments and there is plenty of action and some funny one-liners, ala Indiana Jones, which helps when the movie's pace slows down for a while in the middle. All in all, it is a good, solid movie which probably won't do much business because no one seems to know about it. And that's really a shame...

8 out of 10