This is a SPOILER-FREE review of Serenity! Read it without fear of corruption.

Let me tell you a story. The creator of a hugely popular genre TV show was invited to do a new sci-fi show about a disparate group of loners wandering the spaceways in a starship. Unfortunately, despite a proven track record for his genius if simply allowed to do what he does best, the network felt inclined to meddle. Not happy with the perfectly-acceptable pilot that would get the audience up to speed, they demanded a new, more exciting first episode, and then broadcast the show out of order. Lacking network support and not garnering overwhelming ratings, and despite a devoted fan base, the show was canceled after half a season’s worth of episodes.

But enough about “The Crusade“, the sequel series to “Babylon 5.”

Let’s talk about how history repeated itself with “Firefly“.

I have this friend who, having never seen or heard of Firefly, went to one of those “working print” screenings of Serenity back in June and has ever since been hanging out at the airport banging this tambourine with a picture of Joss Whedon on it. I mean, he ordered the Firefly box set the very next day, scrounged for advance tickets to the new movie (that’s how I got in last night) and even drove over to my house to drop off the DVDs (though not all of them, for that would leave nothing running on a loop at his own house) so that I could check out the show.

I was torn as to whether I should watch the DVDs. Do I want to review the movie for Monitor Duty as a newcomer to the show would, so as to experience it and rate it as a newbie? In the end, I watched the first four episodes on Disk 1 the night before seeing the movie, and yet I didn’t learn much that isn’t set up in the movie. Clearly, how easily the non-fans can pick up on the situations and characters is a good indication of how accessible the film is. In cases where the movie is based on a pre-existing universe, the writer must navigate between over-familiarity and the assumption of familiarity.

For example: the title of the movie. Due to legal reasons, they couldn’t use Firefly in the title, so they had to come up with something else. They picked “Serenity”. For the longest time, I wasn’t able to make the connection that this was the movie spinoff of Firefly. I mean, “Serenity” is the kind of title you give to a chick flick with Annabeth Gish and Glenn Close as divorced friends who move to a beach house. It doesn’t come across to the average American as “space cowboy opera”. Sure, to the Firefly viewer, Serenity is the name of the spaceship flown by the main characters, as well as the location of a military defeat…but to most people, it’s meaningless. Hopefully the title won’t be a hindrance to this movie’s success.

Now that I’ve seen the movie, I have to say…

The film is totally accessible to anyone who hasn’t seen the TV series. All you need to know about the universe comes through clearly in the opening exposition (don’t worry, it’s good exposition that makes sense and is worked into the story). Everything essential to setting up the characters is conveyed through acting and sensible dialogue. For example, the captain leaves the pilot and walks up to Zoe, and when she asks how the landing will go he says, “Ask your husband.” Now anyone unfamiliar with Firefly knows she’s married to the pilot, but the dialogue is appropriate.

It would be better to see the TV show before the movie ONLY in the sense that you can enjoy the TV episodes more if you don’t want to see how many of the developing plotlines are resolved in the movie. It would be comparable to watching the movie “The X-Files: Fight the Future” before watching the TV show; you could follow and enjoy the movie, but then in trying to watch the show you’d always know what happens to the Well-Manicured Man, what the black oil does, where the bees come from, etc. In the same way, this movie is a payoff and conclusion to many of the premises of the show. (An aside: Attending the screening with a packed theater of Firefly fans can be frustrating as they shriek with delight, drowning out the audio. I suppose if you’re a Firefly fan, that last sentence just amounts to: there are things in this movie that will make you shriek with delight.)

For the benefit of many in this audience who haven’t seen the TV show, I’ll give a very brief summary:

“Firefly” is essentially a western set in outer space. And not just in the way “Star Trek” was “Wagon Train In Space”; I mean it’s literally a western, with guitar music, gunbelts, cowboy accents, and horses as the primary method of transportation. The main characters are outlaws who stick up banks and rob trains; they just happen to ride in a spaceship from planet to planet and heist to heist.

Humanity has left Earth to settle in a new solar system filled with terraformed planets and moons. The inner planets have formed a highly civilized Alliance with an overbearing socialist government, while the outer planets have largely fallen into a lawless self-rule. Most of these outer planets have societies that are little more than shanty towns of the Old West with a pub and a general store. The main characters ride around in a Firefly-class ship (so named for the distinctive glowing turbine at the back end of the vehicle) avoiding capture by the Alliance ships and even more afraid of being captured by Reaver ships.

Oh, yeah. The Reavers. Forget the Klingons, who adapt Shakespeare into their own language and these days are more likely to talk your ear off about the nobility of their customs than they are to slice you up and leave no survivors. (Remember when Klingons were, you know, scary?) The Reavers are… well, one of the characters in the TV pilot summarized it best: “They’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins to their clothing…and if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.” The Reavers are boogeymen who molest and maul their victims. They’re said to be human beings who have gone space-mad. They’re like angry zombies except they want to have sex before they kill you.

Granted, the Reavers as a concept doesn’t work. Lust-driven madmen can’t cooperatively run a ship. I mean, can you see a spaceship full of the infected in “28 Days Later” deciding who has to fly the ship and keep the engines running while others get to do all the raping and eating? I can’t.

All of that out of the way, how was the movie? It’s a strong, well-written, well-directed sci-fi film that never ventures into cliched territory. The acting is superb all-around; the performance of this group of TV actors puts most of Hollywood to shame. Even if you don’t know the characters from Firefly, by the end of the movie you will have accepted them as friends on a personal level. And while I hate to fall into “Joss Whedon is my master now” territory, I couldn’t say the same thing about Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi or Amidala after three very long movies.

I wish I’d paid more attention at the opening scene. I didn’t know until this morning that the inside of the Serenity ship was constructed on two large sets, allowing for uninterrupted movement. What this means is that Captain Mal can open the movie talking to the pilot in the cockpit of the ship and then walk all the way through crew quarters and engineering and ending up in the loading dock all in one long uninterrupted take. Watch that again: all of the characters are introduced and deliver their lines flawlessly in a single shot. Technically, that is far more impressive than a war between CGI droids.

Speaking of CGI, what I like about both Firefly and Serenity is the use of CGI technology that allows shots that look like they are taken from a handheld camera, with jostling movements, sudden zooms, focus changes, etc. It takes something that is entirely unreal and gives it a weight and realism that my words cannot convey.

This movie is highly recommended. Five out of five stars. Go see it!

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