You know, the original vision of Gene Roddenberry when he was developing Star Trek back in the mid sixties was a space western that would represent a hopeful view of the future sans rascism, a "Wagon Train to the Stars." Over the next 40 years, there would be 5 Star Trek TV series and 10 Star Trek movies, with the last movie and series ultimately failing to find an audience and were subsequently critically comdemned to a black hole. One couldn't help but think that Gene, if he were still alive today, would have really enjoyed Joss Whedon's own TV space western, Firefly, and its big screen adaptation Serenity, which are actually more akin to a space western than any Trek incarnation ever was and brings all walks of life together on one ship. And, just like the original Star Trek series, which was cancelled just after 3 years, but found an audience afterwards, so did Firefly, which was abruptly cancelled by Fox just after a scant 11 episodes aired, but surprising fan response worldwide prompted Universal Pictures, in a very unique move for a big movie studio, to give Firefly a chance on the bigscreen with a $40 million budget movie written and directed by first time director Joss Whedon, starring a predominantly unknown cast: ergo, Serenity.
To take a failed TV project and turn it into a movie? Been there. Well, Star Trek did that and it became a successful franchise that will last indefinitely. But its fandom had years to incubate between the years of 1969 when Trek was cancelled til 1979 when Star Trek: The Motion Picture. A new generation was able to grab hold of the Enterprise and not let go. Of course, the other intergalactic cash cow Star Wars had something to do with the motivation as well. Firefly was cancelled just less than 3 years ago. For Universal to commit to this movie project show that they really have faith in Firefly and believe in Joss Whedon's ability to tell a story. He is an Oscar nominated screenwriter after all (for Toy Story). And resurrecting failed projects is something Whedon's not unfamiliar with. Done that. He's gone where no one has gone before, taking a failed movie project (which bombed horribly) and turned it into a critically acclaimed TV series that ran for a full7 years (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) that turned around and spun out another critically acclaimed TV series (Angel) lasting 5 years. Science fiction had been on Whedon's mind for a while after going down the fantasy road for so long, so Firefly soon went into production somewhere in the middle. Whedon was running 3 shows concurrently, definitely not an easy feat. Yet all the stories for each show were compelling, loaded with character development, drama, humor, comedy, and multi-arcing plot developments. Quality writing, which unfortunately is scarce on today's television.
The universe of Firefly is unique and what separates it from all those who have gone before is the fact that it is completely alien-free. The show is about the human condition. Set 500 years in the future, where Earth-That-Was, (our planet) exhausts all resources, which forces mankind to terraform other planets into myriads of new earths. Many end up technologically advanced civilizations, many don't. The central planets form The Alliance, and decide they should govern all the planets. Those on the outer planets who refuse to join and be independent get themselves in an intergalactic civil war (The Unificiation War), ultimately losing and continue running from The Alliance, doing whatever they could to survive in the fringes of space. Malcolm Reynolds is a soldier who fights in the war as an Independent and loses, and now commands a Firefly class transport ship called Serenity named after the last great decisive battle of the war, Battle of Serenity Valley. Joined by his former lieutenant Zoe, her husband pilot Wash, young mechanic Kaylee, fugitive doctor and his sister Simon and River Tam, preacher Shepherd Book, mercenary Jayne Cobb, and Companion Inara, all the family that this eclectic group has is each other out in space. They'll take different jobs, transport and the like to get paid and survive out there. Some safe, some dangerous. Avoiding Reavers. Avoiding The Alliance. Alliance bounty hounters. Any other colorful freelance mercenaries. Marauders. Protecting Simon and River from The Alliance who have a secret agenda with River. You do what you can to keep on flying.
And flying it will keep on. After the series ended in December 2002 and Firefly DVD season sets came out several months later, it became a hot seller selling over a reported 500,000 units and a top seller on Amazon.com. In fact, just last week after Serenity came out, it was up to #3 in sale ranking on Amazon.com. Fox's Family Guy DVD's sold so well that it resurrected the cancelled animated show. Alas, could Firefly be resurrected? Well, costing around $2 million an episode, that was quite expensive for an ad supported show and it just never got the ratings it needed to justify the cost. Family Guy was animated, so there was needless to say not much overhead, just a guy at his desk. Well, maybe a couple. Joss Whedon was determined not to let his show die out. Shopping his show around to different networks just wasn't getting any desired results at all. TV was in the middle of reality TV craze back then, and no intelligently scripted series were given the light of day, until recently a certain Oceanir Air Flight 815 crashed on ABC and people were Lost for good. Now every network is jumping on the bandwagon with their own wanna be faux alien invasion sci-fi series. But that'll be another post. And cable networks just didn't have the budget to sustain such a rich detailed show as Firefly due to the nature of cable television. What to next? Whedon then caught the attention of an Universal executive, who ended up loving the show and believing in the project, and ultimately it was greenlit and the future was history.
Serenity is set several months after the events of the last episode of Firefly, and several characters have moved on to different things. Simon and River are still highly wanted persons of interest of The Alliance, who sends an unnamed assassin called The Operative to track down and retrieve River Tam, who apparently harbors something important that must be secured. Mal and the crew will stop at no cost protecting River and stop the assassin who believes what he is doing is for a better world, the greater good, for righteousness sake, no matter the heinous crimes he resorts to reach River. Mal learns a little about himself along the way, as does the crew. Finding the truth. And letting that truth be known. Can our ship full of heroes save the day? In a nutshell, this seems like a basic big chase movie. Well it kinda is, but it breaks the usual Hollywood formula in a way no other writer/director could. Turn a 2 hour run of the mill chase movie into something memorable? Whedon did. Serenity turned out to not only be an exciting thrill ride, but is able to elicit the gamut of emotions from the audience and dare say even challenge the state of Hollywood today, but as others have pointed already, above all it has heart. Lots of heart. And that is what shines through. There's never been a science fiction movie with as many charismatic characters as this, that gel together perfectly through this ensemble cast. Not since Kirk stole Enterprise A from Space dock to rescue Spock from the Genesis planet, that is. Well not really. And that wasn't even as ensemble as the crew of Serenity.
You don't need star power to bolster this enterprise. Characters are brought to life each and every one by our unknown cast, having distinguishable traits and idiosyncracies. Every member of the cast are alloted their hero moments, fun chracter moments, and fans will enjoy the various character interactions plenty at play in the movie. There are some priceless moments and then some. As Joss Whedon said, "these actors were born to play these characters," and that I would have to agree with. None can argue with that. Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds has been described as the "New Han Solo", and that wouldn't be too far off from the truth. The brash, no nonsense, tell like it is Mal will do whatever it takes to do what he thinks is right and be subservient to no one. He would shoot Greedo first in a New York Minute. Gina Torres, or Mrs. Lawrence Fishburne, as Zoe is Mal's right hand, a strong leader. Alan Tudyk as Wash, the ace pilot of our namesake ship, is funny and lightens up any moment. Jayne (Adam Baldwin) is the mercenary, little rough round the edges with no manners, and is additional comic relief. Simon and River Tam, our star fugitives played by Sean Maher and Summer Glau, are excellent in their roles as a brother in desperation trying to protect his kin and Summer an emotional schizoid wreck. Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), Inara (Morena Baccarin), Kaylee (Jewel Staite) don't get as much screentime as the more principals, as there are only two hours to tell the story and it's difficult to work everyone in as much as the television show. But everyone received adequate time that strenghtened their characters and the story.
The characters wouldn't be going anywhere without a story, and what an adventure they have. The big difference between the movie and the series is that with the series, there was more time to develop characters, plot arcs, etc. so not every minute was filled with action because you're learning about the crew slowly but surely. With a movie, there isn't as much time to create endearing characters, while trying to tell a story in 3 acts. In Serenity, one can notice that the action has been cranked up about 10 notches, but it's 10 incredible notches, in order to keep up with Joneses of the MTV generation audience. Keep it fast paced so you don't lose anyone. The action is as grand as they come, topping any mini adventure the crew experienced in the show. The special effects were done by Zoic Studios, who did the FX for the series (and won an Emmy and Visual Effects Society awards for their work on Firefly) and who currently do the FX for the new Battlestar Galactica series, do a bang up job here bringing shiny Serenity back into flight and make Reavers look real real scary. Even though the runtime of the movie is around 2 hours, it flies by so fast you don't get a chance to get bored. The pacing is excellent, flowing from one plot point to another, culminating in an exciting all out final third climax that will shock and awe the most die hard of fans in its level of intensity. It's been a while since sci-fi action of this magnitude hit the big screen. The one thing Whedon does that Lucas was unable to in any of his prequels was create anything that would jolt the viewer emotionally instead of marveling at the CGI. Look Ma, green screen.
Probably already mentioned this before, but Serenity should be a wake up call to the sci-fi community. Those that are tired of the same old recycled mush being called science fiction these days, circulating on TV and the multiplex should look elsewhere. They should look at the heroes of Serenity and the humanity that they embody. Their search for the truth and for it to be known. Bring back the simpler days. Where heroes were heroes and not made up of a bunch of pixels. Where fights were raw and real and not pretty laser blasts flashing around. Where epic is not a measure of the size of the battlefield but a cause. Where one would risk his or her life for something real, for finding the truth. Simple as that. Truth in action. Truth in living. That's it. All I ask for is a tall ship and the stars to steer her by.
Note:
Serenity got a modest $10.1 million its first box office weekend, a fourth of the budget. Just domestic, so within the next couple weeks it should hopefully exceed its cost. Go see it people. Everyday. And bring your family and friends. Let's keep Serenity flying. Believe in it. Let other people know the truth.
Serenity Online Preview (Spoilers!):
Watch the first 9 minutes of the movie online in fullscreen, from UIP pictures.
© All images are copyright Universal.
