Serenity

Synopsis: The crew of the spaceship Serenity takes any job that will pay, even if it's not exactly legal. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) leads a ragtag crew - his second in command Zoe (Gina Torres), her husband and pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), the mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite), and muscleman Jayne (Adam Baldwin). Malcolm takes on two fugitives, young doctor Simon (Sean Maher) and his unstable, para-normal sister River (Summer Glau). While being experimented on by the Government Alliance, River learned something that the operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) will do anything to keep secret, something that could blow the system apart.

Mal: Ship like this, be with you 'til the day you die.
Zoe: That's cause it's a deathtrap.
Mal: You are very much lacking in imagination.
Zoe: I imagine that's so, sir.*

The Serenity flies five hundred years in the future. Humanity has long since fled the dying Earth and terraformed dozens of planets in a vast new solar system. The innermost planets and moons are sterile bureaucracies ruled by the Government Alliance; and the outermost are a hybrid futurist frontier of lawless cowboys and cowgirls. Smuggling is alive and well - the lifeblood of the rebellious crew of the firefly-class spaceship Serenity.

Director Joss Whedon's light is still somewhat under a bushel for mainstream audiences, although he is responsible for three huge TV cult hits in the last decade. Part of his elusiveness from mainstream consciousness may be because, as a writer, his stories and characters are so substantial that he is almost obscured by them. Almost everyone knows of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But few who haven't watched it, and even some who have, wouldn't know that Whedon was the creative force behind it. Similarly, he is not well known as a movie writer or script editor, yet has worked on films from Toy Story to Alien Resurrection. To his fans, of course, he is God. And the back of his head is said to be particularly sexy.

Mal: If anyone gets nosy, just...you know... shoot 'em.
Zoe: Shoot 'em?
Mal: Politely.

Whedon busts genres in three TV series that, at least superficially, have a very niche market. It took me 13 years to sit down and watch the mega-hit Buffy. Within days, I was hooked, renting all seven seasons in the space of a few months. It was a roller-coaster of comedy, horror, romance, musical, puppetry, surreal and the absurd. It's teen and twenties angst and humour, with vampires. Then I started on Whedon's spin-off series, Angel: 1950s noir detective stories in washed-out modern LA, with vampires.

But it was the TV series Firefly that first drew me in to Joss' universes. It doesn't have vampires, but it is about the vagaries of good and evil of both the life-sucking and political varieties. Serenity continues the story on the big screen with a big plot suitable for both fans and complete novices. It's got big action too, although a combination of Whedon's talents and a relatively small budget keeps the characters at the forefront.

Preacher Book: If you take advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special place in hell... a place reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theater...

Serenity is a gritty take on a stripped-back future. Resources are stretched to the point that food and medicine are more valuable than money. George Lucas may think he popularized Western sci-fi operas, but he ended up in a fantasy world. The Serenity universe feels grittier, edgier, and more like a possible future - an original blend of cultural and linguistic elements that remind me a little of things from spaghetti westerns, Blade Runner, 2001 and the 1970s BBC sci-fi, Blake's 7. The good guys aren't relaxing in shiny spaceships polishing their light sabers. They're ricocheting around the system in an (albeit reliable) rust-bucket cleaning their six-shooters before yet another lowlife tries to rip them off. And they may not even be the good guys. But they got a code. And it is the code that gets them, somewhat reluctantly, caught in an epic struggle between Alliance forces on one side, and the barbarous 'Reavers' on the other.

Jayne: You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'till you understand who's in ruttin' command here!

This is not continuously good-natured Star Trek sci-fi, although it is often very funny. This is, as Whedon would say, horror-romance-drama-comic-thriller sci-fi. Hopefully, it will be successful enough for Whedon to realize his planned sequels.

River: I can kill you with my brain.

*Quotes are from the Firefly TV series.

 

 

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