Description
Science fiction fans will recognize in this pleasantly old-fashioned space opera the basic plotline and characters of Firefly, the short-lived 2002 television series by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel). It takes place in a faraway solar system dominated by an overbearing Alliance that's being challenged by rebel upstarts with varying agendas. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), captain of the spaceship Serenity and its ragtag, smuggling crew, takes aboard a psychic named River Tam (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher), fugitives from Alliance mind-washers. Reynolds may come to regret the decision, as his passengers are being pursued by the most tenacious and deadly of Alliance agents, a man known only as the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor). There's nothing terribly innovative about the plot; Whedon's Alliance is another of those bureaucratic, Big Brotherish entities that offers freedom from discontent while subverting civil liberties and stifling dissent. The Serenity's motley crew typifies the rugged, rough-edged, anti-establishment individualists that naturally reject societal structure. You can guess who comes out on top. But writer-director Whedon isn't interested in breaking new ground, and his half-hearted attempt to tinge Serenity with political satire falls flat. Whedon's strength is character delineation and interplay, and the movie is most enjoyable when its principal characters are jousting verbally. Mal's crew -- Zoe (Gina Torres), Wash (Alan Tudyk), Jayne (Adam Baldwin), Inara (Morena Baccarin), and Kaylee (Jewel Staite) -- banter with aplomb, speaking in a peculiar combination of futuristic jargon and pseudo-hip Chinese slang. Some of Whedon's dialogue is a little too cutesy for our taste, but it's generally snappy and well delivered by a relaxed cast that's obviously having fun with the material. The surfeit of talk, however, doesn't mean that Serenity stints on action -- far from it. There are lots of energetic confrontations, both in space and on the ship, and if you blink at the wrong time you're liable to miss plenty.
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