Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran on the losing side of a galactic civil war, now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family - squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal. When Mal takes on two new passengers - a young doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister - he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, who will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. The crew that was once used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board Serenity herself. This is the feature film version of the late, lamented sci-fi cult TV series "Firefly."

Truth be told I have never seen a single episode of Firefly or for that matter I didn’t even really know what it was about and that’s a shame for several reasons. First off judging by the movie adaptation I missed out on a great Television series. And secondly it would have helped tremendously in understanding the movie and getting more involved with the characters. That’s always a flaw of a little screen to big screen adaptation is the fact that the characters have been so much more fleshed out over an 18 hour season of TV than is ever possible in a 2 hour movie. I was wondering for the first third of the movie if the movie had been over hyped as it took so much time to get going and so much explaining to bring up those who hadn’t seen the show up to speed. But when it gets going it goes that’s for sure. Once its done with all its introductions and side plots so you understand the characters the movie becomes the fun, fast paced sci-fi film I was expecting and ended up loving. And that’s what the movie is a fun, action packed Science Fiction romp full of explosions, strange worlds and kick butt fight scenes.

There is a saying going around the Internet as a joke that Joss Whedon is my new master and that phrase could not fit this movie more fitting that anything I can say. Joss Whedon has today’s hip, smart, fast paced culture down to a beat. He understands what audiences want and he gives it to him. He also is the master of the sarcastic remark as anybody who watched shows like Buffy or Angel will attribute and as you will see for yourself in Serenity. The humor is perfect, full of quips and sarcasm and perfectly inserted into the film to get a laugh when the movie most needs it. The quips and remarks allow for the quite moments between all the action and they are what keep you interested when the movie isn’t busy blowing things up. As far as the actors go I think most of them must have been following their small screen roles and as such none really shined out for me. It was Chiwetel Ejiofor that made the movie for me, he was the cold, ruthless, heartless villain the movie needed and he added tension when there would have been none. I certainly enjoyed Summer Glau as River but it was Chiwetel who made the movie for me even though I can’t pronounce his name, I am sure the fans of the TV series will love the movie and I also sure fans of Science Fiction and Action movies will as well, I am not sure where everyone else will fall but they should still go out and see the movie, you never know you may love it like I did.
4 stars out of 5