ive hundred years from now, Earth-That-Was got used up and humans found a new solar system to populate. The Alliance of central planets wanted to extend its hegemony to all; some didn't cotton to it. But the independents, or Browncoats, lost the civil war. They included Mal Reynolds (Fillion) and his second-in-command, Zoe (Gina Torres), who were there at the Battle of Serenity Valley when the Alliance delivered its last, crushing blow.
Physician Simon Tam (Sean Maher), meanwhile, found the lab where Alliance scientists were trying to turn his psychic sister, River (Glau), into a human weapon. Freeing her, he escaped and found refuge on the rickety transport ship Serenity, captained by Reynolds. The Tams joined a crew that includes pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite) and mercenary Jayne (Baldwin).
But a nameless Alliance Operative (Ejiofor) wants River. During River's captivity, members of the Alliance parliament visited her, and the powers that be are now worried about what River may have seen in their minds. The Operative tells an unfortunate Alliance scientist that he's not interested in secrets. He's only interested in keeping them.
As the movie begins, Reynolds and his crew have found a planet with a big, juicy payroll sitting in an Alliance trading station. During the course of the robbery, River has a premonition. Reavers are coming. Reavers are the rapacious savages who roam the outer rim of the system. Reynolds and his crew narrowly escape. This time.
In a saloon on another world, Reynolds and Jayne arrive to conclude their business. But River suddenly wigs out, beating everyone up. She stops only when Simon corrals her.
Jayne wants Simon and River off the boat. Simon, angry that Mal is endangering his beloved sister, wants to leave. Meanwhile, the Operative is drawing up his plans to ensnare the Serenity and its crew. And he won't quit until everyone is dead.
Can't stop the signal
Serenity is an oddity: A major movie based on a failed TV show from a first-time director working with a cast of unknowns. And it's a tough sell: A science-fiction space opera with hints of Chinese and westerns thrown into the mix, a complicated backstory, nine major characters and dark themes.
Given all that, Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) does about as well as can be expected, coming up with an exciting, funny, scary and thought-provoking movie that fulfills much of Firefly's promise. Fans of Whedon's work will recognize a lot: There are hints of Buffy here and there, lots of his trademark snappy dialogue and character-based humor and plenty of acrobatic action, and Serenity wraps up the Firefly story neatly.
Whedon also gets a chance to work his directorial chops, glimpsed heretofore only in episodes of Whedon's Buffy, Angel and Firefly TV series. He expands the Firefly universe, shows great skill in staging massive action set pieces and throws in nods to filmed westerns and SF epics of the past. The movie even features one of Whedon's signature tracking shots early on: a four-minute scene that walks the audience through the entire ship and introduces each of the main characters in succession, without a cut. (Necessarily, the story focuses more on Mal and River than on the rest of the cast, and some characters—notably Inara [Morena Baccarin] and Shepherd Book [Ron Glass]—are hardly in the movie at all.)
As for the movie's story, it plumbs character and thematic material familiar to anyone who is a fan of Whedon's previous work: faith, heroism, sacrifice, surrogate families and the price of blind idealism, yadda. It's pretty deep for what is otherwise a genre piece, and non-fans may find the movie a bit slow in the midsection. But Whedon more than makes up for it in the finale, which puts Star Wars to shame.
