September 30, 2005 | Like most other carbon-based life forms on this planet, I have never seen a single episode of Firefly, the short-lived sci-fi TV series created by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. (Come to think of it, I’ve never watched Buffy, either. Maybe I should stay home more often?) So I am ill-prepared to tell you whether Whedon has remained true to the spirit of his show – which has attracted a fervent cult following since its cancellation – now that he has recycled and expanded its key elements in a feature film titled Serenity.
As a newbie to this universe, I only can speak as someone judging the movie on its own terms, for its own merits. And you know what? It’s pretty good. Not great, mind you, but light years beyond the clunky motion picture that re-launched the Star Trek franchise back in 1979.
It works best when the vividly drawn lead characters are doing nothing more dramatic than talking with (and at) each other in a delightfully colorful patois that sounds like a mix of dime-novel Western, Saturday-matinee serial and pulp-magazine sci-fi. (“No more running!” a character sternly announces at one point. “I aim to misbehave!”) It is appreciably less interesting, and far too formulaic, whenever Whedon starts to blow things up, or hurl things through space, in the manner of someone manufacturing yet another bargain-basement Star Wars knock-off. To turn the adage on its head: In Serenity, words speak much louder, and more entertainingly, than action.
For the benefit of those who tuned in late: Serenity is the name of the battered spacecraft used to transport cargo – and, occasionally, smuggle contraband – by Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), an ex-soldier who fought heroically (but, alas, vainly) on the losing side of an intergalactic civil war. In the post-war universe, the disillusioned Mal tries to keep a low profile, and make a few bucks, while commanding an eclectic crew of misfits: Zoe (Gina Torres), his stoic second-in-command; Wash (Alan Tudyk), Zoe’s pilot husband; Jayne (Adam Baldwin), a macho mercenary; and Kaylee (Jewell Staite), the ship’s resourceful (albeit borderline-ditzy) mechanic.
Also along for the ride: Simon (Sean Maher), a young doctor who joined the crew to secure sanctuary for his sister, River Tam (Summer Glau), an unstable telepath who knows too much – in fact, more than she knows that she knows – about the machinations of the all-powerful Universal Alliance that emerged victorious in the civil war.
Much of Serenity is given over to Captain Mal’s attempts to protect River Tam from The Operative (Chitwetel Ejiofor), a smooth-talking assassin who’s fanatically and murderously loyal to the Alliance cause. But Mal’s best efforts are greatly hampered by River’s vertiginous mood swings: At the least provocation, the willowy waif turns into a butt-kicking, neck-breaking woman warrior who attacks friends, foes and total strangers with equal fury.
Another complicating factor: Occasional attacks by psychotic cannibals known as Reavers, who roam the universe in search of fresh meat. (It’s never really explained how these barking-mad, blood-lusting creatures have retained enough intelligence to operate spacecraft, but never mind.)
Caught between an obsessed assassin and frenzied flesh-eaters, Mal and his crew must maneuver quickly and carefully through all manner of hairbreadth escapes. Fortunately for the audience, there are ample doses of heart and soul to counterbalance the sound and fury, so that Serenity comes off as engaging and amusing between its long stretches of cacophonous chaos.
As a whole, the movie is better enjoyed as a semi-spoofy put-on than a straightforward action flick. In this universe, where Star Trek is cross-pollinated with The Magnificent Seven, characters are more likely to use six-shooters than laser guns as they boldly go where lots of and lots of other sci-fi protagonists have gone before. The final destination isn’t nearly as important as the journey itself, and the traveling companions.
Serenity is grounded in something resembling reality by Fillion, whose shrewdly calculated performance as Captain Ham suggests a hipster Gary Copper with a dash of young Clint Eastwood (and a touch of Indiana Jones). Other standouts in the cast include Baldwin, who snatches every scene that isn’t bolted to the floor, and Ejiofor, whose eerie calmness makes The Operative all the more menacing. As the lovelorn Kaylee, who pines hopelessly for Simon, Staite makes an endearing impression as she complains about her lack of a social life in outer space: “For the past year, I ain’t had nothing twixt my nethers that didn’t run on batteries.” Poor dear.
