Firefly

Serenity

Yo, up-front I must cop to being a recent convert to Firefly, the short-lived Fox TV series that earned a quick cancellation and fabulous martyrdom by being too good. So you should expect that I might not be the most objective reviewer.

On the other hand, I guess I’ve seen a few movies over the years, and regular readers as well as those new to the Sewer can trust me when I say that Serenity works a hell of a lot better than Revenge of the Sith or even Star Wars Episode Four. It’s how sci-fi adventures should be done.

A few serpentine twists in the first minutes bring non-Firefly-fans up to date while outlining the plot conflicts simply and concisely for everyone else. Not an easy task with nine principal characters - the rogue crew of the titular ship, but Writer-Director Joss Whedon does it with ease.

As humbled-warrior and curmudgeon Mal Reynolds briefs his scrappy crew on the Robin Hood-style caper they’re about to pull, crap almost immediately starts to hit the fan. But inter-crew squabbles pale in comparison to an unforseen complication in the heist.

After a smashmouth action sequence Serenity’s resident unstable ingenue River Tam goes all schizo for no apparant reason. Before you can curse in Chinese a galaxy-spanning adventure of social and political scale commences.

Whedon gives it to us good as potentially mind-boggling intrigue is doled out in snappy, realistic dialogue: meanwhile every ten-minutes or so a rib-cracking fight or conflict with the speed-zombie-psycho Reavers breaks out.

Serenity is a movie puzzle that fits together with deceptive ease. But above the machinations of a topical plot that puts to shame most Hollywood screenwriting, Serenity works so well because the archetypical characters and situations are sketched with a loving hand; armed with highly naturalistic dialog and placed in settings that are totally relatable to today’s culture.

In fact Serenity is pretty damning social commentary for our times, sold by a Hollywood semi-outsider who’s had his biggest (certainly not immodest) success on The WB with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But all that is simply a transparent background for one of the most heart-felt, thrilling sci-fi action adventures of the last 20 years. All memories of smug Will Smiths, self-satisfied Harrison Fords or nasally-narcotised Tom Cruises are washed away in the graceful ion-trails of Serenity.

Plus it kicks ass.