REVIEW: Firefly/Serenity

Well I didn't know much about Firefly when the movie Serenity came out. But I was intrigued that a show that never really made it one season could get a feature film made about it. There must be something good about it right? So I wanted to see the series before I watched the movie, Serenity. So I did. I watched the entire DVD box set of Firefly, then went right into Serenity. So how is Firelfy you ask. Not bad is the answer, and at times it was downright fucking cool. This is the show that Star Trek used to be. Its a show Star Trek should be. This is the Magnificent Seven in space. (They even haul cattle on board!)It's about the lower class in the future. The people who bust there ass and have to break a few laws to survive in a so-called perfect world. The cast is pretty good, you have the captain kirk/han solo lead captain. He's not perfect, and he kills people occasionally. The other crew people are all castaways from one place or another. They all have opinions and most of them don't give a shit about the others. That was the kind of refreshing part of the tv show. The plots are not mindblowing but they are fun and it's really the characters that make this show fly above the other trite. The one thing that bothered me most (and this may be attributed to the fact i watched them all in a row) was that in almost every episode a crew person almost dies, then pulls through at the end. That was kinda cool a few times, but it got really repetitve after a while. As the series moved on, the crew formed a really good bond and working relationship. I was sad to see things end rather abruptly, thankfully creator Joss Wheaton was given a second chance and a budget to continue the crew of Firefly with Serenity a feature film version of the show that picks right up where the show left off sort off.

In Serenity the stakes are of course a bit higher, and they have to actually pull a Star Trek and kill off a few key crew people. I liked the movie's fast pace and pretty interesting plot. A race of people called Reavers are killing every human in space and their creators may be the government themselves. As the government tries to cover up their secret they discover that long hunted crew member River who has special abilities knows the secret and hire a bounty hunter to kill her and the ship, Serenity. Lots of action, and a good solid sci-fi plot make this a welcome sci-fi film. Although I can't see really getting the most from it without knowing the tv series pretty well. Recomended if you like good sci-fi.