Last year a science fiction show called "Firefly" came and went. Created by Josh Whedon, who was responsible for the hit series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the show chronicled the adventures of a Han Solo-like spaceship's captain and his ragtag crew. A combination of sci-fi and western, the show left a lot of questions unanswered, perhaps frustrating its audience and truncating its run.
Last Friday the movie version, "Serenity," was released. The film compacts the story and answers many of the questions left open by the television version. It has focus, humor and plenty of action. And, evidently a following: the theater at the Pyramid Mall was filled.
Nathan Fillion's Captain Mal Reynolds is an appealing everyman who finds himself in the middle of events bigger than himself. On the losing side of a civil war, he makes his living as a smuggler with an odd collection of crew members including Simon Tam, a doctor (Sean Maher), and his very disturbed genius sister Summer (Summer Glau) whose brain has been tampered with by the Alliance government.
It is hard to categorize "Serenity" and the series it springs from. It may be that the story is too complicated, since each character has a rich and involved back story. Those not familiar with the television version might be overwhelmed as the movie weaves the stories into the overall plot. Whedon tries to get this background in using flashbacks, and the viewer is sometimes overwhelmed with "too much information." But the movie has a clarity the series never had, and while it's path is not straight, it arrives at its destination.
Solving the mystery of what the Alliance did to River unearths a government conspiracy, and the crew finds itself fighting to get the truth out. Whedon doesn't fool around, as some of the regular characters from the series are killed for the greater cause. And fans won't be disappointed as relationships between the characters are expanded, though never resolved.
Alias-like fight scenes (and you won't believe which character is the Kung Fu master!) mixed with appealing down to earth characters and humor born from wide-eyed innocence make "Serenity" quite watchable. If the movie succeeds there is plenty of story left for a sequel.
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Archive Entertainment 
