SERENITY: Collector’s Edition
Posted by Michael Kaminski
In 2002, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER mastermind Joss Whedon created FIREFLY, one of the most original, entertaining and captivating TV shows ever made, a western set in outer space, a fusion of sci-fi whimsy, American Civil War allegory, and old-fashioned adventure, one that immediately recalls STAR WARS for its layered construction, realistic environment and enthralling characters. Following the relationships of a band of smugglers on a freighter ship called Serenity, the series was a terrific character-centric drama that showcased an ensemble cast of nine characters, all finely developed, written and portrayed. Alas, as unlikely as such a unique and intelligent show appearing on TV was, it was not surprising to see it destroyed. Butchered at the hands of FOX, the first season of FIREFLY was quickly cancelled, and not even all the episodes shot were aired. Fortunately the show had garnered a cult following, and when released on DVD the series became a best-selling hit. Whedon, crushed by Fox’s destruction of the series, was determined to continue his story somehow, and when the DVD sales showed a strong afterlife, the unthinkable happened and the cancelled show was reborn as a major motion picture.
Swallowed up by the hype of REVENGE OF THE SITH, the film was released in 2005 as a much darker, intense and all the more satisfying conclusion to the TV show that ultimately did only so-so box office business. All the terrific writing and acting is on display even more powerfully here, and the stakes are raised much higher as the film, essentially, is the remainder of the FIREFLY series compressed into two hours. The film moves quickly but never lets the characters be overwhelmed by the story or effects; FIREFLY and its feature film are at their heart human dramas, and that is all the more apparent in the touching story portrayed in the film. For those who have never had the pleasure of watching FIREFLY, SERENITY was constructed with the dual-purpose of introducing newcomers to the world and characters but I strongly recommend viewing the series beforehand to get the full and proper enjoyment of this film. The entire FIREFLY-SERENITY experience is as good as sci-fi adventure gets.
The Video:
The stunning cinematography of Jack Green is displayed in a top-notch transfer here. Sharpness is excellent and I noticed no edge enhancement or compression artifacts, even in the action scenes. I suspect this is the same transfer from the 2005 release.
The Audio:
A solid mix that sports some terrific atmospheric touches in the scenes onboard Serenity, while also accomplishing some terrific bass effects in the action scenes. No complaints here.
The Extras:
The original release of the film featured some decent extras in its single disk and thankfully every single one of those are ported over here. That includes featuretts on the rebuilding of the Serenity set, outtakes, deleted scenes and a feature commentary from Whedon. So whats new? A second disk’s worth, but one thats not nearly as jam-packed as some would like. You do however get a few more extended scenes, however brief, and an excellent featurette on the making of the film and how it developed from the TV show. Additionally, there is a great featurette on cinematographer Jack Green, the “Session 416″ web shorts that showed River’s experimentation, plus other small goodies such as a television special on the making of the film. The biggest stand-out is a second feature commentary featuring Whedon and most of the cast, which is as terrific as it sounds. While these additions are not anything too incredible, for fans of the film they are more than enough for a second purchase, and for those who didn’t get the first release its all the more reason to buy this one.
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I never watched Firefly when it was on the air. I saw Serenity though -BIG mistake! The story was not engaging, the characters weren’t sympathetic either and the narrative wandered all over the place with no sense of direction or prupose. The SFX were pretty good though.
Why this show has such a passionate following, especially among critics, is a wonder! It simply wasn’t a good show. Sorry Firefly-adicts, but you know it wasn’t. The low box-office wasn’t due to Revenge of the Sith (The Mummy and The Matrix had to take on Star Wars: Episode One and they both became blockbusters, by ROTS most movie-goers were soured on Star Wars, so Serenity failed on it’s own lack of merit, simple as that) it was because the movie was bad. If you were a fan of the show then you no doubt loved it since that’s the ONLY folks it was made for. But most people never saw it. Whedon didn’t seem to realize or care about this. Rather than tell a story that was accessible to what would be an overwhelmingly new audience who didn’t know jack about the story, Whedon pretended as if the tiny, but irrationally vocal supporters of his show were somehow a huge validation of a show he loved more than life and reason enough to pretend as if the cannon was as well-known as Star Trek. Moron!
Anyone with half a brain would have set it up as a jumping off point for a new movie franchise, like Star Trek: The Motion Picture did. Gene Roddenberry didn’t assume people remmebered the TV show, he started from scratch.
I, and most people who tried to give Serenity a chance, didn’t know anything about it. We assumed that if the fans were correct about how skillful Whedon was, he would take the time to efficiently and skillfully orient us and bring us into this story-world. He didn’t. Who was “The Alliance?” (I had to watch the Extras portion of the DVD to find out what The Alliance was) What was it? What was this “War” they kept endlessly talking about? Who was fighting whom, and over what? Were the crew of Serenity soldiers, and for whom? None of this was explained. Whedon said he could have started the movie with a brief primer on the history of Firefly but he didn’t like it when movies did that. He didn’t seem to understand that the reason other sci-fi movies do that is to orient the audience, and you can’t afford to assume they’ll “pick up the backstory as the movie goes along,” especially not when you delibereately decide not to tell them said backstory.
SPOILER WARNING! (Example: Sheppard dies in the movie, but since I didn’t know hwo he was I didn’t care. He only showed up just for the purpose of dying. No story reason, and no resonance.) OK, SPOILER OVER!
These were the sins Serenity committed. Serenity was done for all the wrong reasons. There was no “real” demand for it, except from a tiny but obnoxiously loud minority, it was done because Whedon was desperate to “finish telling my story.” These aren’t reasons to make a movie. And audiences didn’t feel it was a reason to see it.
I tried to watch Firefly on DVD but it was boring as hell, dim-witted and unexciting. I couldn’t make it through the first episode, it’s a wonder that ANYONE would want to see any more of it.
4 stars for this pile of garbage, a massive box office flop from an equally dire series.
Thank you for further reiterating just how little taste you people have.
“Us people” and 78.9% (Number of IMDB votes 8 or above out of 10) of the worlds population, evidently.
So what!!!
It flopped miserably at the cinema, Firefly was axed before it’s first series was halfway through. A pile of drivel from start to finish!!!
Does being a flop at the cinema make a movie bad then?
Shawshank Redemption?
It was actually axed due to a implied lesbian scene between two characters. The ratings were actually on par with other shows that came on in their timeslot when it was released.
Actually I’m glad Whedon did the movie the way he did. Too many directors/screenwriters get too caught up with trying to bring in a new audience when they adapt tv shows and such and in the process lose what made the tv show so great to the people that liked it. Let’s face it, movies based off tv shows and books and such should please people who took the time to watch/read the original idea. And honestly, why would you even watch a movie based off of a tv show or book without first introducing yourself to the universe it is set in?
Does being a flop at the cinema make a movie bad then?
DUH………………YEA
The clue is the flopping part!!!
Taz, have you ever been diagnosed with mental retardation? Or are you haunting the comments section of this site desperately trying to pick fights with people?
Your last comment is probably one of the worst I have ever read on any film site. You seem to completely lack any understanding of filmmaking in any respect. Anyone who exclusively uses American box office totals to craft their critiques of film should probably have their commenting priveleges revoked.