SERENITY (WIDESCREEN EDITION) (2005)

Serenity (Widescreen Edition) (2005)

DVD Features:

• 20 minutes of deleted scenes and outtakes
• Joss Whedon Introduction
• Re-lighting The Firefly: The story of how a television show gained enough of a cult following to become a major feature film.
• Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Joss Whedon
  
   

Movie: * * * ½
Discs: * * * 

Serenity is a hugely entertaining space opera set in the distant future as Earth has colonised several planets in another solar system. In true Star Wars tradition, the movie’s title refers to the name of a Millennium Falcon-type spaceship falling apart at its seams piloted by a group of loveable rogues and a captain clearly modelled on a pre-Special Edition Han Solo. “I came here unarmed,” an opponent declares. “Good,” our hero replies and promptly shoots the bad guy.

Serenity is of course the full-length movie version of the cult sci-fi TV show, Firefly.
Sci-fi fans always seem attracted to lost causes, and there are few causes as lost as Firefly: the TV show created by Joss Whedon of Buffy and Angel fame was yanked from the air by Fox without even finishing its first season.

Fans rallied and when the show hit DVD shelves it became an unexpected hit. So another studio (Universal) picked it up and brought out this full-length movie. It however sadly bombed at the box office upon its release despite universal good reviews and fan adulation. Maybe DVD sales will rescue the franchise — after all even George Lucas admits that his movies make their money with DVD sales and not at the box office — but things don’t look good.

THE DISC: This DVD however is a good start: it is packed with 45 minutes of brisk “making of” featurettes, none of them longer than six minutes. There are some deleted scenes, but they aren’t as interesting: it is obvious why they were left out. The outtakes are really fun though and fans should check it out. Sound and image quality is pretty decent too and there is an audio commentary by Joss Whedon himself.

WORTH IT? Serenity is how all sci-fi adventure yarns should be made. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and the characters quirky, interesting and likeable. Things get a bit drawn out with the climactic fight scenes, but that is a minor niggle. Serenity embodies the sort of good-natured fun the original Star Wars trilogy was before Lucas got all heavy and self-important with the so-called prequels.

RECOMMENDATION: Buy it.