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Tuesday, December 20, 2005
This Week's Hot Pick" 'Serenity'
Joss Whedon's short-lived TV series "Firefly" becomes a lively, humor-laden science-fiction western as a movie.
After an energetic prologue recapping the premise, back story and characters, writer/director Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") begins his tale with Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion) and the rough-and-tumble crew of his second-hand ship, Serenity, heisting a bank in an Old West town with space-age upgrades. Their secret weapon is spacey psychic River (Summer Glau), a waifish little girl lost, half mad from her years as an experimental subject in a government lab.
When she becomes the object of a galactic manhunt (led by soft-spoken but ruthless agent played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), the crew finds itself caught between the government fleet, the cannibalistic berserkers known as Reavers and a secret the Alliance will kill to keep hidden.
The strength of his characters and his trademark dialogue -- a smarter version of the cliched action-movie barrage of wisecrack under fire -- overcome Whedon's sometimes awkward imagery and the crew's rather sudden third-act conversion from immoral mercenaries to underdog idealists.
The characters may ride spaceships and fire lasers, but this is a true frontier western, set in the wake of a polarizing civil war and driven by heroes for whom family and community are synonymous. The film stands on its own as a colorful adventure and introduction to Whedon's askew sensibilities.
Adam Baldwin, Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk from the TV series and David Krumholtz co-star.
DVD extras include deleted scenes and outtakes, an introduction and commentary by Whedon and two featurettes on "Firefly." 118 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references. (Sean Axmaker)
GRADE: B
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