Serenity (2005)

I don’t really know if I love this movie because I love Firefly or because I love this movie. An extension of Joss Whedon’s epic cult space western show Firefly, Serenity is the story of the crew of the spaceship Serenity, firefly class, in the year 2518. After the human race has migrated to other planets, a group called the Alliance tried to bring peace and calm while ruling all these planets. Some people rebelled, including the crew of Serenity. But the Alliance won, and they ruled the main planets, with the planets on the side working odd jobs to stay alive. And so enters Serenity, captained by Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), with a pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), first man (woman I guess) married to Wash Zoe (Gina Torres), doctor Simon (Sean Maher) and his fugitive sister River (Summer Glau) who was experimented on by the Alliance. Also on the crew is mercenary Jayne (Adam Baldwin), and Kaylee (Jewel Staite), the mechanic of the ship. Former members of the ship from the TV show that appear here are the religious Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) and companion Morena (Inara Serra), who has a decently complicated romantic relationship with Mal. The course of the actual film involves the Alliance trying to locate and take back River, with the crew of Serenity trying to defend her. I do love the TV show, honestly, it is in my top 5 TV shows ever. And the movie is basically an elongated episode of that show with better effects, and so by those standards, this is one of the greatest films I have ever seen. As a nerd, as a human, as someone who loves the art of film. It doesn’t go in my top 5, but it does go in my top 20, and my top 5 science fiction films. With great acting, snappy dialogue, wonderful direction by Whedon, and just overall perfection, I completely recommend this series and this movie. It is one of the best things you can do as a nerd, and just saying, if you’re reading this, you’re probably a nerd (yes. You.) “Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. I don’t care, I’m still free, you can’t take the skies from me. Take me out to the black, tell them I ain’t coming back. Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the skies from me. There’s no place I can be, since I found Serenity…but you can’t take the skies from me…”
9.5/10