5 gibbles outta 5

Director – Joss Whedon

Whedon’s had me confused for a long while.  We know he’s a dork.  We know he has a huge following thanks to Buffy.  So I watched a lot of post-Buffyness with “I’m too cool to let myself enjoy this too-cool stuff” hesitation.  But his track record’s been pretty badass, ‘Serenity’ being my first real experience of that.

The background for the movie is sort of typical future sci-fi fare, taking place in a universe where Earth’s resources have been used up and an overbearing government has stepped in to tell people right from wrong.   While Serenity starts somewhat far from where it end, the details in the movie, coupled with the fleshed out story in ‘Firefly’ (the TV series from which ‘Serenity’ spring and – impressively – summarizes and expands and concludes) add in the shades of grey world-building at which Whedon has proven to excel – The ‘Alliance’ (our future government) are domineering but aren’t all-out movie bad guy evil.  They won a war to prove their point, and on the whole they’re trying to do right.  But there’s always a downside, and that’s the downtrodden people who were fighting on the other side – Nathan Fillion and the crew of Serenity are some of those people, now smugglers – and they get mixed up in a conspiracy that brings out the darkest of the downside, represented by an assassin played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who brings the same awesome intensely paced performance to the role that he later used in Redbelt.  Dot dot, good summary, thanks.

The tale wraps around a strange girl named River (Summer Glau, as perfectly cast for the role as everyone in the film) and the Serenity crews pledge, eventually, to protect her.  And that’s all fine and good.  Besides the funny lines and character interactions, the incredible use of a limited budget and some really tantalizing action sequences, ‘Serenity’ really struts its stuff during the dull parts.  There’s an undercurrent of sadness that bubbles up in the latter half of the film that’s surprisingly powerful, and this is definitely to the credit of the script.  Relatable emotions are easier when we can relate to the scenario.  When you get to a science fiction premise, we generally connect with some kind of alienation that’s present (whatever’s required to get the audience to ‘join the fight’ in the story), but real emotions are rare.  It surely helped that Whedon had a TV series to get to understand this world and know what he wanted to say with it.

If there’s a negative here, it’s a backhanded compliment: Whedon’s eye when staging scenes always feels like a bird’s eye kinda thing – there’s an impressive long tracking shot at the start of the film, but that’s rare for him, I think.  Instead, he designs his sets like a dork, having blueprints for the flux capacitor and etc., and instead of framing the shots for maximum impact or some artistic purpose, he seems to allow it a more natural feel.  It feels real.  There’s a lot of detail in those sets that the eye passes over ’cause it seems right.  The overall palette and diffusion are consistent for the feel of the film, but again, are very natural, and earthy, and just fit in.  So the negative is that it’s really easy to watch.  There’s not an individual scene that wows you, but neither is it boring or out of place.  Not such a bad negative, eh?

Anyhow.

‘Serenity’ is the type of movie that’s supposed to be purchased and rewatched.  It sits on your shelf until you’re bored one night, and then you remember just how good it is.  Why can’t more movies be like that?