Serenity

A-

I heard raves about the short-lived sci-fi series Firefly and bought the DVD of the first and only season blind. Usually that doesn't work out, but Firefly was fun to watch, especially knowing that it was a hidden treasure that you had to seek out. The show itself was very uneven, sometimes dark, violent, funny, or just goofy. By combining Old West language and outfits with futuristic space ships, there are any number of grating clashes, not least of which is the dialogue, heavy with words like "reckon" and "darn sight."

Although the TV series failed, with several episodes never aired, somehow someone thought it would be good to make a feature length movie. They were able to get the entire cast back (mostly no names, though a few have shown up here and there). The movie got pretty bad reviews at the time, and I can see how someone coming in cold might have expectations too high at the same time that they don't really care about the characters. But since I was already invested and accepted the series warts and all, I thought the movie was quite good. Some of the big unresolved plot threads from the series are explored and explained. This makes for good closure since the series was cut off pretty abruptly.

I would say do not watch this movie unless you see the TV series Firefly first. Ideally, you can get the first disk from Netflix and see if you like it, but the box set is often on sale for less than $20. Watch the whole series all the way through and only then watch the movie.

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