In the far future, humans have colonised other Solar systems, and now the Alliance rules with an iron fist after a war with the independentists. A girl psychic, River, escapes from their laboratory with the help of her brother Simon. Ruthless Alliance Operative is hunting her down. River and Simon hide aboard the spaceship Serenity, led by Capt. Malcolm, and with the crew consisting out of Zoe, Hoban, Jayne and others. They go to a mysterious planet named Miranda, a word River pronounced in her subconscious. There they find 30 million colonists dead after the Alliance tried out a chemical which would make them docile, but killed them. The only survivors on the planet are zombies. The Operative and his army attacks them on the planet, but Malcolm manages to broadcast what happened on Miranda. The Operative changes his mind after this and decides to help the crew, ordering his army to repair Serenity.
After the cancellation of his TV series "Firefly", Joss Whedon continued the story by restructruing it into this film, a wild, daft and charming amalgamation of science-fiction, action and comedy. The story may be slightly convoluted and meandering at times, yet the whole thing simply knows how to be fun and conjure up a good time. The opening is already so astonishing that one wonders how it is never brought up during various film discussions: psychic River is saved from a laboratory by her brother Simon, they flee to the hallway, she holds on to an improvised elevator that ascents up—and all of a sudden the frame freezes. A voice is heard saying: "Stop! Backtrack!" And the scene starts going in reverse, until it stops on River's face—as all of a sudden a man "walks through" her, revealing it is a 3D holographic recording of the event, analysed in an office. Truly, ingenious. The main tangle involving the sleazy spaceship Captain Malcolm who unwillingly has to help River and Simon also has a lot of spirit and wit. Malcolm and his crew survive by small robberies, and in one of such he opens the door of the vault, shouting: "We're coming down to empty the vault now!" The Vault Guard replies: "You'll have to give me your authorization password!" Jayne then fires several shots out in the hallway. And the Vault Guard says: "Uh... okay!"
The main flaw is that the cast is simply not that charismatic. They are all serviceable, but they don't stand out. Even the cynical Malcolm isn't that memorable. The only actor who is truly outstanding is Chiwetel Ejiofor as the villain The Operative, since his charisma and expressionistic stoicism overshadows everyone else in the film. One great moment in the middle of the film has Malcolm finally encounter The Operative, as they debate and bicker who is on the right and who is on the wrong side of the fight against the Alliance of planets. The Operative proudly announces his trump card: "I have a warship in deep orbit, Captain. We locked onto Serenity's pulse beacon the moment you arrived. I can speak a word and send a missile to that exact location inside of three minutes." However, Malcolm is on to him and replies: "You do that, you'd best make peace with your dear and fluffy lord", as he throws said tracking device right into the hands of The Operative. The final act is rather shaky and questionable, since it wasn't that well incorporated into the first two thirds of the story, though it is within the theme of the fight against authoritarianism and the tendency of authority to control every aspect of people, limiting their freedoms. Whedon proved that he has a sense for snappy dialogues, quirky characters and amusing ideas with a lot of twists, and thus it is a pity "Serenity" never had a sequel.
Grade:+++
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