I watched “Serenity” on DVD some time ago now, and I’ve been letting it settle in my mind, trying to decide whether I liked it or not.
In the end I have to simply shrug my shoulders—I’m indifferent to it. I wanted to like it. There’s not that many science fiction movies around that look as good as this and have competent acting. But in the end...shrug.
Serenity had some moments. The dry wit in some of the dialogue went down well. Unfortunately it’s the bad points that have stuck in my mind.
I realise that the movie is the continuation of a TV series. It really feels this way: you get the impression that things have gone on before, but they don’t have time to tell them in the movie. This seems to be a trap of the script: I felt that I should know about past events so that what’s happening in the movie makes more of an impact.
In particular, when one of the Serenity’s crew is killed, it’s kind of a yawn moment. Maybe if you watch the series it inspires a response.
Somewhat paradoxically, although it felt like the Serenity world had a bigger back story, the movie’s plot was rather simplistic. The Alliance’s assassin (the Operative) continually tells us that things are more complex than they seem. But in the end, no, they’re not. Evil industrialist/technological empire (the Alliance) tries to cover up unspeakable atrocity (killing everyone on a planet) leaving evidence that the good guys have to broadcast to the solar system.
Some of the plot holes still annoy me. There are a group called Reavers who are psychopathic killers and raiders. We find out later that they have a massive fleet of ships that can take on a fleet of the Alliance. How do crazed killers (permanently crazed, not just battle frenzied) maintain an armed fleet when they eat anyone who could fix or repair their fleet?
The character central to the storyline, a girl called River, is a psychic and an amazing martial arts expert (the ultimate weapon). She has become this through a mind-washing regime of the Alliance, but to become an “ultimate weapon” in hand-to-hand combat, don’t you have to do some physical training or something? (Compare it to a movie such as The Fifth Element, where I bought the ultimate being thing because that movie was so much tongue-in-cheek).
I just couldn’t buy the final fight scene where “ultimate weapon” girl takes on an army of Reavers (armed with guns as well as swords/axes) in close quarters and slays them all. Throughout the movie we are led to believe that she is unstable and perhaps more dangerous to the Serenity than to their enemies. In the end though, she’s just another uncomplicated good guy who can, with no training and very little meat on her bones, kill hundreds of enraged attackers.
I didn’t feel any desire to look at the director’s commentary or other DVD features. Usually I’m a fan of the commentary, but I just couldn’t be bothered with Serenity. The only thing I did watch was Joss Whedon’s “Introduction”, which to be honest the DVD could have done without. It came across as “please like my movie, not because it’s good, but because the production crew and I really like it”. It didn’t entice me to watch any more.
Whedon tells us in his introduction that Serenity was a labour of love, as I’m sure all movies are for their makers. The labour didn’t come through for me in Serenity.