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'Serenity' brings easy familiarity to a standard sci-fi plot
by Bob Townsend

"Serenity" is a sci-fi adventure film that goes where "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" have gone before. But the journey is surprisingly entertaining, with a sly tone that mixes action and humor and even manages to beam a message about morality and hypocrisy. Fans of television's "Firefly" will know that writer-director Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel") reassembled the cast of that short-lived show to make his feature debut and continue his saga of a ragtag crew of space cowboys at home aboard a raggedy ship they call Serenity. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran of a galactic civil war, now ekes out a living with his transport-for-hire spaceship, Serenity. When he takes on two passengers — a doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister — he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, which will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl.

FILM FACTS ...

Universal Pictures

'Serenity'

Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Run time: 119 minutes
Release date: September 30, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references.
See showtimes

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

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READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: B
"... ongoing riffs of clever dialogue and real scenes, played out by an ensemble cast with the kind of easy familiarity more common to television than film."

Read the full review

Austin American-Statesman: 3 of 5 stars
"Whedon combines TV setups with blockbuster action beats, which give Serenity a small, lived-in feel on the ground while delivering eye-popping special effects that never upstage the story."