No, these are not the voyages of the Starship Enterprise but the adventures of another ship, a Firefly class called Serenity.
The time - 500 years into the future. Mankind has infiltrated to the farthest reaches of space and the ’verse is being ruled by the ’Alliance’ - an autocratic government-like entity. It is 5 years after the war between the Alliance and the Independents or the ’Browncoats’ which put the Alliance in power. The Alliance exercises control over the planets that form the central core but the planets that inhabit the outer reaches of space still try to resist it’s power. Captain ’Mal’ Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a disenchanted ex-Seargent in the Browncoat army and still very anti-government, leads a raggle of space smugglers on the spaceship ’Serenity’.
The crew on Serenity is a varied bunch - the very un-Scotty-like preppy chief engineer, ’Kaylee’ (Jewel Staite), the pilot and resident comic ’Wash’ (Alan Tudyk), his wife, the soldierly career woman and second-in-command ’Zoe’ (Gina Torres), the Man They Call ’Jayne’ (Adam Baldwin), a mercenary thug and odd jobs man and the stunningly, beautiful ’Inara’ (Morena Baccarin) - a companion (the world’s oldest profession gets another name) and thorn in Mal’s side. Mal himself has a skewed moral code but is extremely protective of his crew whom he regards as family. Joining the crew are fugitives, the prim Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher) and his crazy little sister ’River’ (Summer Glau), a psychic and child-genius who has been subjected to mind-altering experiments by the Alliance. Mal and his crew soon realise that River is not who she seems, and is very valuable to the Alliance who have sent a special agent known only as the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to eliminate her and the secrets she carries. The Operative’s search for River forces Mal and crew to carry out their own investigations, leading them to a planet called Miranda and a hideous discovery about Alliance experiments.
Background - Firefly
The show is the brain-child of Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) and the actual storyline was intended for a tv-series called ’Firefly’ which aired in 2002 for a couple of episodes until it was cancelled. However, the series went on to gain a massive fan following (the high IMDB rating for this movie is bolstered almost entirely by fans), with the result that Whedon wrote and directed the movie in 2005, hoping for either a revival of the show or a sequel to the movie (was guessing there, but i’m rooting for a sequel :).
’Firefly’ as a series is certainly very engaging. It isnt just the average sci-fi TV series but something along the lines of a Sci-fi Western (anachronism, but there it is!) with characters carrying gun-holsters, rifles, Colts and riding horses well into the future. The rationale for this was that the inner core planets under Alliance control were well-developed but the outer planets were places where people were just dropped off with a minimum of water and food and forced to populate worlds in a Frontier-like existence. The most precious commodity and contraband in this future is food, not the protein-synthesized stuff that can feed a whole family for a month, but real, fresh food, which is in short supply on the outer planets. The show depicted the two worlds beautifully, the very well-developed modern inner core planets (all steel and glass, tall buildings and modern gadgetry) and the ’Wicked West’ outer planets (undeveloped desert-like terrain, mining planets etc). Sometimes the show got too Western for me, like one episode which featured a bordello (and wouldnt u know it - a Madame called Nandi and Hindi music playing in the background :S) and a gun battle, which was slightly irritating but the drama and the characters definitely made up for it.
Whedon’s vision for the future was that there were only two superpowers left - America and China and the Chinese angle is woven into the script very tactfully and tastefully. We have characters wearing Oriental clothing, Chinese characters and instructions everywhere instead of English and the most fun of all, Chinese phrases introduced into the language. So, we have phrases like
’Those gorram Reavers.’
or
’Don’t worry, mei-mei.’
The Chinese words and phrases are included for situations which do not really need translation, the context carries you through and this introduced a sense of authenticity into the script. However, for a future in which a remaining superpower is Chinese, there are hardly any cast members, even extras who are even vaguely Oriental - blatant oversight, I feel.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Whedon’s vision is that he doesnt subject you to the horrendous masked creatures, scaly lifeforms or little green men that science fiction generally suggests. There are no aliens in this world, the only evil is unleashed by or is human. The most evil are the ’Reavers’, a type of human who cut their own faces and in the words of one of the characters
’If they catch you, the Reavers will rape you continuously until you die, cut you up and eat your flesh and carve your skin into clothing ... and if you are very lucky, they will do it in that order’.
Firefly worked for me because of the fantastic chemistry between the cast, fresh episode storylines each with an abundance of drama and action and the special effects which are the best I’ve seen in a TV series so far. Oh, and did I mention, I’m a sucker for spaceships :D
Serenity - My Thoughts
With Serenity, Whedon has cut out some of the most irritating aspects, the excessive Western-ness - he’s changed most of the music from the show, there are still the old-fashioned guns but a lot less horse riding and other elements - and he’s created a better science fiction movie adeventure. The movie assumes that people are familiar with the story of Firefly, but it doesnt really require it. A few of the initial scenes are a little confusing with characters and plot elements being introduced rapidly - but if you’ve read till here you wont be lost :). The TV series had a couple of underlying mysteries, about River, a character called ’Shepherd Book’ and the Reavers. While River and the Reavers are dealt with in the movie, the resolution of Book’s character was very unsatisfactory.
For people who arent fans of the show, and who havnt watched the characters for a longer period, the acting might come off as pedestrian. The majority of the cast have handled the transition from TV to movie pretty well (and of course, I could forgive anything of anyone who looks like Mal !). Perhaps the most striking actor among the cast is Ejiofor as the Operative. The Operative is someone who know he is evil, but believes in harnessing that evil for the greater good, which he interprets as the Alliance being in power. Ejiofor’s acting as the smooth-talking, emotionless Samurai assassin is perfectly effective in bringing menace and an almost maniacal intensity to his role. The end of Serenity and especially the resolution with the Operative is really silly (those who have watched the movie will know what I mean), but I gess Whedon had to end it somehow.
Finally, this is a perfect DVD watch to while away a lazy Sunday evening when you are in the mood for a little space-action, gun-fighting, drama and humor. Dont read too much into the hype created by IMDB and you wont be disappointed. Even better is to get the DVD’s of Firefly, watch them and then catch the movie. That would be shiny! I will leave you with some of Wash’s words (while flying Serenity) ..
I’m a leaf in the wind - watch how I soar.