Serenity

Now I'd never seen the Firefly TV series so had no idea what this thing was about. I was hooked on the poster which featured a chick with blades. I've never sat through an episode of Buffy (although the film was alright) or Angel so had no idea what the writer was famous for.

The plot tells the tale of a psychic girl who is a little messed up and a smuggler crew who take her and her brother under their wing. She escapes from a government facility and they send an agent to bring her back. There is also a race of bad humans called the Reavers who are at war with everyone else and who get in the way. There I've summed up the film in three sentences.

The film isn't too bad, it's by no means great. There are some obvious things wrong that I'll go into here.

Firstly the character names are all wrong. The macho, testosterone muscly guy is given the name Jane. The captain of the ship is called Malcolm and the super secret planet is given the name Miranda. I mean "Malcolm"? What a ridiculous name ;)

Secondly the plot is very cliched; the crew of the ship return to their home planet just in time for the old wise man to give his final words before he dies.

When the crew are later holding a final stand against the reavers, they stop shouting when the doctor decides to give his "I love you" speech to the naive girl, and once he's finished they then start up again.

There's also this stupid woman who's sole purpose seems to be to wear skimpy outfits and when it comes to the big stand off her weapon of choice is a bow and arrow.

There is some nice dialogue and I did laugh in a few places but I came away thinking it should have stayed on TV. The CGI is good and the sets are nice even if the buildings were all too angular. It would have been a great, but stupid idea if the bad guys were called Ravers and were all pill popping, lightstick carrying clubbers.

The film also suffers from a bit of wobbly sets, watch the control panels in the bridge. The blond pilot moves a bit of it at one point.