SERENITY (DVD Review) - 15/4/06

Having never seen Joss Whedon's "Firefly" TV Series I only ended up buying this because I was going to a Convention with a Star Trek connection and needed something for the other guests to sign. As is typical with most American TV Shows unless you get a massive hit immediately within your first year you will more than likely get cancelled - and surprise surprise - after 13 episodes "Firefly" had the plug pulled on it - But the twist is - The cash tills started ringing on DVD sales and Hollywood Money Men (No brainers!) took notice and a film got rushed out. Unfortunately I can only go on the film and to my mind it came across as generic sci-fi. But the upside would have been with the ideas invested in it (Socio-political shadowy Alliance Operatives, the Reapers, Government Conspiracy with River Tam's background) then after a couple of year's this series could have come into it's own but it was not to be. On the strength of "Serenity" the film; I feel "Firefly" is probably as dead as "Angel" another of Joss Whedon's masterpieces. The cast in this film is largely unknown unless you count actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative fresh from his appearance in drag from "Kinky Boots" and currently starring in "Inside Man" who plays a marvellous villain who is superior in every way be it with weapons, words or unarmed combat and eventually that superiority leads as they say with Pride to his fall. Gina Torres is also known well from her work in "Alias" and of course Whedon's "Angel" as Zoe. This film was obviously shot on a budget but only because it say's so in the making of featurette under the Special Features - Personally I thought the scope and breadth of it was fantastic and the SFX work was superb. Slightly slow but bursting with some good action and plot this won't overly tax you but the failings in this film lay with the Film Studio for not backing the product hard enough - Certainly not with the cast, crew or director.

The Region 2 (UK) "Serenity" (above) has a different cover to the Region 1 (USA) (below) which I don't find as good and the Special Features are the same on both releases. The Region 1 (USA) "Serenity" has a glossy refractive cover that has a luminous sheen to it and I have added a full scan of the Region 1 (USA) DVD Cover at the bottom of this article. SPECIAL FEATURES: Deleted Scenes and Outtakes (Over 20 Mins) and the Joss Whedon Introduction to the film. Featurettes - Future History: The Story Of Earth That Was, What's In A Firefly & Re-Lighting The Firefly. Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Joss Whedon. English & French Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles: English, French & Spanish. Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) Colour. Runtime: 1 Hour 59 Mins. Rating: PG-13. UNIVERSAL 26327 / 2005 / ISBN # 141703050X.