Remember that Robert Urich movie THE ICE PIRATES and how awesome it was when you first saw it on HBO that summer of ’85 when they reran it ad nauseum? The film SERENITY, based on Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s cancelled cult TV series called FIREFLY, is a lot like that, reminding me that good sci-fi can be ultra-smart, mega-fun and super-witty, without having to resort to forced, inane silliness, much like earlier this year’s THE HITCHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.

I honestly wasn’t looking forward to SERENITY. Besides Harry Potter and Nazism, my most hated fandom is BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. And it was because of this dislike that I avoided FIREFLY in its original run. And now I’m kicking myself in the ***censored*** and rushing out to buy the DVDs.

Part western, part sci-fi serial, SERENITY takes place 500 years in the future after a huge galaxy-wide civil war has placed an alliance of planets under the thumb of a fascist government. A group of ex-solders, led by Capt. Mal Reynolds, now work as freelance trouble-makers and ne’er-do-wells for hire—imagine a shipful of pre-Special Edition Han Solos—who take in a teenage girl who happens to be a living weapon. This irks the government, who sends in a reptilian assassin called The Operative who lives to find and kill this girl. Throw in a horde of cannibal mutants and dammit, you’ve got one of the first truly classic sci-fi movies of the 21st century, with such a great cast and an even better script, that it’s possible SERENITY could be the STAR WARS for this generation.

Joss Whedon, I’m sorry I ever doubted you.

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Review by: Louis Fowler