Joss Whedon’s movie based on the television series, “Firefly” is flat out amazing! I think calling it the best piece of science fiction since Star Wars is absurd (unless you mean since Episode III in May), but this film was definitely intriguing, exciting, and extremely well written.
I have to admit that I had not even heard of this show until I started seeing previews for the movie. So I went into this film without any knowledge of the characters or their stories. Whedon did an excellent job of making this movie equally fantastic to the “Firefly virgins” as I am sure it will be to the dedicated fans. I will also confess that the “Firefly” series will be the next 4 discs that I get from Netflix.
The best part of this movie is that the entertainment is primarily driven by the story, and it definitely delivered. It was packed with both science fiction and a little horror, with characters that were well developed with a great deal of depth. And the balance of humor in this movie was unlike anything I have seen in a long time. There was an odd mix of laughs and horrible images, but somehow the scenes flowed together flawlessly.
The writing was so inventive that the characters actually had their own slang. This might be old news to the series’ fans, but they said things like “verse” instead of universe and they also had their own version of foul language. I was seriously impressed.
So How Does It End?
After reading the threads on a couple of fan forums, I discovered that the loss of a few characters is the subject of much debate. Even I do not want to ruin which ones, but I will say that I think there deaths did add to the story. Killing a beloved character makes a story more believable and it makes the viewer think that the writers are not afraid of anything. A movie is far more enjoyable when it is unpredictable. We all know that the good guys will win in a story like this, but its refreshing when we don’t know how many will survive.
Without having seen the series I still felt emotionally attached to each of them and left the theater feeling satisfied by the movie but wanting more adventures with these same people. Now that’s the launching of a successful movie franchise. I give it my very first five out of five!
By Tina Alexander
