The Movie:

"When you can't run...you crawl. And when you can't crawl...you find someone to carry you." Firefly/"The Message"

Though it was just a line from the last aired episode of the tv series, Firefly, it turned out to be a profound one for creator Joss Whedon. Even though Fox had cancelled the show only 15 episodes in, the fans decided it was worth saving and through persistant letter and email campaigns, eventually carried the show into the arms of Universal, which turned the series into a movie.

Serenity's story starts as a brief history lesson. We learn that the "Earth that Was" is no longer, and the denizens of the planet have taken to outer space to find new homes. Through constant terraforming, they have taken over a new galaxy, but then a lengthy war breaks out. The aftermath finds the central planets aligned into "The Alliance", with its well-off citizens governed by one ruling body. The outer planets, however, have reverted into a frontier existance, reminiscent of America's late 1800's Wild West. It is here that the story of the crew of Serenity is told.

Though the characters and setting are familiar to those who have seen Firefly, Whedon didn't just write the movie for the fans -- even if you've never even seen a commercial clip of the original series, you will have no trouble following along and learning to love the crew of the starship Serenity.

In my original review of Serenity (link: www.bellaonline.com/articles/art36159.asp), I gave the film a 9.5 out a 10 on the rating scale. Very few films this year have impressed me the way Serenity did. Yes, it's part sci-fi, part western in genre, but what makes this film such a stand-out is that its heart is a solid story that works regardless of the genre(s) it's placed in. In other words, the special effects and settings help tell the story, but it is the script, the actors and uber-genius Whedon that make this movie such a delight to watch.

The Presentation:

On dvd, the movie is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement, and it looks as good on my television as it did in theaters. Though Whedon likes to make unusual lighting choices, even the most highly contrasted scenes are clear and defined. The film also looks crisp and clean on my laptop.

Special effects are also clean enough that I never saw that "green screen" outline that I often do when a film is compressed to dvd. Many, specifically the great space battle sequence, were extremely thrilling to watch, even on a smaller screen.

Audio for the film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and the levels are balanced perfectly for home theaters.

The menu hiearchy is clearly laid out and very easy to navigate. Thankfully, many of the special features are tagged with a "play all" selection, so you don't need to start each clip independently.

The film itself is dubbed into French, as well as subtitled in English, Spanish, and French, and many of the bonus features also include subtitle options.

The Graphics:

I was a bit disappointed with the cover art. The collage of film stills is too cluttered and seems aimed at making the film out to be a huge epic action flick. It does have a great deal of action, but that's not what the film is all about. Compared to the cover graphics of the Firefly box set, the Serenity dvd cover isn't as clean and defined with its images.

The start-up menu is interesting as it is designed to replicate an information screen aboard a space ship. In the Firefly/Serenity story background, Chinese and English are both used by all humans in the 'Verse (the "Universe" as it is known to fans), so I thought it was a nice touch that the choices on the main menu are first titled in Chinese, before transforming into English.

After the menu choices are up, a graphics eye continuously opens and closes to show different Serenity characters in clips from the movie. All images are gold-and-brown-toned to match the menu graphics.

Chapter selections each offer a respective clip from the film, again color-toned to match the menu graphics. It's almost a shock when you click on a chapter selection, after staring at the menu color scheme, and it roars to life in full color.

The Extras:

There are six separate bonus feature sections. The first is the "deleted scenes" section, featuring 9 clips that didn't make the finished product. These scenes are presented in a semi-raw state, in that they have been lightly edited together, but they still have their film timecodes and the green-screen effects haven't been added.

Many present nice round edges to the story, but there's only one that I think might have added significantly to the finished film. It shows the Operative tracking Mal and his crew, and it explains just how he decided to show up at the Companion Training House and take Inara hostage to lure Mal to him. I would have also have liked to have seen the expanded chase scene added back in as Mal and Inara escape the Training House, only because I think the humor would have added to the overall scene in the movie.

As with the Firefly DVD box set, it's the "outtakes reel" that really shows just why the actors talk so fondly about this project. It's obvious that they had a lot of fun doing the movie and there's a real chemistry between them both on and off screen. One of my favorite segments is a scene from the great space battle where the actors are all arguing over who's actually flying the ship and everyone walks off the bridge leaving Mal flying in the heat of the fight. I also enjoyed the outtake of Mal explaining the conversation between him and Inara is a trap...or should I say "TRAP!!!!"

I had already seen these clips at the BDF [story link: www.bellaonline.com/articles/art37761.asp], where Nathan Fillion (Mal) was nice enough to show his extended copy of the outtakes reel to those of us in attendance the last day. Sadly, the dvd version is missing Alan Tudyk's (Wash) expanded linguistic descriptions of certain parts of the female anatomy and Fillion's ending "salute" to castmember Jewel Staite (Kaylee). But the six minutes of outtakes is still a delight to watch and probably my favorite bonus feature on the dvd.

There are three short featurettes on the dvd, all of which provide a background on the story, the series and how the movie came to be. They're not complete "behind-the-scenes" offerings, but they are still worth viewing, if only to get a sense of the scope of the project.

"Future History: The Story of Earth That Was" (4:31) is creator Joss Whedon introducing the Serenity universe, including how it was conceived and why things are the way they are. "What's In A Firefly" (6:32) is for those interested in the creation of some of the major special effects sequences and includes clips of Whedon and his crewmembers.

The final featurette, "Re-Lighting the Firefly" (9:40), looked familiar to me and then I remembered I had already seen this as part of a Sci-Fi channel Serenity special that aired in September, just prior to the movie's release. As such, most of the profanities are edited out (compared to the Outtakes Reel feature, which isn't censored -- except for Alan's missing clip). But it's a nice little introduction to the fandom that is Firefly/Serenity as it follows the cast to their appearance at ComicCon and includes interview clips with the cast themselves.

The final feature is a four-minute introduction to the film by Whedon himself that was originally shown to special preview audiences of Serenity over the Summer of 2005. In it, he talks about his baby, the Serenity universe, and why it is so moving to him that the fans stood behind him to help get this movie made. The sense of humor that makes his scripts so wonderful shines as he converses with the viewer as though they were a close friend.

The official bonus features section wraps up with the option to engage a commentary track to the film featuring Whedon. If you enjoy his work, listening to him talk about it really adds a lot to the experience of watching Serenity.

There is, however, an Easter Egg for the fans. Easter Eggs are the term for hidden features that are only accessible if you know which buttons to push, as they are never listed on the dvd menu. The Serenity egg is a mini-feature on the Fruity-Oatey-Bar commercial with Joss talking about the making of the commercial and followed by the commercial in its entirety. This is the commercial in the movie that hypnotizes River in the bar scene.

To access the egg: on the main menu, when the "PLAY" button is highlighted, hit the LEFT arrow on your remote to highlight the middle of the right-side circle. Hit "ENTER" and the feature will play.

The Bottom Line:

While, as a fan, I would have liked to see more in-depth features and even a commentary track by members of the cast, in addition to the one already offered with Whedon, the dvd is highly recommended by me. The movie is fantastic, and what bonus features there are add to the viewing enjoyment.

Final Scores: [out of a perfect 10]

The Movie: 9.5
The Presentation: 9.5
The Graphics: 8
The Extras: 8.5

*all photos used from the dvd are copyright Universal Pictures 2005*
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Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Director: Joss Whedon

Rated: PG-13 [for intense violence and action, and some sexual references]

Movie Length: 1hr, 59min

Official website: www.serenitymovie.com

Purchase the Serenity DVD at Amazon.com.

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