Top Films of '05: #1 Serenity

Let me take the low road here and just second the prevailing opinion that Joss Whedon’s Serenity (not to mention the TV series that preceded it) has many of the crucial elements frequently absent from Lucas’s Star Wars prequels: roguish humor, credible romance, heros you can really root for. All of the elements that made Firefly such a great (if completely doomed) show on Fox are brought together for a presumptive finale that ties up the loose ends of the series in grand fashion. Wisely placing Malcolm Reynolds (played by the excellent Nathan Fillion) and River Tam (played by Summer Glau) at the center of the story, Whedon has constructed a tight, meaningful narrative that challenges any preconceptions of the characters (assuming you’ve seen the show) and provides the audience – whether you’ve seen the TV show or not – with laughs and thrills along the way. Repeated viewings of Serenity (courtesy of a quickie release to DVD in December) really pushed the film to the top of my list. Nuances I missed in the theater are revealed, and the story arc that pushes Mal to the edge induces chills at several turns.

Though it hangs together with the series remarkably well, I’m pretty sure that uninitiated viewers will find much to appreciate in Serenity (and no doubt find themselves renting the TV show on DVD). Sci-fi nerds are the obvious target demographic, but Whedon always puts characters ahead of special effects and as such, makes it appealing to all kinds of movie fans. Just as I’ve spent years trying to convince people that Buffy The Vampire Slayer was, in fact, some of the best television of the last 20 years, I’ll be preaching the gospel of Firefly and Serenity for years to come.

One further note: though it more or less tanked at the box office, a predicted stronger-than-expected performance on DVD might lend some credence to rumors of further Serenity adventures, either on the small screen or direct-to-DVD. While I’d meet such news with great enthusiasm, I have to admit that I find it hard to imagine how Whedon and his crew could go out on a much higher note than this film.