On the Run With Precious Cargo
First of all, for those of you who haven’t seen or know anything about Firefly, don’t worry. When I first saw Serenity, I hadn’t seen any Firefly at all, although I picked up bits of information listening to my friends talk about it. Ultimately though, you need not know a darn thing about Firefly to be able to fully enjoy Serenity.
That said, Firefly fans will immediately recognize and associate with the crew of the rickety Serenity spaceship. At the helm is the decisive, witty Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion. His crew includes Kaylee in maintenance, Wash in the pilot’s seat, his wife Zoe as a combat leader, Jayne as a gung ho fighter, and Simon as the crew’s doctor. As you may be already know or be able to tell, the crew is a ragtag bunch. They make their living going from ‘job’ to ‘job,’ some legal, most not, but generally speaking the crew are good, non-violent people when they can be. They are a dying breed however as the massive Alliance continues to spread its grip on the universe in an attempt to control everything, much like the Empire in Star Wars.
The story begins with River, Simon’s psychic, quiet seventeen year old sister. She’s undergone tremendous mental stress put on by the Alliance and doesn’t really say much for most of the film, which is what keeps her secrets hidden from the crew for so long. Anyway, Simon manages to get into an Alliance facility undercover to rescue her. There is something about River that the Alliance is hellbent on covering up. Simon manages to escape with River and together they flee on Serenity, but the crew has their doubts about keeping River and Simon because she means a tremendous amount to the Alliance who, we see through violence, is determined to get her back at any cost.
With their wit and connections, the crew are able to keep just a step ahead of the Alliance and out of the grasp of the nasty Reavers as they try to figure out what is so important about her. All the while, The Operative of the Alliance Parliament, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, tries to locate them to get her back. The Operative is a really cool character who is swift and deadly with his martial arts skills and sword fighting prowess, a distinct opposite to Mal’s gun-toting, fist-swinging style. With the help of Inara, Shepard (technically two crew members that during this film are not aboard), and Mr. Universe, the Serenity and her crew eventually find out the secret River knows during the last third or so of film. When they arrive at this location, they retrieve a data storage device that contains the massive Alliance secret and the crew’s final goal in the movie is to broadcast this message to everyone in the universe using Mr. Universe’s communications devices.
Serenity is an outstanding film on many levels. Joss Whedon, creator of the Firefly series, did a hell of a job in making this film accessible to everyone yet very enjoyable to newcomers and die hard fans alike. Simply put, the characters are all interesting and personable, and the sum of them is a potent combination. This two hour adventure is captivating from start to finish with a focus on action but with some great witty comedy and dramatic segments, too.
So Serene On Blu-ray
The Blu-ray release of Serenity doesn’t disappoint at all. I had technical trouble with one extra feature, but other than that, it’s a superb release. I’ve long since thought Universal puts out the best Blu-rays and their Serenity release gives me only more confidence in that opinion.
Visually, Serenity is stunning throughout its entire duration. The film features quite a color palette too, and every color popped off the screen vibrantly. It’s a very sharp picture with no grain and frankly gorgeous from start to finish. The audio is excellent as well; the DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround sound is very impressive.
This Blu-ray release is packed with extra features too, many of which were not even on the HD-DVD or DVD release. Let’s break them down:
-My Scenes – Universal’s My Scenes feature allows you to set pointers to create your own Bookmarks. With BDLive, you can share these.
-Alliance Database – This is the feature I had a problem with; when I selected it, my screen would go black and I couldn’t navigate the disc or do anything; I had to exit out of it and get back to the XMB (I use a PS3).
-Deleted Scenes – Nine deleted scenes totaling fourteen minutes are presented in SD with optional audio commentary from Joss Whedon.
-Outtakes– Six minutes in SD, over a dozen outtakes from production.
-Future History: The Story of the Earth That Was – A four and a half minute SD feature with Joss Whedon talking about writing sci-fi and the show, Firefly. Behind the scenes footage of Serenity is shown.
-What’s In A Firefly – A six and half minute SD feature with more behind the scenes footage; cast and crew interviews. The making of the scene where the crew escapes in the “Mule,” a small land speeder essentially, is shown, and the special effects guys talk shop.
-Re-Lighting The Firefly – A ten minute SD feature with the cast and crew talking about when they found out the show was canceled and Joss gives us insight on how the film deal with Universal came out.
-Joss Whedon Intro – A four minute SD feature with Joss Whedon giving us a bit of history and backstory to Firefly and Serenity.
-Extended Scenes – Four extended scenes totaling six minutes, in SD. Extended scenes include the meeting with Mingo and the Inara/Mal “Wave conversation” scene.
-Take A Walk On Serenity – A four minute SD feature with Mal, Jayne, and Whedon walking around the set of Serenity.
-A Filmmaker’s Journey – A twenty minute, SD feature with cast and crew interviews, readings of the script during early production, behind the scenes footage.
-The Green Clan – A three minute SD feature about Jack Green, a cinematographer that Whedon worked with and really liked; includes more behind the scenes goodness.
-Session 416 – Five excerpts totaling eight minutes, SD, of River getting interviewed in a chair (in character). The film is intentionally grainy and in black and white.
-Audio Commentary with Joss Whedon
-Audio Commentary with Whedon, Mal, Jayne, River, and Ron Glass (Shepard).
-U-Control– Universal’s cool U-Control feature is a part of this release and this time the optional Controls include Picture-In-Picture video commentary with Whedon, a digital tour of Serenity, and Mr.Universe’s Compendium, a collection of various articles and transmissions that relate to the film and its characters.
-BDLive– You can share scenes from My Scenes and check out trailers for other Universal releases; hopefully there will be more added later.
No matter how you slice it, that’s quite a set of extra features for an already awesome Blu-ray release.