DVD release dates: 20 December 2005 (US), 27 February 2006 (UK)

The Film

War-veteran Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) is captain of the Firefly-class spaceship ‘Serenity’. Together with his loyal but rough crew he scours the edges of the galaxy, taking up smuggling and heist jobs for wealthy clients to earn a living. But two new passengers on the Serenity threaten Captain Reynolds’ low-profile existance: the young doctor Simon Tam (Sean Maher) and his telepathic sister River (Summer Glau) are fugitives running from the Alliance. But it’s not only the ruthless military and the blood-thirsty cannibalistic Reavers who pose a threat to Serenity, the biggest danger may be on board the ship itself.

Serenity is the continuation of writer/director Josh Whedon’s cancelled cult TV show Firefly, the story of which is finally brought to a deserved closure. It’s very rare for a cancelled show to be picked up again at a later point, much less theatrically, and in the case of Serenity the film was largely made possible thanks to Whedon’s relentless pursuing of a solution and the huge so-called ‘Browncoat’ Firefly-fanbase that had established itself across the globe, even in countries where the series was never aired. The attraction emanating from Whedon’s sci-fi tale is due to the diverse, flawed, rugged and loveable group of central characters on board the Serenity and the original and fun adventures they find themselves in.

Serenity is the story of the biggest of these adventures, and continues Whedon’s style of characters first, special effects second. Explosions, action scenes and CGI never distract from the main plot, the dynamic of which is carried by the relationships between the characters, making Serenity a fun and refreshingly witty film. Our more indepth discussion of the movie can be read in our Serenity Movie Review, which we had published to accompany the film’s theatrical release last year.

The DVD

The film is presented in 2.35:1 Anamorph Widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The picture transfer is spotless, sharp and with vivid colours. The DVD menu consists of spectacular graphics which look like a translucent touch-screen computer panel over a background of planetary bodies in space. The disc is stocked with bonus features, such as the nine deleted scenes, a few of which are extended versions of scenes in the movie, but most are completely new. Many of these surround Mal and Inara and are of particular interest to fans of Firefly who felt that the relationship between these two characters was left too short in Serenity. You can also activate an optional commentary track in which Whedon explains why the scenes were cut. To show off how much fun the cast and crew had while shooting there’s also an outtakes video on the disc.

Furthermore there’s an array of behind-the-scenes type clips: ‘Future History The Story Of Earth That Was’ is more or less an extended version of the film beginning and illuminates the history of the Firefly/Serenity universe (humans leaving Earth and terraforming other planets, the forming of the central government, the war between the Alliance and the Independents); ‘Whats In A Firefly’ mostly talks about the creation of the visual effects and the preperation of those via pre-visualization; ‘ReLighting The Firefly’ is a mini-documentary focusing on how Whedon and his cast and crew went from a cancelled tv series to a big movie release (featuring footage of Browncoats going wild at Comic Con); ‘Joss Whedon Introduction’ is a short clip that was presumably attached to advanced screenings of the film in which Whedon asks the fans to drag their friends to the cinema once the film is out; ‘A Filmmakers Journey’ (not on the US DVD release) is the longest video, clocking in at about 20 minutes, and functions as the ‘making-of’ the film, showing the cast preparing for the shoot, mucking about on the set, Summer Glau training for her fight scenes and Joss Whedon talking about what a great family they all grew into while filming.

The commentary track by Whedon begins as follows: “Hi, I’m Joss Whedon, I wrote and directed this mes.. this film! so I’d like to provide you with exciting commentary on it if you have in fact turned on this commentary track. If you’ve done it by accident, I recommend that you turn it off right away.” And that pretty much sums up his commentary, not so much the turning off part, but the fact that it’s simply fun and engaging to listen to!

Serenity is an uncondescending science-fiction film that defies the genre’s usual shortcomings like being too technical and effects-driven. It’s also perfectly enjoyable for viewers unfamiliar with Firefly since Serenity resonates so well thanks to the Han Solo-like characters, each rugged in their own way. The film looks good on disc and has lots of additional insight to offer with its bonus content, and if enough of you go out an buy it, maybe another installment in the Firefly/Serenity universe sometime in the future will come to fruition after all, just like the DVD sales of the TV show had made Serenity possible.

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