Serenity

I finally watched 'Serenity' tonight. I had high expectations. SFX magazine rated it as the best film of 2005. Empire magazine scored it very highly. As did Total Film. And it was good, possibly very good. But not that good.

I have seen a couple of episodes of 'Firefly' - the short-lived TV series that this movie was the follow-up to. The film seemed kind of like a big episode rather than a proper movie. Sure, the FX were bigger and better than on TV and it clearly had a much bigger budget, but on the whole I felt it was just a big episode of the TV series. Much like 'Star Trek: Insurrection' in some ways - Generations and First Contact were definitely proper movies but Insurrection was just a big episode.

And, given that the movie was written and directed by Joss Whedon - someone known for his well rounded characters, several of the regular cast members were fairly two-dimensional. Kaylee for example - she has a personality in the TV series but seemed just here to make up the numbers.

So, all in all, I'd give it 7/10 - I'll probably watch it again someday, but its not worth buying the DVD for...