Review of Serenity (2015) by Lewis E — 11 Mar 2015

There are a fair share of space operas entering cinemas recently (e.g. 'Guardians of the Galaxy', 'Jupiter Ascending' etc.) but 'Serenity' is a respectable entry to the genre which was rather underused.

While not utilising its setting to the full extent in terms of visual splendour, 'Serenity' captures an out-of-world atmosphere that remains grounded with down-to-earth characters and themes. In addition, snappy dialogue helps to infuse a light-hearted tone without undermining the darker elements.

It is limited to three stars because it slacks in development of major plot points and characterisation. The narrative shifts focus on multiple areas before eventually relying upon aspects which were not previously explored in sufficient depth and explanation (i.

E. the zombie-like Reavers). As mentioned, the crew are grounded with authentic personalities, a couple of them even sharing the effective 'GOTG' trait of being anti-heroes, but exploration of their background and relationships to each other are lacking to the point to which, individually, most of them have little impact to events.

Nonetheless even in these times of advanced movie graphics, 'Serenity' remains a refreshing film to see.