Serenity

Serenity
2 disc Collector's Edition

Whomever authorized the cancellation of the series Firefly should be given to the Reavers ... but at least we got the movie Serenity.

I love this movie. It has elements of space opera and the western. Joss Whedon has said that he conceived of it after reading The Killer Angels and wanted to follow people who fought on the losing side. In that respect I guess you could put it in the same category as The Searchers and The Outlaw Josey Wales. There is no need for me to go into detail about Firefly and Serenity as the Wikipedia articles (see links in first paragraph) are pretty good.

This movie has everything:

• terrific cast
• characters you care about
• well crafted action sequences
• pursuit by the government
• spooky bad guy
• altered humans worthy of George Romero
  
• battle in space
  
• heroic actions in support of noble purpose
• last stand of the crew fighting against impossible odds
  
• friendship, loyalty, sadness, humor
• explosions and gun play
• iconic hero shot worth watching the entire movie just to see
  
• super-powered adolescent girl with edged weapons
• I'm not sure what was on the original DVD release but this version features two commentary tracks, one with Joss and another with Joss, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, and Nathan Fillion. It also has the usual outtakes, deleted scenes, and extended scenes.
  

The is one bonus feature that is sure to please fans. On disk two is Session 416. In it we have black & white sessions with a faceless interviewer and River. We see the River from before her programming, when she was a normal and highly intelligent, smiling, school girl who might have the ability to read minds. At first, she is being interviewed for a place with an Alliance supported institute. Over the course of several interviews we see the gradual disintegration of her personality and her descent into psychosis. At one point the interviewer tells her that the institute is all about her mind and allowing it to do everything it could and she asks "Would I still be allowed to dance." This directly feeds into a comment by Simon at the beginning of the movie when she is being rescued from the institute.

Now I need to get the Firefly episodes.