To me, Serenity isn't a movie. It's just the final episode to one of the great shows ever seen on TV. It has more heart and soul, character and story than productions 100x its budget. This is what proper, pure writing with original ideas gets you, genuine authenticity and a piece of entertainment that just refuses to age.

I love Serenity and I always get a tear in my eye when it ends, because no more Firefly. It's a great send off for one of my favourite shows of all time. I'm a leaf on the wind

Ejiofor's character is one of the best antagonists I've ever seen in a movie. "I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

Just rewatched Firefly + Serenity. Still the best sci fi series of all time

I was one of the few who saw Serenity in the theaters first, loved it, and found out years later that it had a beloved tv series as well. To me Serenity was and still is one the best SciFi movie ever produced. To me, it was accessible for the uninitiated fan in the firefly universe. Also side note, I felt we already got a reboot of the Firefly universe. It’s called Dark Matter.

Serenity is one of those awesome films that works both as a continuation of the series & a standalone film that almost any film lover can step into & enjoy. That takes some genuine skill!

I binged the entirety of Firefly in three days as a youngster a few years back. I had stumbled upon the movie Serenity in my very bedroom, a lost piece of loot from a toddler's heist I assume. I slapped that DVD in and went on a truly magnificent ride. And Wash's death, although sudden and tear jerking, gave me the appreciation for art's ability to instill emotion in even the most nerdy of kids

Thumbs up before even seeing the video. There is not one fan of Firefly that doesn't miss the show. It deserved more and Serenity gave us a great but sad ending.

What make Ejiofor's character "the villain" incredible is that he has sad eyes. It just shows the monstrosity even good men are capable of. Incredible character. Awesome movie.

While I loved the movie, it still saddens me that we didn't get to see these stories play out over a longer period of time. I loved the brief glimpses of River's programming and Book's mystery during the series and would love to have seen them play out like that.

God, I loved your video commentary about Serenity and Firefly. It's one of the most memorable and concise criticisms about a subject I have listened to. You make it a joy to remember the show and the people that participated in its production. Browncoat for life here.

For my part, the true artistry of this film is that it made me care about the characters even though I did not know at the time there was a series on which it was predicated. To mourn Wash with the crew, to wonder if I would strap the corpses of friends on my ship for subterfuge, and to watch them hold the line not for themselves but so that Mal could get the word to the 'verse: that's a feat of artistic excellence. The movie made me think, weep, cheer, and look for more. That's what a well written story does- instills a thirst in you.

I saw the movie "Serenity" before I even heard of the TV series "Firefly". While it could have spoiled the whole series by giving away the very ending to the saga, I found a complete series DVD set and knew I had to buy it. Great stuff. One thing I liked about the movie is that they had a nearly complete set for the Serenity's interior.

00:40 Not several years after the TV, several months at most, since River is still 17 years old in the movie.

I think, hands down this is the best review for Serenity and indeed all of Firefly that I have heard. Absolutely excellent.

I just got done rewatching Firefly and then Serenity. This retrospective is perfect and encapsulates all that was going through my head. Well done man.

I am convinced that the Operative was kind of the backstory of Book. Shepard always said that he has a dark past and that he had done things he needed to atone for. Maybe he was once too an Operative. Also because Serenity's Operative reaches a point at the end of the movie where he realizes that despite his conviction, he had been wrong all along.

Firefly was so awesome, shame, that they cancelled it. I am German and it never was shown in TV here, so I saw it first a few years ago. I hope, they will continue it someday, the actors are still around and look the same like in the show. Greetings from Germany.

I liked your compare and contrast between series and film. And I agree with you about the music, the soundtrack really made this movie, I didn't like that they got rid of the realistic sound in space but it was okay because of those parts where they seemed to mute the sounds/dialogue and just the music play of a montage. That last part where they're patching Serenity up and you see little glimpses of life moving forward I thought was great.

Serenity is among the top ten sci-fi movies ever made. Like Alien the cast are paramount in delivering to the audience the terrific plots of both movies.

Great review of a great film :).. re-watched it on Netflix yesterday, was blown away all over again. You didn’t mention the lighting which was stunning all the way through, but you’re absolutely right about the sets, casting and soundtrack, all of which were incredible. Also great opening sequence, introducing the Firefly universe for non-fans, setting up the main themes and conflict, and introducing the villain, all in about 2 minutes. Stunning achievement, hardly surprising Whedon was picked for The Avengers.

Best show of all time. They're friends to me. And I know how sad that is.

I've watched many of your videos and enjoyed them all. I really loved the Firefly one but this one was perfect thank you for showing so much love and care for the fans and the movie.

Saw the film before TV show, loved it, got the box set the next day, started an episode at around 10pm..... did not sleep that night!

I never really expected Firefly *itself* to come back, but I've always been surprised that we never revisited the 'Verse in some fashion, you know? Different characters, different premise, decades later, its own story that isn't a continuation or a reboot of Firefly itself, but is set in the same fictional universe and stands on its own. It is, as you mentioned, a supremely rich playground to run around in, and I never got why we never revisited it in another show. Never even *mention* the Serenity. Have Mal or River show up in one episode several seasons in, that kind of thing.

You hit it all. It's still sad this show didn't get it's chance. The most bittersweet binge watch there is.

I'd sit down and watch this again in a heartbeat....great characters that you genuinely cared about even Jane lol....a ship every bit as emotive as the millennium falcon....every single story so well written the one where Mel sends everyone off in the shuttle's while he tries to repair the crippled firefly slowly dieing of a gunshot wound had tears rolling down my face as he battled the pain to repair his ship while he remembers buying her year's ago.....I adored this show so much it physically hurt me when it went off air.

*inserts repeating "caprica caprica caprica" comment until Rowan gives it a chance*

one of those movies that can be watched again and again and again....

A very balanced and well written review, it reminded me what a great movie it was. 😃😃😃 Unlike most people I discovered Serenity years after it's theatre release in my local Blockbuster store lol If you think that's funny... It was almost a year later thanks to a random KZfaq recommendation I found out the series Firefly existed... no channels were showing it so I bought the box set. After getting it, we unintentionally ended up watching all 14 episodes in a crazy binge followed by watching Serenity again!

The music to this epic series finale, made its way to my wedding. Wife and I are huge fans.

Thank you so much for this review. Firefly was an incredibly sublime experience, but I seemed to be the only one who thought Serenity was so much bigger & better. I agree with everything that you said and because there was a deeper intensity than the previous TV series, the losses at the end are more devastating. For me, this film is a perfect example of an unjustly cancelled diamond of a series and as such, I would reject all notions of a reboot.

This is a film I wished I'd seen in the cinema. As a finale to the verse it is brilliant, answering some of the biggest questions yet still leaving a great jumping off point for more. River on the surface of Miranda as she is overwhelmed by the dead is sheer brilliance, you forget at times she is just a kid and this brings it right back as she begs to be turned to stone and not to feel all that she is forced to feel. Then you have subtler moments like Jayne giving the bottle to Simon as they're around the dining table, for two characters that never got on its a subtle nod of newfound respect and appreciation. Wash's sudden death will never not hurt, but seeing how Zoe deals with it is truly a testament to the writing and acting, she starts off devastated, literally having to be dragged away, then she's stoic, angry and out for revenge, but her last line about the 'ship' being torn up plenty but flying true always gets me.

I saw the movie Serenity first. (One of those amazing incidents of going to the cinema to see one movie, then finding you've screwed up the schedule and decide to catch something else instead on the spur of the moment.) Naturally, I fell in love with the story, then went and rented the tv series on dvd. I wasn't even into Buffy or anything else Joss Whedon had, done; but I totally fell in love with this story and this world!

Serenity isn't presumably a few years later. Mal screams that Simon and River have been on board for 8 months. It's 8 months after the pilot episode.

It's a fitting and satisfying finale to a great show that deserved more time. Creative, Inventive and great, likeable characters.

YES!

Always thought a spinoff series following the Operative's nomadic adventures would have been really cool.

This was great storytelling, fun, true sci-fi and one of my favorites......

Why hasn't some billionaire fell completely utterly in love with this series as many of us have and resurrected this beauty .

Serenity takes place a couple of months after the show... not years. In fact the time span between episode 1 and the start of the movie (according to the movie) is 8 months. River is a 16 year old girl during the show and 17 during the movie.

I only have seen bits and pieces of Serenity on Sci-fi (Syfy for dumb people) as a kid in 2009. I was a Mass Effect fan up until Mass Effect 3 (Hated it not for the endings.) After ME3 I decide to do Mass Effect fanfic. In college (2012-2013ish), I had Netflix and found Serenity (no pun intended) I added to my queue and started watching; only to stop 5 mins in. Finding out it was apart of a tv show. Okay, started on the tv show. I fell in love with the characters and the show. The message was one of my favorite episodes. After seeing the movie and knowing there wasn't anything else (10th anniversary at this time) I felt a void and thought "Why isn't there more things like this?" Sure Mass Effect and (Insert something I don't know). Nevertheless, I looked at my Mass Effect fanfic and changed it. Rebuilding it from the ground up, adding in elements from Mass Effect/Blade Runner/Firefly. Instead of a lame fanfic. I created a sci-fi novel... 5 years later, I'm close to publishing Flux and finishing the final book in the trilogy. I still find Firefly fan out there and I always point to the Serenity patch or independent patch and say "Shiny" Rowan J Coleman, well done on the video. You got a Sub out of me. I'll see if you want to join my pool or sci-fi writers on twitter @PRTWriter. I aim to misbehave. PRT

Time for a rewatch, me thinks! Great review.

I missed this show when it was on and kinda resisted checking it out when I'd hear people talk about it 'cause it always looked like such and oddball show. Then some episodes aired awhile back and I finally got what all the fuss was about. Both the series and movie are some of my favorite SciFi things ever now.

Until Serenity came out, I had never heard of Firefly. I didn't know Serenity was a direct continuation of the short lived sci-fi tv series. Serenity is a great movie and one of the best movies ever made. I met Jewel Staite in 2006 and 2017 and I became of Summer Glau and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

I absolutely love this film! Literally everything about it For me - it’s in my top 10 favourite films of all time I remember seeing this in the theatre and walking out feeling I had watched a modern masterpiece - a modern Empire Strikes Back - fully expecting this film to be this huge hit just to be really disappointed it never seemed to get mainstream respect or find much of an audience Like you said - Firefly went out on top!! It’s one of the only properties I know not ruined by over lasting it’s welcome

One of my ALL time favorite movies and Tv series. Browncoats onward.

im a leaf on the wind, watch how i cry my eyes out ( again ? seriously , why am i still crying every time i see this ? BECAUSE ITS AMAZING , THATS WHY ! )

I'm very thankful for this movie otherwise I would never have come to know the TV episodes. I remember the exact moment/lines of dialog that completely sold me on not only the movie, but made me want to go out and find the TV series on DVD. The dialog was "This isn't the war Mal." "You're telling me this because you think I don't know?" "I just want to know who I'm dealing with. I've seen too many versions to be sure." "If I start fighting a war, I guarantee you're going to see something new."

I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar!

I agree! Serenity was amazing!

Serenity is to this day still my very favourite film.

Keep flying, Rowan.

"The Story picks up presumably a few years after the TV show." - Rowan. "Eight months! Eight months you had her on my ship!" Mal at the beginning of the movie. The movie takes place eight months after the pilot episode.

It is my 5th favorite movie of all time and my favorite sci-fi movie. It is virtually flawless. There isn't enough praise for this film.

14 years late. but appreciated none the less

I took my sister to see Serenity. After it was over, she bought the series.

Great review! I love this film!

Seams like we like the same shows but I would love to see you do a Video on Fringe.

one of technical things thats soo beautifull is brutality of vacum of space.....did any one notice how when any of characters go in suits out of the ship, you hear basicly no sounds, they use harpoon insted of gas operated firearm and rest of the stuff....handleing that little part about space is quite neat thing they did.....

But they could further expand the universe even still. Just grab Kevin Dillon and Adam Balwin and do The Brothers Cobb... They look (in character at least like they could be brothers, and sort of have the same personality type (Johnny Drama and Jayne Cobb) It would work.

i loved this loving end of the firefly cinema/tv content. I have all the comics which are also very good

Great series and fantastic movie. I loved (in the movie) when I saw the crashed ship has C-57D on it. Same designation as the Cruiser in the film Forbidden Planet - since Miranda was a 'forbidden planet'. Nice.

Oddly enough being a fairly big sci-fi fan I never heard of the show until after I had seen the movie. I had seen the commercials for this awesome looking sci-fi movie. Saw it and absolutely loved it. I was so intrigued by these characters I wanted more info on the actors and director. That's when I found the series.I was dumbfounded when I saw how Fox treated the series by airing them intentionally out of order and stuck in the deadly Friday night time slot. I know. It's weird seeing the movie 1st which was the finale then seeing the series after as a prequel of sorts. But I go to watch Jane on my other favorite fan saved series Chuck. Then watched Mal in Castle and now in the somewhat lighthearted cop show The Rookie. He was even amazing in the short length fan film about Nathan Drake from the video game series Uncharted. There is just so much these actors have done that I've loved to watch multiple times. Without Joss Whedon we would have missed out on some incredible sci-fi entertainment not to mention what he's done with Marvel movies. Thanks for this video. It's brought back some good memories. **sorry for the length of the post and at least on my tablet the weird way it looks formatted the screen.**

I'll need to search for a Rowan review of "The Sarah Conner Chronicles." It is widely panned but I feel unjustly. When it was forced into a hurried wrap-up it had just begun taking an interesting direction too.

At least we got a conclusion. Saddened that the conclusion wasn't reached on the TV show over a few seasons. Film is very condensed and the broadcast guy feels like a cheesy plot device, but otherwise a fine send off for 'Firefly'

"Yeah, but she's OUR witch!"

What bothered me about the show and the movie (well, one of many things) was the depiction of the Reavers. They are simply too insane and feral. Space is a rough environment and as we see in the show keeping ships running is difficult even when you have money and intelligence. One wonders how any individual Reaver survives beyond a week or three. How do they navigate and fly their ships? Keep food stocked and cooked? How do they work together as a semi-collected group? People in an insane asylum need the staff to keep them safe, whole, fed. Subtract that help and add in 200% more insanity and viciousness and you have the Reavers. Their whole "culture" is not maintainable, it would disintegrate almost immediately. Whedon is a good writer but he went too far with the Reavers.

Time: 18 months from the time the Doc and River first board Serenity. Mal said it right in the beginning of the movie. This movie does not take place years after the show.

I loved Firefly, and I like Serenity as part of that universe, but for me, it really suffered for being a movie. I know this was sort of the point, with the wrapping up of loose ends and so on, but it seemed like 3 or 4 seasons worth of plot points crammed into a film, and what didn't fit was forgotten or skimmed over. Yeah, it was glossier, with more depth to the world-building through more expansive and expensive sets and so on, but it lost a lot along the way.

Hmm interesting, thank you KZfaq for recommending me this, I'll go check both the show and the movie out.

I like this notably more than the show, but they're both great

Nathan Fillion was in Aliens, as a doctor... imagine that...

Because Dennis is a bastard, man. Thanks Rowan, just what I needed. Now, I'm going to read Paragon.

So the Operative and the resources at his disposal, going against Serenity and her crew, it's kind of like if Section 31 went against the Maquis. Just sayin'...

Hadn't even heard of the show before I watched the movie loved the entire cast the space frontier vibes really well executed. On the subject of Avatars I'd be the bastard love child of a Critter/Gremlin and a Power Ranger/Hind D gunship so as to maintane a chirpy personality while not lacking in the anti tank department.

Rowan have you ever red the firefly comic books

This show always struck me as a prequel to the StarCraft Game, I keep waiting for the Zerg to show up.

I completely understand Shepherd Book's death in the movie, because it motivates Mal to expose what the government are trying to do. But Wash's death was unnecessary, it was there for just shock value, they could of easily of just had him badly wounded, but eventually survive.

I loved Serenity.

My wife and I, dicovered Firefly years after it had been cancelled. We love this show and movie and are sorry it was cancelled after one season?

I miss river..

I thought that 'Firefly' was pretty great. 'Serenity' knocked it out of the park.

Serenity the movie. No over the top attempt at sounding like a well versed movie critic. Despise those people. I loved the movie without having seen the series. It was funny, sad, dramatic and as close to the real human condition that you can get, especially out of Hollywood these days. I would recommend it to anyone who loves the above mentioned attributes. I have watched this movie at least 5 times now. Peace ✌️ my fellow earthlings, watch out for the very real (Reavers) in the end of days. God bless 🙌 🙏

I'd probably go Bubba Zanetti from the original Mad Max for an avatar, armed with his Mauser Broomhandle and a fatman from Fallout. Entrance music? Princes of the Universe by Queen, of course.

To the "Ready Player One" avatar question: "Mr. Miyagi," since no one who knows me would ever mistake me for Walter Koenig or even James Takei. (On second thought, "Hikaru Sulu" is OK, too.;)

Oh god why did you have to show the shot. I am traumatized all over again. :(

Darkness....Lol I didn't see that one coming!

Rowan I have another thing to asks you what is your favorite space movie of all time between star wars and others

awesome loved the movie and then loved the tv show . star trek with balls

And my Kid's name is Roawan. Good name..

The only thing that I didn’t like was how savagely they killed off Wash. it’s always my favorite character that gets killed 😢

It's 5 or 6 months after the last episode of the show, just FYI

Serenity takes place 6 months after the tv series

As great as the movie is, I’d love to see the original ideas for the arcs played out in a novel series or comic series.

I connected with half the characters and the plot was basically on the mark. Sadly the qualities it had are no longer emphasized in Sci-Fi because it's easier to just amp up the explosions and produce more Transformers type movies. Summer Glau was another (IMHO better) version of Alita.

I liked this movie even though I have never seen the show

Like Serenity, so many people are missing out on Alita: Battle Angel right now in theaters. If you like Serenity, go see Alita... now.

There's a bit near the end, where it tries to make you think a character might die, and all I could think was "nah, this is so fake", and I was right. Still doesn't make the character any less awesome though, it just sort of bugs me they tried that trick.

Rowan would you ever talk abou the avp movies