Film: Serenity

Directed by: Joss Whedon

Year: 2005

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin

Reviewed by: The Zombieslayer

Serenity was a story of the Alliance, a collection of planets settled by Earthlings, and its government that tries to be a Tipper Gore happy happy joy joy it's for your own good totalitarian state. Only, two big problems. One - not everyone wants to be told what to do. Two - there are sci-fi zombie boogeymen out there that the Alliance swears up and down don't exist, even though too many people already know better.

This is another movie that has so much going on that different interpretations are possible. Mine? I saw a love story. No, not some hokey boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back crap, but a brother's unconditional love for his sister. A brother who would risk death (and much worse) to free his "special" sister from bondage, a sister who is almost literally a walking time-bomb.

And a man who loves his ship. At first, I didn't like the Captain. But as the story progressed, I really felt for the guy. Here was a guy who's too complex to dismiss after first impression.

One thing you ladies will love is that the women characters actually have real roles and good lines. And depth. And character. And a lot of heart.

I'm not sure who Joss Wheedon is, but the guy could write. He wrote and directed this flick and did a wonderful job at both. Whomever he is, I'm going to do a backlog of his stuff and do some serious renting.

Wheedon directs the movie like a movie should be directed. No big name stars, yet nobody flubs their roles. The editing was superb as well and maybe Terry Gilliam needs to hire the guy who edited this flick.

Nine dead zombies. A damn fine movie. Keep in mind, this is coming from a guy who loves fantasy, is indifferent about sci-fi, and the movie didn't have gratuitous nudity (which we all know the Zombieslayer is a huge fan of).

By the way, one thing you will notice is that they used 20th century firearms. There's a reason for that. No matter how hi-tech we get, nothing will beat the reliability of a good old shotgun and a six-shooter.

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