Blu-ray reviews: 'Serenity,' 'Firefly'

"Serenity" and "Firefly" soar anew on Blu-ray, giving Josh Whedon's science fiction adventure yet another spiffy sendoff.

The two high-def releases offer yet another opportunity to mourn the "Firefly" series -- and to wonder what the hell the Fox TV network was thinking when it abruptly canceled the show back in the 2002-03 season. (How'd you like that decision on your resume?) 

For a failure, this show sure has a way of hanging around.

"Firefly," mostly a space-adventure serial and partly a western, was created by Whedon, the writer-director of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fame. "Firefly" ran for 11 hourlong episodes, although 14 exist on DVD/Blu-ray. The show is named for a class of spaceships that look like the bug. 

"Serenity" is the feature film made by Whedon and Universal two years after the show was canceled. The movie is named after the well-worn Firefly spaceship that the seven heroes inhabit as they wander about the human race's new galaxy, smuggling cows and dodging the evil Alliance.

The movie retains the same excellent ensemble cast, a bunch of unknowns at the time except for Adam Baldwin ("Full Metal Jacket") and Ron Glass ("Barney Miller"). The star (loosely speaking) was Canadian actor Nathan Fillion, whose subsequent credits include "Halo 3" and "Desperate Housewives." A cross between Harrison Ford and Bruce Campbell. "He's a hair actor," Whedon says with a grin. 

"Serenity" picks up where the TV series left off, concludes its major story arc, and ends with the death of a key character. 

Why a mix of science fiction and western genres? Whedon found inspiration in "The Killer Angels," the civil war book. "This made me think of the Millennium Falcon (from 'Star Wars')," he recalls. "Because most things do." The Firefly captain and his gunslinger sidekick (Gina Torres) were on the losing side of a nasty civil war. 

"Firefly" apparently was conceived with a seven-year framework. Whedon says in the "Firefly" extras that he doubts he could reassemble the cast. For example, Summer Glau (pictured), who played the teen with mysterious and dangerous powers, has gone on to kick ass in "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Watching this series -- from the TV pilot through the climax of the feature film -- takes something like two days of couch potato. Once it's all over, viewers who caught the bug may be tempted to start it all over again. 

The movie, in particular, plays beautifully on repeat viewings. I first saw "Serenity" knowing nothing of the TV show, and then most recently after watching the complete "Firefly" series. Either way, it's a big-bang entertainment with plenty of heart and humor to back up its almost non-stop action.

You don't have to be a fan of "Buffy" or "Battlestar Galactica" to enjoy the TV series, but perhaps it helps. A couple of the episodes are kind of sucky, and the production values do have a cable sci-fi feel -- but still I'll take this stuff over the last three "Star Wars" movies any day.

The new Blu-rays were released by Fox ("Firefly") and Universal ("Serenity") within six weeks of each other. 

"Serenity" had been one of the showcase titles for HD DVD, and comes across just as smashing on Blu-ray. The TV series was shot in widescreen, as Whedon insisted, and looks quite good in high def, although some of the effects suffer from close examination.

The DTS-HD lossless audio on "Serenity" gave my system all it could handle: it's a room-rattler in the action scenes, with clear dialogue and decent separation throughout. The "Firefly" Blu-ray's DTS-HD audio was decent but intermittently frustrating, with the characters' lines too often muffled.

"Firefly" was first released to DVD in 2003, where it found most of its loyal fanbase. The extra features from that release are repeated on the Blu-ray, although there is a new and kind of silly "reunion lunch" with Whedon and three of his male stars. Whedon also does an episode commentary that wasn't on the last set.

"Serenity," too, ports over most of its extras from the original DVD release of 2005 and the excellent "Serenity: Collector's Edition" of 2007. New to the Blu-ray are various "U-Control" interactive features such as picture-in-picture goodies. The new "Alliance Database" essays the history of the galaxy and its civil war -- a really useful introduction to the film if you skip the crew profiles, which contain a major spoiler.

Comments

[Cinevidia Home Theater Systems]

I keep hearing and reading about Firefly. I guess it means I should really check it out. :-)