0% Chance Of Success: Firefly The Verse Trading Cards

The Good: Some decent autographs, Some good artwork
The Bad: Missing cast members, Erratic artwork, Basic autograph style, Impossible collectibility
The Basics: Firefly The Verse trading cards partially reward fans of Firefly for keeping the light burning, but then creates an impossible-to-collect art card set.


Every now and then, I review a product that puts me at odds with myself. The Firefly The Verse trading cards are one such product. Firefly The Verse trading cards are an art-themed Firefly trading card set that continue in me the conflict between the trading card collector/genre fan geek and the small business owner. As a small business owner who sells collectibles, I understand the Firefly The Verse trading cards; they have insane rarity to them that leads a handful of collectors worldwide to shell out incredible amounts of money trying to get exceptionally rare cards. Sets like Firefly The Verse are generally good for business for those who manage to pull one of the critically rare cards from the set and can generate a bidding war as a result.

As a collector and genre fan, I hate sets like the Firefly The Verse trading cards. Trading card collecting is one of the few hobbies I picked up as a teenager that stuck with me into adulthood. It is also one of the hobbies I have been a part of where I have witnessed the absolute destruction of the hobby and the industry. Trading cards used to be an amusing diversion that allowed fans to collects something very different from their beloved television shows and films. They take up less space than action figures, are less homogeneous than 8 x 10 photos and have - for years - had a wider variety of subjects and styles than virtually any other collectibles, whatwith foil parallels, autograph cards, sketch cards, and costume/prop cards. And while the concepts of so many trading card sets remain solid and interesting, the execution of some of the new trading card sets are problematic.

Firefly The Verse is one of the most troublingly-executed trading card sets to come out in recent memory with card rarities that make collecting a literal impossibility.

Firefly The Verse cards were produced by Upper Deck, Inc. in 2015 and it is virtually impossible to define how many complete sets of the trading cards actually exist. Because of the rather obtuse breakdown of sketch cards, it is hard to be certain of how man master sets of Firefly The Verse cards are actually available. With the inclusion of Printing Plate cards for each of the common cards, the Firefly The Verse cards might have only four true master sets that could be created; producing a trading card set that only four people could actually assemble is somewhat ridiculous.

As a collector, as well, the Firefly The Verse cards have mixed execution on two key points. The artwork is decidedly mixed in the set and while Upper Deck worked hard to get participation from all of key people involved with Firefly, they failed. For a set that is bloated with autograph cards (single, double, and triple signature cards), the fact that Upper Deck did not manage to get the entire cast of Firefly to sign cards - and/or get Joss Whedon, the creator of Firefly to sign cards - is a strike against the set.

Basics/Set Composition

The concept behind the Firefly The Verse cards is good. The set is an artwork set which features nine cards of new art for each of the fourteen episodes of Firefly, two sets of nine character based cards and cards of the ship, Serenity. There are incredible amounts of bonus cards in the Firefly The Verse set and the set represents the last (known) collectible for fans of Firefly that Ron Glass was able to participate in.

Like almost all of Upper Deck trading card products, the cards come with a UV protective coating to protect the trading cards from fading over time and to give them a nice satin sheen. This does appear to work as I've not had any cards from Upper Deck, Inc. fade. The autographed cards - parallel and flat-out autographs - and sketch cards do not have the UV coating on the front. Unlike some sets of trading cards, the Firefly The Verse trading cards are not consistently oriented; some are in portrait, some are in landscape orientation.

The Firefly The Verse trading card set is an impossible mess when it comes to attempting to define the number of cards in the set. There is no checklist that reliably defines how many cards are in the set. As near as I can determine, the practical number of cards one might want to collect would net a 986 card collection, though there are at least 1581 cards in what would be defined as an absolute, true, master set (if such a thing was actually possible to collect). Even for those trying to complete 986 card set would find it near-impossible to collect given that such a set would require one to track down one of four of each of the 171 printing plates. As best I can determine, the Firefly The Verse trading card set is 986 (or 1581) cards made up of 171 common cards and 815 (or 1400!) chase cards, all but one found in the packs and boxes of the cards.

Common Cards

The Firefly The Verse common set is a 171 card set of artwork cards that were produced exclusively for the set. Each of the 14 episodes of Firefly are given nine cards, each by a different artist. The nine-card episode cards are stylistically incredibly different from one another, from character-centered iconic shots for some episodes to cartoonish artwork that is a stylized representation of the characters and scenes being depicted. The painting style of artwork for the episode "The Message" by Rupam Grimeurve is some of the most compelling, though Mick and Matt Glebe once again produce incredible artwork for "Bushwacked."

The character shots of the main Firefly cast from David Hindelang and Tim Shay are interesting and they precede new renditions of ships and classic propaganda posters for the Firefly universe. The common cards have varying quality and they also have problematic orientation: cards are scattered between portrait and landscape orientation, which makes for a somewhat sloppy appearance when the cards are in a binder.

Chase Cards

The Firefly The Verse cards are chock full of bonus cards, including three styles of parallel cards. The set has 815 trading cards in the bonus sets (of 1400 if one is a stickler!), only one of which is not available in the boxes and sets. The problem with the 814 card number to try to define the set comes in the sketch cards (we'll get to that!), but the 814 bonus cards seems like the best way to define the set. The Firefly The Verse set is made up of green parallel cards, leather parallel cards, autographed parallel cards, autographs, patch cards, sketch cards and printing plates.

The Firefly The Verse chase cards have a green foil parallel card as the first-level chase set. The parallel set takes almost a complete case to complete as the foil cards are found almost every pack and replicate the common cards with green foil accents. The green foil accents on the front of each card feature a symbol, replace the standard copper colored foil on the common cards and most have an accent of Chinese symbols (which Firefly fans understand, even if they cannot read them.

Found about three per box is another replication of the common set in the form of leather parallel cards. The leather parallel cards are each numbered to 99 on the front of the card, which is very different. The leather parallel cards have a slight texture to them, which is very cool. Given how many cases it takes to assemble the full 171 card leather parallel card set, it is good that this parallel set actually looks cool!

The final parallel set is an art lover's dream, at least for those who appreciate the art for the trading cards. One per box is an uncoated replication of a common card that is hand-signed by the artist or artists who produced the original for the Firefly The Verse card set. Each gold-signed card gives the fans of the artists the opportunity to get their favorite piece in the set autographed by the creator. Personally, I like the fact that those who generated the material for the Firefly The Verse set are given something that shows they are appreciated for their contribution.

The Firefly The Verse set is augmented by 42 patch cards. The patch cards are trading cards, extra thick, that have manufactured patches embedded in them. The patch cards vary between simple patches with the character's name on them to things like a patch that commemorates Shepherd Book's hair, Jayne's Gun Vera, or the Alliance Ship. The patch cards vary widely in quality, though most have truly distinctive moments that they replicate in patch form, like Kaylee's fancy dress. Only Jayne In The Airlock truly stood out as one that I had to stare at and look at from multiple angles before I saw what it was supposed to depict. The patch cards are found one per box, so to complete the set, it takes four cases with ideal collation.

The autograph cards are also found about one per box. The autograph cards were created to mimic identification cards from the Firefly Universe and they feature a variety of main and guest cast members. The autograph cards are very weird in that the thirty main autograph cards are landscape oriented, but most of the autographs are on the side of the card! There are fourteen dual autographs, eight triple autographs and six cards that replicate the character cards from the common set. Herein is the fundamental problem with the Firefly The Verse set: with a slew of autographs, it stands out that the full cast is not represented. While it is wonderful that fans can now get something beautiful signed by the recently-departed Ron Glass, the fact that the Firefly The Verse set does not include autographs by Summer Glau, Gina Torres, or Alan Tudyk is noticeable. Also, with some of the weird dual-autographs, it seems ridiculous that Sean Maher and Jewel Staite were not given a dual autograph in the set.

Then there are the sketch cards and there are further problems with figuring out the Firefly The Verse set. Each of the Firefly The Verse sketch cards are individually numbered and there are thirty different subjects. The problem with the Firefly The Verse sketch cards are that it is impossible to figure out how many actual sketch cards there were for the set. The sketch cards range from characters to replications of moments from the episodes to ships. So, for example, all of sketch card FS-2 are of Zoe Washburn, all of FS-16 have moments from "Jaynestown" as the subject, etc. But, while there are thirty potential subjects on cards specific to the artwork on the front, there are 102 artists who contributed sketch cards. Usually, I define the sketch cards as one sketch per artist, but given that the Firefly The Verse cards include two and they are dramatically different numbers, it is tough for collectors to decide which way they want to collect the set. Does one collect one of each artist, one of each of the thirty cards or one of each card by each artist?! There is no real way to collect them the final way (if each artist even contributed one sketch per card), so the most practical ways for the collectors to collect the sketches is to go one per card, though I'd still say that die-hard collectors will want one sketch per artist, so long as they get one of each of the thirty subjects.

The impossibility of collecting the Firefly The Verse cards concludes with the inclusion of printing plate cards into the set. Printing plates are a delightful addition in recent sets as they are the original plates used to make the common cards, cut into trading card size and included for collectors in the packs. The printing plates are viewed as either unique or one of four of each of the 171 plates that replicate the common cards. The printing plates were found in black, yellow, pink, and cyan (blue) and there are either 171 printing plates or 684 printing plates, depending upon one's perspective. I've come around to the idea that printing plates are one per card (171 in this set) and that means that there might be only four complete sets of Firefly The Verse trading card sets that could be completed.

Non-Box/Pack Cards

Outside the boxes, there was a San Diego Comic Con promotional card; it is the only card int he set, not found in packs and boxes, which is nice.

Overall

The Firefly The Verse cards are inconsistently produced which is irksome even to common card collectors, incomplete in the way the whole cast was not included in the autographs and irksome in the impossible way the sketch cards were generated. But, the set has some good artwork and some of the signers are truly impressive and a couple of the sketch cards I've seen were actually amazing. But inconsistency and difficulty are keywords for the Firefly The Verse set, which makes them impossible to recommend.

This set is artwork based on images from Firefly, reviewed here!

This is a set of trading cards I sell in my online store (new inventory being added daily!). Please visit and purchase from the current inventory of them at: Firefly The Verse Trading Card Inventory!

For other art-based trading card sets, please check out my reviews of:
Star Trek 50 Years 50 Artists
Cryptozoic Justice League Cards
Marvel Dangerous Divas 2 trading cards

2.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L .Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Incredibly Biased, Done The Impossible Explains Firefly Fandom . . . Poorly.

The Good: Decent explanation from fans
The Bad: Terribly inaccurate (gets a number of facts wrong)
The Basics: Done The Impossible explains the fandom around Firefly . . . in a mediocre fashion.


It’s worth, at the outset of panning the documentary Done The Impossible: The Fans’ Tale Of “Firefly” And “Serenity”, to note that I am a fan of Firefly. I mention that up front because I was excited to watch Done The Impossible . . . until pretty much the first frames of the documentary. I can live with bias, especially in a documentary about fandom . . . but I have a low threshold for factual inaccuracies in any documentary and Done The Impossible does not do a good service to fans in terms of creating a good historical document.

Done The Impossible is essentially Trekkies (reviewed here!) for Firefly. Firefly (reviewed here!) was a short-lived television show on the FOX network, which was resurrected as a film Serenity (reviewed here!). The show has a strong fan base, but objectively viewed, the series is fourteen episodes long and a movie which was by no means a box office smash. The documentary mines the limited amount of commentary available on the subject to present a short documentary, most of which was contained in the bonus features for the DVD sets for Firefly and Serenity.

Filmed mostly at conventions packed with fans of Firefly, Done The Impossible proclaims the series the best program ever to air on television before a protracted series of introductions of fans of Firefly. After a number of people whose fifteen minutes might be their vague association with the fan movement surrounding Firefly introducing themselves, Adam Baldwin appears on screen to tell the story of Firefly and Firefly fandom. Inaccurately saying that Firefly had done something never done before with a television series being cancelled and then resurrected as a film (did these people never hear of Star Trek?!), the documentary has fans discuss their love of Firefly.

The documentary then shifts to the cancellation of Firefly and the reaction from both fans of the series and people involved in the show. While it is impressive to see Nathan Fillion and Tim Minear talk about their reactions to the show’s cancellation, they provide nothing truly new than they did in the bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray for the show/movies. The documentary then discusses how fans helped raise the capital to make the film Serenity. Outside comments on how Browncoats (the Firefly fans) raised money for charity, there was really nothing new or original in terms of substantive commentary in Done The Impossible.

Thus, much of Done The Impossible is fans (including filkers, Orson Scott Card, and otherwise unremarkable individuals who fell in love with the series) talking about their own personal reactions to the show, the cancellation, and the fight to resurrect the series. Done The Impossible is not fact-heavy, though it tells the personal stories of many people’s emotional connection with the series.

Sadly, that makes the documentary remarkably thin. There is little to say about the show, there is little to say about the campaign to make the movie (we were told, if enough money is raised, the studio will make and distribute a film . . . so we raised the money) and there is remarkably little to say about the fandom. That makes Done The Impossible and unfortunately unremarkable documentary that seems likely to please fans, but not truly enlighten or sway those who are not already part of that fandom.

For other documentaries, please check out my reviews of:
PoliWood
Craigslist Joe
Jedi Junkies

2.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Finds Itself In “The Magical Place,” Which Is Starkly Realistic.

The Good: Fleshes out Coulson well, Adequate performances
The Bad: Somewhat listless and straightforward without much zest or originality, Very plot-focused
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns with “The Magical Place,” an episode that is anything but charismatic and interesting, instead focusing on delivering answers to the first major mystery of the series.


When it comes to current television, there are very few shows I watch religiously anymore. In fact, I can count the shows I pay attention to in their first-run (prior to their DVD release as a full season) on one hand. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is one of them. And yet, even though I knew the series was returning from its midseason hiatus with “The Magical Place,” I found myself so ambivalent to the show – based on the first ten episodes of the series – that I actually failed to tune in to it last night. It’s not a good sign for the show when it’s so forgettable or that one does not anticipate it with enthusiasm.

And yet, “The Magical Place” picks up where “The Bridge” (reviewed here!) left off with the promised reveal of what happened to Agent Phil Coulson after he was killed in The Avengers (reviewed here!). In fact, it is impossible to discuss “The Magical Place” without spoiling the end of “The Bridge.” Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns to the story it left off with a cliffhanger mere hours after the climactic events of “The Bridge” . . . and yet the team has gelled in a way that has it working together like an efficient fighting force (much like how the survivors were re-introduced to viewers in the third season premiere of The Walking Dead, reviewed here!).

Opening with a mercenary selling a piece of foraged Chtari metal from the attack on New York, Agents Ward and May from Coulson’s team break onto the scene to recover the alien technology. Thirty-six hours after Coulson was turned over to Centipede terrorists, Agent Hand is in control of Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. cell and she, sensibly, relieves Skye of duty. Given a satellite phone, Skye escapes S.H.I.E.L.D. custody so she can contribute to the team effort to find Coulson without S.H.I.E.L.D. scrutiny (or resources). Coulson awakens in the care of Po, who reveals that his clairvoyant cannot understand how Coulson came back to life and he begins torturing Coulson to discover his resurrection secret.

While Skye works to get access to clues, Coulson stages a jailbreak (which only reveals to him where he is imprisoned) and Ward begins interrogating the seller they captured to find where Coulson is. Impersonating May, Skye interrogates Rathman about his clients, who are dealing in stolen alien technology. Hand’s obsession with putting the heat on Centipede puts the S.H.I.E.L.D. team on edge as she de-prioritizes finding Coulson. As Coulson is tortured for information, the agents work to find and recover him.

“The Magical Place” is one of the better episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., though it is entirely unsurprising for those who have been paying attention to the series. The revelation of what happened to Coulson is somewhat anticlimactic to fans of Marvel comics and films, though it does not make “The Magical Place” at all unpleasant to watch. Coulson’s character continues to be enhanced through some additional backstory elements (it turns out, Coulson is Batman – wink, wink!) and Clark Gregg wonderfully plays Coulson cool. In “The Magical Place,” Gregg is given an understated part to play and he does it well. Even as he is threatened, Coulson is scanning the room, scanning Raina, assessing his situation masterfully. Gregg takes a very limited role in “The Magical Place” and manages to rule every scene he is in.

The relationship between Ward and May gets strained over Skye’s involvement in the investigation. But even as May seems to betray Ward’s interest in Skye, the intuitive viewer will figure out long before she reveals it, that May was cutting Skye loose from S.H.I.E.L.D. scrutiny. None of the performers in the b-plot truly shine, but none of them are bad, either. They deliver for a very plot-centered rescue operation and that does not give the regulars a chance to shine.

“The Magical Place” leaves the first season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. with only one resounding mystery – that of Skye’s parents and backstory. The series began with the fundamental question of how the dead character of Agent Coulson was being resurrected for the television show; “The Magical Place” finally gives explicit-enough answers to that and writers Paul Zbyszewski and Brent Fletcher do what they have to with remarkably little flair or charisma. For a show that started with a real tongue-in-cheek appreciation for what they were creating, “The Magical Place” is not bad, but it is very dry.

The result is a necessary progression of the Agent Coulson plotline and character that leaves the series dangling for the next big arcs, as opposed to truly feeling like it is part of a serious, complicated, story.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Whedon Fans Might Be Happy, But Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. “Pilot” Hardly Sells The Series In Objective Terms!

The Good: Funny, Interesting set-up
The Bad: Nothing exceptional on the acting or character fronts.
The Basics: Joss Whedon opens Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. in an unincredible, but not unenjoyable, way.


When the cast of the new television series Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was announced, the show had a pretty instant conceptual problem. The top of the cast list was Clark Gregg, who played S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Phase One Movies (reviewed here!) and appeared to die in The Avengers (reviewed here!). Given that the big emotional moment of The Avengers was the death of Phil Coulson, which was used as a catalyst to get the team of super heroes to start working together, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. had the huge potential to gut one of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.

And yet, by the first act break of the “Pilot” to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the problem has an insinuated rectification and it is delivered to the savvy viewers of Marvel’s new project in a way that Joss Whedon fans are likely to love. In fact, the people most likely to get a jag out of the unimaginatively titled “Pilot” are fans of Joss Whedon’s works. In addition to featuring Whedonverse alumni J. August Richards (sounds like Gunn, looks so much older!) and Ron Glass (who manages to look younger than he did on Firefly), the wry humor and sense of humor about industry conceits (like Coulson emerging from a dark corner and noting that that is an improbable position for him to be in) are pure Whedon. But for comic book fans, there is something underwhelming about the characters in the pilot episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.; the villains are not especially super and the heroes are not given enough to do yet to truly impress.

At some point after the Battle Of New York (the references to Iron Man 3, reviewed here!, come very late in the episode to imply it happens after that film), an explosion in an apartment leads Mike Peterson to climb up a wall and enter the burning building. Peterson illustrates super-strength and super-endurance in rescuing a woman from the burning building. Peterson’s activities draw the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Maria Hill and Agent Coulson, who extract Grant Ward from Paris and bring him in to Level 7 of S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. is hunting a terrorist organization Rising Tide, an organization that is working against S.H.I.E.L.D. to recruit emerging superheroes and “unregistered metahumans.”

Easily tracking Rising Tide’s spokeswoman, Skye, Coulson, Ward, and the rest of the team start to uncover an industrial conspiracy that Skye seems more aware of than S.H.I.E.L.D. Unable to pay his bills, Project Centipede’s successful cyborg augment Mike Peterson begins to show psychological strain. As Coulson and Grant hunt for Peterson, the rest of the ream investigates the corporate conspiracy that built Peterson.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. opens fairly unremarkably with its “Pilot.” Like spinoff programs like The Lone Gunmen (reviewed here!), Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is clearly counting entirely on an existing fanbase to survive. The “Pilot” has little outside Whedon’s dialogue and Hollywood beautiful people to sell the episode. Clark Gregg is surrounded by probably the best-looking group of people to ever work in intelligence (where one would think blending in would be a priority).

Like The Lone Gunmen, “Pilot” fleshes the familiar characters that sell the initial premise out with likable “types.” In this case, the S.H.I.E.L.D. forensic team on Level Seven includes Leo and Jemma, who are a bantering team who allow Whedon to continue to perpetrate the concept of the socially-inept scientist geeks, Melinda May, an apparent celebrity in the intelligence community who is relegated in the pilot to driving the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane, Grant, who does little more than show up and look good (it’s like Whedon listened to the commentary track on the second episode to The Lone Gunmen!).

The “Pilot” seems to have missed the resolution to Iron Man 3 in the way it develops the conflict with Mike Peterson. After all, Pepper Potts was cured of her infection, which pops up in “Pilot” and yet, apparently, Tony Stark did not share that technology with S.H.I.E.L.D.?!

The set-up for the characters in “Pilot” is fine. Skye is instantly one of the most interesting Whedon characters to come to one of his series’. While Coulson shows up with the important potential to later be revealed to be a replicant of the popular character, Skye is an adversary turned ally with plenty of potential to create conflict and reversals that make Joss Whedon shows so engaging.

But on the acting front, there are no remarkable performances in “Pilot.” Clark Gregg is predictably great as Agent Coulson and J. Augist Richards presents all the angst in one episode that he did in every Angel episode where he wrestled with confronting the conflicts between being a part of Angel’s team and his old crew on the street. Ming-Na Wen’s performance is basically limited to a single martial art’s scene and the brief appearances by Cobie Smulders have her portraying an administrator more than a field agent. The result is a pilot episode that is somewhat more mundane than extraordinary.

As viewers wait to see if the villainous organization skirted around in “Pilot” lives up to Whedon’s legacy with Wolfram & Hart, we are left with an episode that does not absolutely land the return trip to this corner of the Marvel Universe.

For other works with Cobie Smulders, please visit my reviews of:
Safe Haven
How I Met Your Mother - Season 5
How I Met Your Mother - Season 4
How I Met Your Mother - Season 3
How I Met Your Mother - Season 2
How I Met Your Mother - Season 1
The L Word - Season 2

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Alone In A Dark Galaxy: Serenity Caps Off Firefly Well, If Depressingly.

The Good: Decent acting, Engaging story, Good dialog, Nice pace, Daring vision
The Bad: Glosses over a lot of character, Special effects
The Basics: In the distant future, one young woman is hunted by an oppressive government and protected by a rogue crew without any special abilities.


When I finished watching the movie Serenity, I sat in shock for a few minutes. I also sat hoping that the theme song to the defunct television show Firefly, upon which Serenity is based, would play during the closing credits. Alas, it did not. My shock that kept me in my seat was not at the rude idiot who called out lines from the trailer before they were delivered during the movie, but rather at how the universe of Firefly (reviewed here!) from the television show had been changed by the two hour event I had just watched.

For those who have not seen a single episode of Firefly, Serenity does an amazing job of catch-up, making this a very accessible movie for all audiences. Instead of being a "Screw you for not watching my show!," Joss Whedon opens with a very clear establishment of the universe of Firefly to get the audience engaged. It is very effective, eliminating in the opening moments of the film the big leap the television show required audiences to make.

In the future, Earth has been mostly abandoned for planets in points further out. The authoritarian Alliance governs from a position of power on high, leaving outer colony worlds to mostly fend for themselves. The Alliance does not forgive mistakes and it works hard to maintain its sense of power and control. To that end, it recruits the best and brightest minds for its intelligence and combat divisions. River Tam was a gifted young girl who was part of an ultra-secret program that left her mind virtually destroyed. Unfortunately, her big brother broke her out of the program, leaving the Alliance and its secrets vulnerable. An Operative of the Alliance begins a hunt for River.

River, for her part, is now a weird passenger on Serenity, a consistently-falling-apart space ship on the frontier doing mercenary work. While working on a bank robbery with her new crew, River is sighted by the Operative and a gruesome, bloody chase ensues that will leave River changed and the crew of Serenity in the greatest amount of peril it has ever experienced.

For fans of Firefly, there is much enjoyment in seeing some resolution to the stories from the television show, though there is likely to be some disappointment among hard-core fans over the speed of much of the resolutions. Things happen very quickly in Serenity and in order to squeeze in the massive plot, much of the comfortable pacing of Firefly is sacrificed.

Also sacrificed are important character relationships. The marriage of Zoe and Wash, for example, shows none of the cracks it had when last we saw the characters. The interweavings of Inara and Mal are sacrificed in order to keep the plot focused on River and her story. And Shepherd Book is, sadly, almost entirely absent from the movie.

That said, Serenity delivers and it does so quite well, with a bit of flair. This is an entertaining movie and it wraps up a lot of loose ends from Firefly, while still being a very complete story on its own. Thus, fans of the show will appreciate learning more about what has been going on with River and actually seeing Reavers. People who have never seen the show will get a movie about a twisted young woman who has been abused by the government and her attempts to rediscover all she has lost in a universe filled with menace.

This is not a clean, sterile universe. Joss Whedon keeps the tension in Serenity high and is remarkably unpredictable. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty and to shock his audience, especially the hard core fans.

Fortunately, Whedon has an awesome cast to work with. Summer Glau comes into her own, moving much of the movie as River. In The Simpsons, there is an episode where there is an adaptation of Hamlet and Lisa says "No one out-crazies Ophelia." Well, no one out-performs Glau when it comes to weird, crazy and strangely fun. Glau is awesome and she pulls off the physical stunts incredibly in Serenity.

Jewel Staite is great as Kaylee, the heart of Serenity and Sean Maher has an incredible amount of screentime given how neglected his character was in Firefly. Adam Baldwin is a great source of comic relief, as is Alan Tudyk is great as the wisecracking Wash. And Gina Torres is, yet again, impossibly beautiful as Zoe. Torres reminds us that she has created a character with immense personal strength and her ability to play Zoe as passionate and hardened within an eyeblink of each emotion is rather incredible.

Much of the movie hinges on the movement of Nathan Fillion who plays Mal. He is strong and sensitive and has great range for his character. In Serenity, Fillion balances his inner character struggle with a great deal of physical exertion in combat scenes and he does it without any sense of conflict. The movie moves on his movements and he does it rather fluidly.

The only serious problem with Serenity (outside the obvious compromises for time and the general audience) is in the special effects department. What worked on the small screen in terms of speed and changing camera focus comes across as jumbled and confused on the big screen. So, while Whedon and his team create an intense and extraordinary battle for the climax of the movie unlike anything they had the opportunity to do on television, most of it happens with a speed and lack of focus that comes across as clumsy rather than artful.

On the balance, Serenity is a fast-paced adventure that serves nicely as a coda to the television show Firefly or as a nice stepping stone for future adventures in this weird Whedonverse.

For other films featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor, be sure to see my reviews of:
Salt
2012
Love Actually

7/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Before Watching Serenity . . . Why Firefly Is Must-Watch Television!

The Good: Excellent acting, Good character development, Intriguing "universe"
The Bad: Takes serious investment of faith in Joss Whedon, Simplification of special effects.
The Basics: With a wonderfully diverse cast, Firefly tells the compelling story of smugglers in the future on the run from an authoritarian government.


Once upon a time, there was a show by Joss Whedon on the Fox network. Fox did not promote it and soon it was canceled. Fans of Joss Whedon's work were sad. But then, television shows on DVD became the highest grossing entertainment source in the United States and all sorts of television shows made it to DVD. DVD sales were responsible for the return of Family Guy. And DVD sales were responsible for a movie called Serenity!

Serenity (reviewed here!) is the movie that continues the story that was begun on television in the series Firefly. Firefly is a fairly unique view of the future. Unlike Star Trek's utopian vision or Alien's dystopian vision or Star Wars' vision of somewhere else entirely, Firefly's basic view of the future is this: humanity survived long enough to visit the stars. But then, the bureaucracy and governments stretched too far and a civil war broke out. And in the end, the powerful government - the Alliance - won and the outlying colony worlds basically get shafted. Left on their own to fend for themselves, the places most distant from Earth are basically rogue, making do with what they can. It's the West. Firefly looks and feels like a Western. With spaceships. And curses in Mandarin Chinese.

Captain Mal Reynolds is a man who was a leader on the losing side of the civil war which has been over for over half a decade. He has become a smuggler, soaring around the galaxy in his Firefly-class ship Serenity. Barely making ends meet to keep fuel in the ship, Mal and his crew take whatever work they can get, usually moving illegal cargo. When they take on a fancy doctor and his deranged sister, Serenity becomes targeted by the Alliance and is forced to flee deeper into space, where opportunities are fewer and the threats are more horrific.

The series is about the flight of the ship and the interactions of the characters who are forced together. As Serenity flees from the Alliance, the crew's lives are complicated by the fugitives in their midst and the secrets River has locked in her head.

One of the most intriguing and well-conceived aspects of Firefly is that this is a show with great range and appeal. It is hard to define as it takes place in the future with a space ship, but everyone looks like cowboys. It's a work without real genre and that takes a lot of faith to stick with. Joss Whedon has a lot of street credibility with the successes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel; it's easy to see how he got the pilot made based on that. However, unless one is a fan of his earlier works and willing to take on that faith that the show will continue to go somewhere that is going to pay off, it's easy to see why network executives would be freaked out by it and not know what to do with it.

Fortunately, I am a fan of Angel and Buffy The Vampire Slayer and I was willing to invest some of that faith Whedon had built up in watching this series. It was worthwhile. Firefly succeeds because of the distinctive character interactions and the compelling situations those characters are put into. As Serenity flees the Alliance, various characters have their mysteries explored and revealed. Mal thinks twice about some of the jobs he takes and the straight-laced Simon illustrates he will do anything to save his sister by mapping out one of the most dangerous jobs for the crew; stealing medical supplies from the Alliance. And while they work together or fight, there are other threats. On the frontier, there are insane, mutilated humans who fly around in ships killing anyone they find. They are called Reavers and one of the most impressive aspects of Firefly is that the viewers only see their effects, never the actual villains.

In fact, one of the most impressive leaps Whedon takes is to create a barren universe for the viewer. Humans are it in this vision of the future. There are no aliens, no mystical portals. We're out there, we are the heroes, we are the villains. Fortunately, Joss Whedon is clever enough to pull it all off.

Like all Whedon shows, this is a character-driven story and here are the principle characters:

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds - The leader with moral ambiguity. A striking anti-hero, Reynolds is devoted to his crew and keeping his ship safe and as independent of the Alliance as possible. He still feels loss over the outcome of the war and while he does not always do the morally correct thing, he always does what he thinks is best. With wit and charm, Reynolds is the one who runs the boat,

Zoe - Mal's first officer. She served with Mal in the war and is loyal to him and Serenity in a way that almost borders on love. She is married to Wash and her loyalty to Mal creates some tension between her and her husband. Efficient and clever, she is Mal's right hand,

Jayne - Mal's security officer and a big, dumb brute. Jayne is the most treacherous of the crew whose purpose seems to be effectively the muscle. He is always prepared to take the ship away from Mal and sell the crew out for more money. With his love of weapons and conflict, Jayne is a dangerous man to know,

Kaylee - Serenity's chief engineer and the heart of the ship. She is shy and charming and an expert in what keeps a Firefly flying. What Mal is to the crew, she is to the ship and her down-to-Earth demeanor leads her to an awkward attraction to Simon,

Wash - The ship's navigator. He has a sense of humor and a quick wit. His marriage to Zoe is one the rocks over their lack of privacy and time alone,

Inara - A Companion (high-class hooker, a very reputable position in this universe) who has a great deal of dignity. Despite herself, she finds herself often attracted to the oblivious Mal. She brings an air of class and legitimacy to the scoundrel crew and is useful in more than one pinch,

Shepherd Book - Essentially a traveling priest. Despite Mal's devout atheism, Book pays his way and joins the crew as a moral compass. However, Book seems to have a past and a certain amount of influence with the Alliance that makes others question if he is all that he appears,

Simon - The brilliant doctor. He is an amazing physician and his love and compassion overflows for his sister, River. He has sacrificed everything for her and while he loves her and seeks to protect her, he finds himself attracted more and more to Kaylee,

and River - A genius with a shattered psyche. River is an enigma. She is apparently a genius of amazing proportions who was the subject of cruel and invasive experiments at the hands of the Alliance. Her mystery leads Serenity into most of its difficulties.

The characters are very distinctive and very likable and interesting. Unfortunately, they are also not entirely segregated from other Joss Whedon characters. Mal, for example, has several lines that could have come from Angel and, sadly, Nathan Fillion delivers them in a way very reminiscent of the other show's star.

Truly, though, the cast is extraordinary. Veteran actor Ron Glass portrays Book with dignity and charisma. Summer Glau, formerly a ballerina, is surprisingly good as the awkward and crazy River, managing to create a unique performance that is not based on anyone else's work. Adam Baldwin plays Jayne with great physical presence and a subtle wit that is a great deal of fun to watch.

Gina Torres is absolutely fabulous as Zoe. Torres is a wonderful character actress and must be one of the most beautiful people on the planet. The irony of that is that at many times, Torres is supposed to look haggard or weary in Firefly, but she's unable to pull it off because of her flat out beauty. That is not to say Torres is simply a pretty face. Indeed, she has a great deal of character and ability that is utterly convincing in this role. She can make her eyes sag and her shoulder's slump to look exhausted, but she's still Gina Torres and she's still gorgeous.

Jewel Staite is wonderful as Kaylee. She brings a youth and exuberance to the role that keeps the mood of the show from descending into utter depression or futility. Staite has awesome ability to light up a scene with her smile and her control for the expressiveness of her face and eyes is amazing. As Kaylee, Staite is required to go from expressing simple joy to disappointment (usually in differences with Simon) within an instant and Staite executes such turns impressively and with utter convincing. She's a treat to watch and while her character is the soul of the ship, this actress has much of the soul of the show.

But the one who moves the show and makes it work is Nathan Fillion. As Mal, Fillion projects a casual air mixed with a strange, all-consuming authority. There is not a single moment of the show that the viewer does not believe that Mal is the king of his own little realm and much of that comes from Fillion's portrayal. He is tough and likable in a way that makes for compelling viewing.

Who will like Firefly? Certainly anyone who likes Joss Whedon's other works. Anyone who likes Westerns and science fiction will enjoy this show. Anyone who enjoys strong character-driven works and is willing to give the show a chance to build where it is going, will find much to enjoy in Firefly. And the show is going somewhere.

It's too bad it got canceled before it could get there. At least it will continue in the theaters . . . and in graphic novels like Those Left Behind (reviewed here!)

For other shows that originally aired on FOX, please check out my reviews of:
Family Guy Presents: It’s A Trap!
Glee - Season Two, Volume One
Fringe - Season Two
Arrested Development
Wonderfalls
The Lone Gunmen
Millennium
VR.5
The X-Files
The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr.

8.5/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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