Serenity
2005
**
Director: Josh Whedon
Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk
Josh Whedon's science fiction show Firefly was cancelled in its first season. This utterly unremarkable big screen spin-off probably gives closure to the fans but it doesn't work as a standalone film. Some of the action scenes are confounding and the lifeless characters clearly miss their backstories. Whedon knows how to write wisecracking dialogue but his universe is recycled from other movies, mostly from Star Wars. In the story the Millenium Falcon, I mean, Serenity and its crew save a young girl who turns out to be a programmed killing machine, and the powers that be want her back at any cost.
