Serenity (2005)

All Critics (179) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (154) | Rotten (34) | DVD (48)

Joss Whedon makes a rousing feature-directing debut, exploiting the cult status of his short-lived series Firefly to continue it on the big screen.

June 6, 2007 Full Review

Andrea Gronvall

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

The settings and tone are hyper-real, yet the human behaviour is grounded and credible, the moral conflicts complex and involving. Shiny, intelligent fun.

June 24, 2006 Full Review

Nick Funnell

Time Out

Top Critic

Go out and see Joss Whedon's witty whizbang of an action movie, or we will kill a kitten.

May 12, 2006 Full Review

Ken Tucker

New York Magazine

Top Critic

It has a great sense of humor about it, an attractive cast and it's just a lot of fun.

October 3, 2005 Full Review

Richard Roeper

Ebert & Roeper

Top Critic

Serenity isn't about effects. It's about narrative and characters, and it does a solid job in both areas.

October 1, 2005 Full Review

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

Half a millennium after Neil Armstrong's one small step for mankind and we're back in the saddle again.

September 30, 2005 Full Review | Comments (5)

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

After suffering through a summer crammed with TV shows being remade into movies, it's refreshing to see a movie based on a TV show that is so entertaining that it actually makes you want to go and see the show of which the movie was created.

August 10, 2012 Full Review

Jeffrey Lyles

Lyles' Movie Files

New viewers will be a little bit lost, and old fans won't get quite everything they wanted, but there's enough going on in Serenity and it's all so much fun that it doesn't matter.

March 30, 2011 Full Review

Joshua Starnes

ComingSoon.net

In the end you are left with the feeling that Whedon works better on television than in the cinema.

October 18, 2008 Full Review | Comments (14)

Keith H. Brown

Eye for Film

A bit clunky, but entertaining sci-fi. Best for older tweens and up.

July 17, 2008 Full Review

Cynthia Fuchs

Common Sense Media

A negligible piece of entertainment, competent but forgettable -- basically, a made-for-television movie with delusions of grandeur.

July 8, 2008 Full Review | Comments (10)

Steve Biodrowski

ESplatter

Hardcore fans will undoubtedly be satisfied but its unlikely this will spread much beyond that audience, and even they will find it lacks that human spark and freshness that made the series distinctive and appealing.

January 15, 2008 Full Review | Comments (8)

Garth Franklin

Dark Horizons

For what it is -- viewed as filmmaking in and of itself -- Serenity is tense and smoothly put together.

September 23, 2007 Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

Joss Whedon's big-screen incarnation of his short-lived TV series Firefly [is a] lively, humor-laden science fiction Western...

August 26, 2007 Full Review

Sean Axmaker

MSN.com

A magnificent closer to the series, and Whedon shows how much love he has for his fans by giving us a quality finisher...

July 10, 2007 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

Firefly finally has the triumphant finale fans longed for: the excitingly tense, often surprising and even more frequently comical Serenity. Fans will rejoice.

August 31, 2006

Todd Hertz

Christianity Today

In the context of an action cinema driven by false hope, misogyny and sadism, Serenity is an inspiring respite.

May 27, 2006 Full Review

Steve Schneider

Orlando Weekly

The movie is a sci-fi buccaneer swashbuckler; Whedon hits all the obligatory space-opera notes, and he does it with a degree of verbal wit and agile pacing that could teach George Lucas a thing or two.

May 12, 2006 Full Review

Jim Lane

Sacramento News & Review

Has a simultaneously sprawling yet intimate quality.

May 5, 2006 Full Review

Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

If you're a novice, this is a plucky introduction to Whedon's world and the most fun sci-fi of the year. If you're a devotee, this is the magnificent return you've been praying for.

April 1, 2006 Full Review

Olly Richards

Empire Magazine

The Whedon worship gets gushy in some of the extras, but the deleted and extended scenes are more noteworthy than usual, as are three featurettes on the Firefly universe and how the film got made; plus, the outtakes are damn funny.

March 18, 2006 Full Review

Aaron Hillis

Premiere Magazine

• 1. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: I'll take the shuttle in closer. Zoe, ship is yours. Remember, if anything happens to me, or you don't hear from me within the hour, you take this ship and you come and you rescue me.
  2. Zoe: What? And risk my ship?
  3. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: I mean it. It's cold out there. I don't wanna get left.
  – Submitted by Miguel V (2 months ago)
• 1. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: What in the hell happened back there?
  2. Wash: Start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90-pound girl because I don't think that's ever getting old.
  – Submitted by Miguel V (2 months ago)
• 1. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket.
  – Submitted by Miguel V (2 months ago)
• 1. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: Do you want to run this ship?
  2. Jayne: Yes!
  3. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: Well, you can't.
  – Submitted by Miguel V (2 months ago)
• 1. Kaylee Frye: Have faith, Captain!
  2. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: Not today.
  – Submitted by Miguel V (2 months ago)
• 1. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: I've staked my crew's life on the theory that you're a person, actual and whole, and if I'm wrong you'd best shoot me now or we could talk some more.
  – Submitted by Miguel V (2 months ago)

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