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Serenity (2005)

tomatometer

81

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 178
Fresh: 145 | Rotten: 33

Snappy dialogue and goofy characters make this Wild Wild West soap opera in space fun and adventurous.

85

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 5

Snappy dialogue and goofy characters make this Wild Wild West soap opera in space fun and adventurous.

audience

89

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 279,474

My Rating

Movie Info

A band of renegades on the run in outer space get in more hot water than they anticipated in this sci-fi action-adventure adapted from the television series Firefly. In the 26th century, the galaxy has been colonized by a military force known as the Alliance, but its leadership has not gone unquestioned. The Alliance was once challenged by a league of rebels known as the Independents, but the Alliance emerged victorious after a brutal civil war, with the surviving Independents scattering around

PG-13, 1 hr. 59 min.

Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Joss Whedon

Dec 20, 2005

$25.3M

Universal Pictures

Cast

All Critics (178) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (152) | Rotten (35) | 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 Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop 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 Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop 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 Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comment
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop 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 Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop 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 Source: Washington Post | Comment (1)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fans get priority seating on the ride, but there's plenty of room for rookies to clamber aboard.

September 30, 2005 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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 Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
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 Source: Eye for Film | Comments (4)
Eye for Film

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

July 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
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 Source: ESplatter | Comments (5)
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 Source: Dark Horizons | Comments (6)
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 Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
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 Source: MSN.com | Comment
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 Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
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 Comment

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 Source: Time Out | Comment

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

May 27, 2006 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | Comment
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 Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment
Sacramento News & Review

Has a simultaneously sprawling yet intimate quality.

May 5, 2006 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
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 Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
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 Source: Premiere Magazine | Comment
Premiere Magazine
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Serenity

Simply one of the finest sci fi stories out there. A superb cast brings the series Firefly to the big screen and casts a wonderful spell. Summr Glau is one of the best bad assess of the sci fi world.

March 20, 2007
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

Liked this one a lot.

November 27, 2010
jamers2011
Jameson Worley

Super Reviewer

    1. Jayne: Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?
    – Submitted by David B (3 months ago)
    1. Inara: And that's not incense. [he turns to look: the incense stick burns away - rather like a fuse - and FLASHES in an explosion of light and sound]
    – Submitted by David B (3 months ago)
    1. Kaylee Frye: Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!
    – Submitted by David B (3 months ago)
    1. River Tam: I swallowed a bug.
    – Submitted by David B (3 months ago)
    1. Capt. Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds: I mean to confound these bungers.
    – Submitted by Ben S (6 months ago)

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