Opening

78% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— The Hangover Part III May 23
—— Epic May 24
94% Before Midnight May 24
—— We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
—— Fill the Void May 24
—— A Green Story May 24
—— Alyce Kills May 24

Top Box Office

87% Star Trek Into Darkness $70.6M
78% Iron Man 3 $35.2M
49% The Great Gatsby $23.4M
47% Pain & Gain $3.1M
69% The Croods $2.8M
77% 42 $2.7M
56% Oblivion $2.2M
98% Mud $2.2M
37% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
88% The East May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31

Serenity (2005)

tomatometer

82

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 179
Fresh: 147 | Rotten: 32

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

86

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 31 | 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,

Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Joss Whedon

Dec 20, 2005

$25.3M

Universal Pictures - Official Site External Icon

Watch It Now

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

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 Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop 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 Source: Time Out
Time Out
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
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
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
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 | Comments (5)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop 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 Source: Lyles' Movie Files
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 Source: ComingSoon.net
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 (14)
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
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 (10)
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 (8)
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
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
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
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
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 Source: Orlando Weekly
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
Sacramento News & Review

Has a simultaneously sprawling yet intimate quality.

May 5, 2006 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness
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
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
Premiere Magazine

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

The crew of a spaceship operating on the ragged edge of civilisation are targeted by the ruling Alliance for harbouring a pair of fugitives that have knowledge of a secret that is potentially devastating to their regime. The fans of cult sci-fi western Firefly were aware that Joss Whedon was capable of creating a hugely enjoyable fantasy blockbuster a good while before The Avengers hit our screens. Serenity is the conclusion to the swiftly - and unjustly - cancelled TV show and contains the same formula of likable characters, funny one-liners and space bound action that made it so beloved by the few who actually saw it. The idea of a roguish smuggler going head to head with a charismatic villain to expose the folly of an evil empire is not unlike that of a certain other infamous franchise; in fact Serenity could be considered Han Solo: The Movie and captures the charm of the original Star Wars trilogy far more successfully than its own prequels. Existing in the space between Pirates Of The Caribbean and Minority Report, Serenity makes a perfect conclusion to Whedon's space-bound saga and I encourage anyone who enjoyed The Avengers to seek out copies of both this and the original Firefly series.
October 30, 2006
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

    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)

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for Serenity yet.

Latest News on Serenity

August 21, 2007:
RT on DVD: The Lives of Others, RoboCop 20th Anniversary, and More Out Today
It's Tuesday, and you know what that means. New DVD releases! This week we have 2007's Best Foreign...

February 5, 2007:
Whedon Walks On "Wonder Woman"
Just before the weekend we learned that Warner Bros. had commissioned a second "Wonder...

October 6, 2006:
Whedon Confirms It: No "Serenity" Sequels
Fanboy favorite Joss Whedon has given his supporters a whole bunch of fun stuff over the years, but...

Foreign Titles

  • Serenity (DE)
  • Serenity (UK)
Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile