Review

This action packed and thrilling movie feels like Firefly season two crammed into a two hour event. And with only a few minor flaws, Firefly makes the transition to the big screen quite well. While this film is easily enjoyable for both the initiated or the uninitiated viewer alike, I strongly advise anyone intending to see this film to watch the fifteen episode series first, as it will greatly enhance the experience of the movie, if rendering the opening montage somewhat redundant.

With respect to series continuity, this film resolves most of the important ongoing plot threads with one glaring exception: Book. Poor Book never got a chance to shine, but I think after the events of the film there is enough evidence to conclude that Book used to be one of those "operatives" or perhaps someone with a position very much like one and turned to the life of a preacher to makes amends for a history of immoral actions, much like how the operative in this film decides to abandon this particular quest once it ceased to be relevant.

Evidence supporting this conclusion includes Book's high profile Alliance connection, his in-depth knowledge of crime, his proficiency with weapons and the martial arts, River's direct mind-read of him, and his intimate knowledge of how these sorts of "operatives" operate within the Alliance when he warns Mal of things to come at Haven. There are other, more subtle details throughout the series and film that point in this direction too. It's nice that they've given us enough information to draw some kind of well reasoned conclusion, but it is unfortunate that it's not made more explicit.

In any case, I suppose we may never know for sure, which is a shame, but luckily the rest of the plot threads are left decidedly less ambiguous and are quite satisfying. This film surprisingly kills off two main characters, the aforementioned Book but also Wash, whose death is among the most shocking things I've seen in a science fiction production. Very sad too, as he is one of the more entertaining characters. If Firefly is ever revived, it will never be the same again without these two characters.

But moving onto actual arc significance, the most interesting thing that happens here is the revelation that Simon hasn't exactly been honest with the crew of the Serenity over the last eight months. He's been withholding key information about River all this time. In particular, that he executed her rescue personally, rather than simply pay people to smuggle her out, that he had personally spoken with someone who was experimenting on her, who had made reference to her telepathic abilities, and that she was designed to be a living weapon.

This would all be a continuity error were it not for the plot point made of Simon withholding this information deliberately. Also interesting is the pickup from the series about Mal having a tendency to drive people off his ship. Inara first, then Book (possibly), and now Simon and River (almost). A subplot of the film is reversing this trend; Mal manages to reunite his crew. Well, at least those that didn't die in the process. But at the very least, seeing Mal and Inara make real progress with their relationship is quite satisfying. Same with Kaylee and Simon. I feel bad for Zoe though. Real bad.

Another satisfying detail is finally seeing the reavers again, who we hadn't seen since early in Firefly's episodic run. Each time the reavers appeared until now has been decidedly unsatisfying, due to their murky and unexplained origins. Well now we finally get an explanation, and a pretty good one too! On top of that, we get a ridiculously epic space battle along with a mission of similar scale for Serenity's crew. Mal feels it is his moral imperative to let the rest of the planetary system know what evils the Alliance had wrought.

The plot leading up to this is well crafted with the one glaring exception of "Mr. Universe." That man is a plot device; a deus ex machina manifested into a character. Where and when did our heroes meet this guy? Why does he have access to everything? Why hasn't the Alliance shut him down before if he's so easily located? Why does he live on a planet/moon surrounded by a big glowing ion cloud? The whole thing is like a bad hacker movie. It was all fairly unnecessary too. His only purpose in the plot was to help Mal determine what set River off, which he already deduced half on his own, and to provide equipment to let Mal broadcast a message to the whole planetary system. Both of these plot devices could have been provided by less lame things.

In any case, the rest of the movie is spectacular. River fighting off the reavers all by herself and the space battle in the ion cloud are easily the two most bad ass moments ever seen in the Firefly franchise and the operative as an antagonist is every bit as compelling as Early was in Objects in Space. I found it fascinating how Mal and the operative were essentially mirrors of one another. Both strong willed in their belief in their cause and operating under a strict code of honor and both fighting with valor. It's also nice to see that the operative, while quite twisted, may not be evil after all. Again, once his purpose had been rendered irrelevant, he saw no need to continue the fight. I have a lot of respect for his character for that.

In the end, this film is a great and much appreciated continuation of and conclusion to the Firefly franchise. I say conclusion because even if Firefly is ever continued in some way, as I noted above, it will never be the same again with two main characters dead. However, I would love to see a continuation despite it not being quite the same, as the Firefly universe is compelling and well written and deserves to be continued.