Serenity

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Year:	2005
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Joss Whedon
Genre:	Action sci-fi Western
Starring:	Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/
Tagline:	They're armed. She's dangerous.
Favourite line:	"Half of writing history is hiding the truth."

After the appalling network treatment of the excellent series, Firefly, it seemed only fitting that director and creator Joss Whedon was given the opportunity to complete his tale with this full scale, cinematic outing.

Serenity, a Firefly class salvage vessel, populated by a band of likeable vagabonds who take whatever work they can find, legal or otherwise. Among their number, Simon and River Tam, a brother and sister act, he a doctor, she a troubled sort, having been genetically and mentally 'altered' by The Alliance, the ruling force who, several years prior, won the war against the independents and now lead with an iron fist.
The Alliance are very keen to get their gauntlet clad hands on River once more, as Simon busted her out of their high security facility, but Captain Mal Reynolds is determined to keep them both safe.
An unnamed operative is sent by The Alliance to track down River and bring her back, dead or alive, with kill privileges in place as necessary, but River won't be easy to reclaim, not with Reavers in the area....

Effectively a scaled up version of one of the untransmitted episodes (Objects in Space) here the character of the bounty hunter Jubal Early is replaced by The Operative, though their raison d'etre remains the same.
With a bigger budget, the effects and action scenes are ramped up accordingly, though the beating heart of the series - the character interplay - is not forgotten, the script as witty and warm as anything seen in the series.
Fusing Western and Sci-Fi stylings may seem a strange idea at first but, even if you have not seen the TV show, you will quickly adapt to the oddness; the archaic language used on occasion, the swearing in Chinese, the combination of high and low technology and, unless you truly are the kind of monster who can only find entertainment nourishment from soap opera or reality TV blandness, you will be hard pressed not to be engaged right from the get go.
An excellent sci-fi adventure, here at last being given the respect it deserves, this is simply great.