DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Recent DVD/Video Releases
58
Adam Resurrected
65
Adoration
42
Aliens in the Attic
56
American Violet
44
Answer Man, The
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil![]()
58
Away We Go
54
Battle for Terra
55
Casi Divas
63
Cheri
83
Drag Me to Hell![]()
76
Every Little Step
70
Fados
26
Filth and Wisdom
80
Food, Inc.
34
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
32
I Love You, Beth Cooper
50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
81
Il Divo![]()
32
Land of the Lost
74
Lemon Tree
43
Love 'N Dancing
64
Lymelife
50
Management
63
Medicine for Melancholy
56
Monsters vs. Aliens
34
My Life in Ruins
48
Not Forgotten
76
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
50
Nothing Like the Holidays
26
Objective, The
54
Observe and Report
78
O'Horten
42
Orphan
48
Proposal, The
40
Shrink
55
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
88
Tulpan![]()
66
Unmistaken Child
45
Whatever Works
34
Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Serenity

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 410 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-fi
Written by: Joss Whedon
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 30, 2005
DVD: December 20, 2005
Running Time: 119 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references
Starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau
This story of a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. (Universal)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
As challenging as it must have been to pilot Joss Whedon's space opera from the TV junk pile to the big screen, the finished product is a triumph.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
If you think the "Star Wars" prequels are a disease, then Serenity is the cure.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Serenity is a trim little picture of epic proportions.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Greg Bellavia
This is a film that exists because of fans, was written for the fans and yet can be enjoyed by just about anyone willing to have a good time.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
A brash, funny, action-packed bit of sci-fi ecstasy--and a giant raspberry to the execs who let "Firefly" fall out of the sky.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Whedon wants to make a Serenity trilogy, and I suspect the actors will grow on me if he does. In this case, familiarity would breed not contempt but comfort.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
It's but a witty, engaging hodgepodge of archetypes and clichés; it retreads not only the TV show's story lines, but also those of every "Star Trek" and "Gunsmoke" episode. It needed the room of a big screen just to fit all of its influences into a single place.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
Serenity is still taut, immersive, and alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, a well-balanced blend of whooping Wild West action and space opera.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Ken Tucker
A sci-fi saga that manages to be at once stirring and screwball, gut-busting and gut-wrenching, and more fun than you had at any bigger-budget movie this past summer.
Read Full Review >Empire Olly Richards
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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
No matter what's coming their way, post-apocalyptic doom or gloom, this James Gang of the galaxy is just plain fun to watch.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Serenity evinces the kind of swashbuckling bonhomie that made so many of us fall in love with the original "Star Wars" films, a love that was mightily tested by George Lucas' humorless prequels.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It features truly monstrous bogeymen in the Reavers, cannibalistic renegades who, legend has it, went to the edge of the universe and were driven mad by the abyss.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The film's strength is compelling character relationships and Whedon's trademark dialogue, a smarter version of the cliched action-movie barrage of wisecrack under fire, only better executed, laden in personality, and enriched with evocative western colloquialisms of a frontier culture.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Serenity shows what might have happened if Han Solo had been the focus of the original "Star Wars" instead of whiny Jedi wannabe Luke Skywalker.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Although Mal is ostensibly the movie's hero, and River its heroine, Whedon does a good job of giving all onboard their own story arc, their tragedies and triumphs. The cast, to a man (and woman), is solid, although it's the ballet-trained Glau, who gets to mope in high angst and go Zhang Ziyi-crazy in a couple of martial-arts scenes, who steals the show.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown
Jaw set but never stiff, he (Fillion) gets both the Whedon wit and the Whedon grandiloquence between cheek and gum, and gives the whole enterprise the heft of a real saga.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Serenity is made of dubious but energetic special effects, breathless velocity, much imagination, some sly verbal wit and a little political satire.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Serenity may be short on exposition, but it's smart and fun.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
After witnessing the wearying parliamentary debates among good and bad senators in recent Star Wars episodes, it's a pleasure to watch a sci-fi movie where more than just the spaceships move quickly.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
While it's a geek's paradise from scene one, newcomers are likely to feel left out until they get their bearings. Fortunately, Whedon's characteristic humanity, coupled with the slyest sense of humor in Hollywood, greatly eases the transition.
Read Full Review >Premiere Ryan Devlin
Serenity may not be the next "Star Wars," but it's the best we've seen since the original trilogy, and if Wheedon is planning Serenity trilogy (the door is left open), it would certainly be welcome.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A fast-paced, engaging science fiction adventure tale.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
I mean Serenity no disrespect when I say it's enjoyably junky.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things) is the sinister operative dispatched to retrieve the ship's psychic passenger, who as played by Summer Glau kickboxes better than Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi combined.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
What makes Serenity refreshing is its avoidance of CGI, which gives the pic a much more human dimension; the evident chemistry between the cast; and a humor that doesn't rely simply on flip one-liners.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Matt Singer
Though richly allegorical, Serenity also works as a rousing and unabashedly manipulative adventure that never takes itself too seriously.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Scene for scene, Serenity is more engaging and certainly better written and acted than any of Mr. Lucas's recent screen entertainments.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
An appealingly low-rent, if not earth-shattering, 26th century "Star Wars" with faint glimmers of "Blade Runner," "Buckaroo Banzai" and "The Manchurian Candidate" for good measure.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
For folks like me, who missed "Firefly," the short-lived TV show on which the movie's based, watching Serenity is like showing up for a big lecture course at the end of the semester. And yet, after an hour of intense disorientation, the movie's arch sarcasm becomes oddly entertaining.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
If you can't be original, why not borrow from something no one has seen, like Ben Affleck's last five movies?
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The dialogue, delivered mostly in Southern accents, is intended to be funny and fresh, but much of this Western-influenced sci-fi adventure story feels reheated.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
It's the zippy chatter among the Serenity's wised-up space pirates that gives the film most of its punch, but with only serviceable action sequences and largely cookie-cutter effects, you can still sense the void just outside.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 410 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Joss W. gave it a10:
Simply amazing. I do suggest watching Firefly first for the full impact, however.
karym6 gave it a0:
Good effects and a good effort all round by the crew. Ultimately this film is let down by two things, the story and the acting. Fillion is pretty poor as the lead, all of the supporting characters are much more interesting than him and can act better really. I noted a comment about Blakes 7 by another user. I think this is what really, really gets me annoyed with Wheedon and this film. So many people say its totally original and has a great story - yes it does, it has the story from Blakes 7. Which is pretty much superior in every way. I am also a little disgruntled to see the "fans" giving out scores of 10 and then talking about the series - this is not the series, the series is completely different to this. This is not a great scifi film, it isnt a cult film it is merely average. Watch it and make your own mind up.
J. S. gave it a10:
What a great movie! I'd been a fan of the TV show for awhile, and it was great to see the characters returning. This movie really had everything, and it was done in a very unique and epic manner. The character depth was there as usual, even if at times the actors seemed a bit stale. One complaint that I have is that the assassin, the black guy, his character wasn't anything near as deep as it was in the TV show. I wanted some of those odd perspectives, and some more information on where he came from, rather than reintroducing him. I noticed that it seemed to do a better job of introducing people to the 'franchise' than most of these kinds of movies do. They didn't spend too much time explaining the events of the show, but I'm confident anyone could easily follow. I was thinking that it's kind of like what a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic mobie would be.. Hmm. This movie would hold its own with any Star Wars, Star Trek, or any of the other major Sci-Fi movies.
lapin r gave it a4:
Trashy pulp scfi with zero atmosphere - the viewer ends up thinking "well that was OK" But it does romp along enjoyably & undemandingly, plenty of action & whizzy stuff for teenagers. The actors are cardboard cutouts who struggle to make real characters from the script! best thing is the references to star wars, buffy, alien (its almost as if the film sets were borrowed!) worth watching at home with a takaway & a few beers.
John K gave it a10:
A truly amazing film from a series that was cancelled well before its time.
Placid D gave it a10:
One of the best, if not the best sci-fi movies i have seen. A viewer would do himself a huge favor to watch the Firefly series first though, in order to get backstories sorted, etc, as the movie moves very quickly, and can become confusing on its own.
Squall gave it a10:
Absolutely brilliant film. One of my favourites of all time. Much better if you've seen the series of course, but not entirely necessary.
