Serenity

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If you think the "Star Wars" prequels are a disease, then Serenity is the cure.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Serenity is a trim little picture of epic proportions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

A highly entertaining piece of genre-blending fun.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Serenity may be short on exposition, but it's smart and fun.

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.

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.

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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A fast-paced, engaging science fiction adventure tale.

Slate David Edelstein

I mean Serenity no disrespect when I say it's enjoyably junky.

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.

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.

Village Voice Matt Singer

Though richly allegorical, Serenity also works as a rousing and unabashedly manipulative adventure that never takes itself too seriously.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.