Serenity: The Reviews are In!

Reviews of Joss Whedon's Serenity are flooding the net; and the good news is that they're overwhelmingly positive. I think we're all in for a real treat; and if I'm not mistaken, perhaps even a new cultural touchstone. I'm crossing my fingers.

Here's a cross-sampling of reviews:

MaryAnn Johanson, The Flick Filosopher herself, is celebrating Firefly/Serenity week over at her always-impressive domains (Geek Philosophy and The Flick Filosopher). She posted her insightful and appreciative review of Serenity last night, and calls it "total immersion science fiction," noting that "the most stunning thing about Serenity may be that Whedon was allowed to make this film in his own way."

Roger Ebert awards the film a promising three stars and comments that Serenity "plays like a critique of contemporary society...it has the rough edge and brawny energy of a good yarn..."

Derek Elley of Variety notes that 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."

Over at The San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Hartlaub suggests that Joss Whedon will join James Cameron on the sci-fi Mount Rushmore for this flick. He calls it "a triumph...a thrillingly original science fiction creation."

The film has also earned positive reviews from Newday, The Village Voice, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, among many, many others. It currently has a 77% "fresh" reading at Rotten Tomatoes, a very high figure.

I had the honor and privileging of interviewing Joss Whedon for two hours last year while I was working on my book about movie musicals, Singing a New Tune, (yes, he's a crazy fan of movie musicals and Fred Astaire...) and he spoke at length about Serenity's fight scenes featuring Summer Glau (as River Tam) and how he choreographed them as dances of sorts. So I've known for some time that the film was going to be amazing, at least from an action-genre standpoint. But to see the film compared favorably (in all the major papers) to highwater marks of the sci-fi genre including The Matrix, Blade Runner, The Empire Strikes Back and even Aliens is more than encouraging.

I can't to see this movie. Going tomorrow with the whole family...