My son Thomas and I did a little bit of prep work in anticipation of the latest Film at 11 podcast. Over the past couple weeks, between podcast episodes, we binged the complete first (and only) season of Joss Whedon’s famed cult sci-fi series Firefly. Naturally enough, that leads us directly into the feature film follow-up, Serenity.
As I noted in the Firefly review I published a couple days ago (linked below), I still enjoy that show, as well as the movie, but these days I can’t help having some misgivings about the Joss Whedon-ness of the property. I didn’t mention any of that context to Thomas when he watched, because I didn’t want him to be biased by it. This podcast episode strictly represents his opinion as an 11-year-old who likes sci-fi and likes action movies. At this age, I don’t think it would be fair to tarnish that perspective with any of my adult hang-ups.
| Title: | Serenity |
| Year of Release: | 2005 |
| Director: | Joss Whedon |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Various VOD rental and purchase platforms/ |
The Blu-ray
I’ve wound up owning a lot of copies of Serenity on home video over the years, but stopped short at the most recently available. The movie was first released on DVD in late 2005, after its failed theatrical release. At that time, I imported a PAL-format disc from Australia for the dumb reason that it came in a supposedly limited edition tin case that is worth precisely nothing to anyone anymore. A year later, Serenity then kicked off the infamous High-Def Format War as one of the initial batch of launch titles for the HD DVD format, and I rushed out to Best Buy to pick up a copy on release day along with a frustratingly glitchy Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player.
When HD DVD folded, Universal ported the movie to Blu-ray in 2008. I received a copy of that disc from the studio for review but, because I’m a total sucker sometimes, I later replaced it with a SteelBook reissue in 2013, despite the fact that the SteelBook has tacky “comic book” themed art that I immediately regretted owning.
I resisted buying Serenity yet again when it was upgraded to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2017, reasoning that visual effects-heavy movies made during the 2K Digital Intermediate era don’t gain much from being upscaled to 4K. Rewatching the Blu-ray, I’m not entirely certain how I feel about that at the moment.
On the one hand, although the 2.35:1 image is reasonably detailed, it’s a little soft even by Blu-ray standards, no doubt to help blend the live-action footage with the CGI visual effects (which certainly look better than the TV show’s, but are fairly dated all the same). I doubt the 2K DI source has much more to give. The movie’s photography is also awfully grainy at times, and grain often gets exaggerated in ugly ways after being upscaled to 4K.
Re-reading my old reviews, I see that I complained about the video master used for both the HD DVD and Blu-ray being too dark. Almost comically similar to what happened on Star Trek: Generations, the cinematographer for Serenity (Jack N. Green, in this case) went a little overboard in trying to give the theatrical movie a very cinematic look different than the TV series it derived from, by pulling the lighting way down and swallowing most interior scenes in heavy shadows. It’s really a bit much.
As far as that goes, I wasn’t as bothered by that issue during this watch as I expected. Perhaps my current projector handles the contrast better than the one I had in 2008. In most scenes, the image has sufficient shadow detail that the darkness didn’t seem overly problematic to me. Nonetheless, some dark scenes do suffer black crush, and some bright scenes have blown-out highlights. For that reason, I’m curious to know whether HDR grading on the 4K Ultra HD edition benefits this movie at all, or whether these traits are baked into the Digital Intermediate.
On the audio front, the Blu-ray’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack slams with hard-hitting bass in a very fun way that newer movies usually eschew. Surround channels are also loud and aggressive, and gunshot sound effects are enormously more satisfying in the movie than in the Firefly TV show. That said, subtle auditory details in the track sometimes get drowned out by all the bombast.
Bonus features consist of two audio commentaries, a half-dozen featurettes, a Joss Whedon intro, some deleted scenes, outtakes, and webisode clips from the R. Tam Sessions viral marketing campaign. If your Blu-ray player still works with so-called Bonus View content, the interactive U-Control interface provides picture-in-picture segments (most of which can be viewed separately as well), a video commentary, and pop-up text information. Hidden in the Extended Scenes menu is a “Fruity Oaty Good Time” easter egg.
Related
- Firefly / Serenity
- Alan Tudyk
- Chiwitel Ejiofor
- Sarah Paulson
- David Krumholtz
The Video File Blog 
Ha, Bonus View, never knew the origins of your HDD blog’s name.
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From the reviews I read, the 4K disc isn’t the best transfer as the DNR is either overdone or possibly the movie needs a new remaster. On the other hand, the DTS: X track is supposed to be an absolute blast.
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