I’ve Found Serenity Once Again

I’m not a big fan of platinum editions, ultimate collections, and definitive discs, but once in a while the marketing geniuses know what they’re doing when they re-release a film on DVD. Such is the case with the new two disc “collector’s edition” of Joss Whedon’s Serenity. My man love for Whedon is well documented on this site so I’ll try to keep the drooling admiration to a minimum. Born out of the short lived TV show Firefly, Serenity reunited the original cast with Whedon for his big screen directorial debut. Like all Whedon work the film featured incredible drama, much hilarity, a little romance and lots of action. The results for this sci-fi western were underwhelming at the box office to say the least but like the TV show once the movie hit DVD the commercial and critical acclaim rolled in and of course that has now prompted the new edition. One thing that often drives me nuts with these re-releases is the disappearance of the original DVD features. Here the producers were smart and left Whedon’s original commentary as well as all the short making of extras that graced the first disc. The real bread and butter on this new edition is a new commentary track recorded this past March with Whedon and about a quarter of the cast. If the love these folks shared didn’t come through to you by simply watching the film, you’ll get it here in spades. Even though time has passed it sounds like they’re reuniting weeks not years since the film was shot. Some new extended scenes offer a few funnies and two new making of docs again just perfectly capture the magic that you want to believe filmmaking should be. Of course the real joy of this disc is the film itself and even after seeing it in the theaters and multiple times on DVD I still found myself watching it twice more on Sunday (once with commentary, once without). If you haven’t seen it don’t worry about missing out on the TV show (although you’re missing out huge) as the movie is very accessible to newbies to the ‘verse and it will just drive you to watch the series anyway.