The movie begins with a narration: "Earth-That-Was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many. We found a new solar system, dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. Each one terraformed, a process taking decades, to support human life. To be new Earths. The central planets formed The Alliance, ruled by an interplanetary parliament. The Alliance was a beacon of civilization. The savage outer planets were not so enlightened, and refused Alliance control. [At about here, you realize that this is sounding too much like a political ad, or maybe indoctrination. Then, sure enough, you see the speaker, a teacher standing in front of her young charges. She continues:]The war was devastating. But the Alliance's victory over the Independents insured a safer universe. And now, everyone can enjoy the comfort and enlightenment of true civilization."One of the students is the young River Tam. She tells the teacher why the Independents would have rebelled: "We meddle ... People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do. What to think. Don't run. Don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right."It's not just the plot and acting of "Serenity" that are excellent. It is the way the story is told; how it unfolds. First the disembodied voice, which turns into the teacher, which turns into a memory of the now 17 year-old River the subject of terrible experiments, which turns into an archive video being watched by The Operative. And this all happens before the opening credits!The archive video is of Simon Tam rescuing his little sister, River, from the Alliance laboratory. And now the two are on the run from the Alliance, aboard the Serenity, a Firefly class transport ship. Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds was a Brown Coat, an Independent squashed by the Alliance. Now he's trying to make a living smuggling and salvaging, on the ship he named after the Plains of Serenity, the last great battle of the failed war of independence.It is a hard way to make a living. As Mal tells the unhappy Simon, "I put this crew together with the promise of work, which the Alliance makes harder every year. Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to ship about at all. This job goes south, there well may not be another. So here's us, on the raggedy edge. Don't push me and I won't push you."The themes of "Serenity" are universal, sometimes troubling. The dialogue is snappy. The humor is great and frequently campy. Our first view of the ship Serenity shows it in trouble. The pilot says, "This landing is going to get pretty interesting."The Captain looks at him: "Define interesting."Pilot: "Oh God Oh God, we're all going to die?"I saw "Serenity" in the movie theater before we even knew of the prequel TV series, "Firefly". Now, we have both for home viewing, and I strongly recommend watching the TV series first, if possible. The movie does stand alone and gives you sufficient background. But the experience will be richer if you have seen the TV series first.DVD: Firefly: The Complete SeriesBlu-ray: Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]BONUS EXTRAS on the Serenity [Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy]:To access the digital copy of the movie, you need to download from a Universal Studios site, using the activation code included. The info sheet in the Blu-ray case states it "may not be valid after 12/31/12". It can be watched on an iPad, iPhone, Mac or PC."U-Control" refers to Universal Studios' HD/Blu-ray interactive format where the viewer uses the remote to access special items.1. Visual Commentary (U-Control on Blu-Ray). Watch the movie with picture-in-picture of Joss Whedon (director) and cast members watching and commenting on the movie.2. Additional picture-in-picture (U-Control on Blu-Ray). Interviews, rehearsal footage and behind-the-scene footage.3. Digital Tour of Serenity (U-Control on Blu-Ray)4. Mr. Universe's Compendium (U-Control on Blu-Ray) This is background and added information on organizations, weaponry and people in the Serenity universe.5. Alliance Database (Blu-ray)6. Commentary by writer/director Joss Whedon (DVD) I enjoyed re-watching the movie with Whedon's commentary. Joss talks about needing a villain. "Somebody who would believe so strongly in what he was doing, that he would do anything. The exact opposite, of course, of the hero. In casting Chiwetel Ejidfor, we found the perfect person because he brings such depth and soulfulness and regret to everything he does."Whedon says that he likes to cast comedians in drama roles. Comedy, he says, "is the hard one." If the actor can do comedy, then they can do drama.7. Deleted Scenes (17 minutes) Interesting - one deleted scene showed the Operative researching Mal. He finds out that the Battle of Serenity had a 68% casualty rate for the Independents. Soldiers like Mal kept fighting for 2 weeks after the generals surrendered.8. Outtakes (6 minutes)9. "Future History: The Story of Earth That Was" (10 minutes) Joss Whedon tells how he came up with this version of the future, which is supposed to be 500 years from now. For example, there are two universal languages used, English and Chinese. In Joss's imagined future, these two superpowers merged when Earth set out to colonize.It's also interesting how he "chose" his hero: "I just wanted to tell a story about people who are living in space, but not living in grandeur. And not living in great portent, but were more the fringe people. People that the Enterprise would have blown right past and never noticed."And the hero's background: "There's very little American fiction about the people who won the [Civil] war, about the North. The people we all like to be identified with, we're all interested in, is the South, because we love losers."10. "What's in a Firefly" (10 minutes) Fascinating look at how they worked scenes, such as the mule skip chase scene after the beginning bank robbery. Both CG and visual effects people explain how it was done.11. "Re-lighting the Firefly" (25 minutes, from 2005) The story of how Joss Whedon and others pulled together a film to tell the story that was left unfinished in the prematurely cancelled TV series. Commentators include Whedon and most of the "Firefly" cast. The most memorable moment was the San Diego ComicCon, after the show's cancellation and before the movie was finished. On the last half of the last day of the convention, 5,000 people showed up to see Josh and the cast.12. Joss Whedon Introdution (6 minutes) This is Whedon's introduction to a draft of the movie (not the final cut).Excellent, excellent film. The perfect example of the Space Cowboy movie!Happy Reader