Serenity

The stupidity and timidity of American television networks never ceases to amaze me. Joss Whedon's (Buffy and Angel) Firefly was cancelled after not even one series, giving it not nearly enough time to build up an audience. Another occasion when I'm glad to live in (well, near) the UK and can rely on our channels to at least finish the series, even if something doesn't initially strike gold. Maybe they were expecting a Star Trek: The Next Generation sized hit from the outset. Fortunately, somebody, somewhere saw sense and offered Whedon the chance to go the opposite way to Buffy (which, let's face it, wasn't really an especially good or popular film, certainly not a patch on its subsequent small screen incarnation) and turn Firefly into a feature film. Amazingly, he even managed retained the original cast members and so, although there are no big name stars in Serenity, we get a fine group of actors who have the benefit of the short lived television show for in built rapport. A sci-fi film where the first thing you think of is the acting rather than the visual effects; what are the chances?!

Whedon employed the services of Greg Edmondson for the TV show, but, brought in David Newman to pen the big screen score. I could rant about possible unwanted studio interference, but, as an analogy, who wrote better music for Star Trek, Dennis McCarthy or Jerry Goldsmith? I rest my case. Based on his terrific score to the Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest, Newman would be my first choice to take over from the late Jerry Goldsmith (although the franchise seems rather in limbo these days), but Serenity is a different type of score to the more crowd pleasing Star Trek but, even allowing for that, still a touch disappointing. The main theme, for the titular ship, is as far from the typical sci-fi swagger as is possible, a slightly oriental, delicate and quite lovely cello melody. These quiet moments are Serenity's finest, especially the nominal third track which segues from the main theme into a bouncing banjo accompaniment; a truly inspired way to score a ship roaring through the atmosphere. If only it were all that good.

If the quiet passages are Serenity's music at its finest, the action is the score at its least interesting. Rather than big orchestral passages with the odd intrusion of a memorable main theme, a lot are heavy on the synthetic percussion and rather cacophonous. Nothing as ghastly as The Island, this is the son of Alfred Newman after all, but rarely anything to write home about. One notable exception is the inspiringly titled Space Battle which is frenetic and chaotic, but does actually make use of the main theme in places and is a terrific piece of contemporary action scoring. A little headache inducing for some, but Newman certainly knows his way around an orchestra and plays the different sections off each other with remarkable clarity, despite the apparent chaos. Although best as a gentle cello interlude, the main theme works well as an action motif, it's just a shame that Newman is so sparing in his use as the action is otherwise a little anonymous.

After the run of excitement from Space Battle to Final Fight, the final four cues return to the gentle material that is the score's strength. The television scores were almost like sci-fi western and the return to the banjo in Rebuilding Serenity is another pleasing nod to this. The main theme is wonderful, but can't assert itself into the more bombastic material so almost feels like it's from another score entirely. Similarly, the guitar and banjo based music is great fun, but the film is too serious (in the sense that it isn't witless as it certainly isn't pretentious) for the style to be used to ground the action. The overall impression is that much of Serenity is solid, but not inspired; Whedon's universe is not the grandiose idealism of Star Trek and the music reflects that, so to expect that style of composing is probably hugely unfair, but it's still hard not to be slightly disappointed. Good that Newman has a film worthy of his talents, even if they aren't exploited to the extent that was hoped.