Serenity

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Type: Music
Studio: Varese Sarabande
Release Date: 2005-09-27
Joss Whedon, the writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, "Serenity."

The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family--squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal. When Mal takes on two new passengers--a young doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister --he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, who will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board Serenity herself. This action/adventure/Sci-Fi/western features an eclectic score by composer David Newman.

not so good!
First, let me state that I am a huge fan of Firefly & Serenity, having written out all the script/dialoge and filming directions for my own enjoyment. Second, I am a fan of David Newman, the composer. His thematic ideas evoked an almost emotional reaction while listening to the Firefly series and later, the movie, Serenity.

However, this CD is the typical Sci-Fi soundtrack, mostly bangs, booms, various articulations in the string section, followed by yet more bangs, booms, and a blast of brass (or two!), over and over and over.

If you are seeking a fuller development of the wonderful thematic expresions that occasionally surfaced in the 'Major Motion Picture', look elsewhere. Greatest let-down was the curtailing of the 'credits' section played at the end of the movie; shortned to a less-than-satisfying 2 minutes, and TOTALLY omitting the wonderfully performed (acoustic guitar) Firefly theme!

If you MUST have this CD to complete your own Joss Whedon collection, 'cut to the chase' and listen to selections 20-24. They are the best cuts (and I DO mean CUTS) on the disk. If less than six minutes of listenable music is worth the purchase price to you, you'll be happy. If not, you'll be writing a review that mirrors mine!

ignore bad reviews
I've read many bad reviews on this CD. Did they not listen to the soundtrack when they watched the movie?

Some flaws, but I rather liked it
I do agree with some of the negative comments already posted, but the soundtrack does grow on you. The major failing is that the end title music was not kept in it's entirety (even if it meant a repetition). I'm not sure it's fair to criticize the short lengths of the opening title and end pieces. They are after all bookends (the abrupt cut-off in each case corresponds to a piece of the ship flying off and Mal's "what was that?"). It would have been nice to have those really lovely themes expanded, but I think this would have meant actually rewriting them and bringing in the entire orchestra to remix this (not likely on a movie soundtrack CD budget). I've driven around for days with this CD playing, and it is a really does grow on you. Again, bits and pieces of this rate as really good classical music in their own right, but it's not a thematic whole. Just cut it some slack, after all it's a movie sound track, not a symphony.

An OK movie soundtrack, could've been somewhat better, but I imagine it fits the movie perfectly.
Keep in mind - this is a movie soundtrack, so it's not really meant to just be "listened" to on its own. I can't get enough of the Serenity track and the End Credits. Those have the great sound I was looking for, and unfortunately they are very, very short songs (they should've been much longer!).

All in all a good piece to add to your collection if you like Firefly and Serenity.

Disappointed
Im a huge fan of the TV series and the film. When I bought the TV soundtrack, my only disappointment was that the tracks were too short. I was hoping the movie soundtrack would provide more of the same, only longer.

The beauty of the TV music was its mixture of eastern and western musical influences, perfectly in sync with the cultural mixture in the series. The movie soundtrack has none of that. It's modern through discordant melodies, not through new combinations of music. And it doesn't have any of the eastern, western flavors. Its standard movie music. I like Newman in general, and have other soundtracks from him. But this time I think he missed the mark both musically, and in capturing (or not) the tone of Firefly.