Firefly

Jonathan on... Serenity

In an age when almost any television programme can have a cult following, the passion of hard core fans for the short-lived television programme on which Serenity is based is not necessarily a reliable indicator that this series was worth reviving in film form.

However, on the evidence this feature their enthusiasm was entirely justified. This is a huge and pleasant surprise - hip, smart, funny and exciting, topped off by outstanding special effects.

Joss Whedon directs his own splendid script with appealingly breezy panache - I’m already looking forward to seeing what he does with the ’Wonder Woman’ film currently on the stocks - and he draws uniformly excellent performances from a cast in which Chiwetel Ejiofor is particularly strong.

My overriding thought as the credits rolled was: "Why on earth couldn’t the three most recent Star Wars films have been a third as good as this.?" With its swashbuckling fun and occasional moments of intelligent heroics this film has the qualities which the early instalments in George Lucas’s saga possessed, and which the later ones so horribly lacked.

Serenity is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. If you like sci-fi movies it’s unmissable, and even if you don’t, it’s still well worth checking out when it hits cinemas on Friday.