Serenity

Here we have an attempt at a touching story with a big heart, but it failed on all fronts. The two faces of the film, each in a different genre for a different audience, are poorly combined, giving rise to naïve absurdity that elicites laughter instead of suspense and the subsequent “awakening”. Though the first half starts off well and promises an attractive – though not original – plot in an appealing setting with interesting characters and fine actors, Steven Knight didn’t follow through with that. (04/13/2020)

The Hollywood really can make whatever they please. While watching this, I kept asking myself where all the sci-fi and mystery mentioned among the genre categories is. Towards the end, however, everything sped up considerably so I had a hard time to understand what was going on (and eventually failed to do so). On the other hand, I can’t say I wasn’t enjoying the Caribbean locations. I did enjoy them a lot. Matthew McConaughey plays his typical world-weary guy, and steals the show for himself. Anne Hathaway looks like a mannequin while Jason Clarke’s character makes you want to punch him in the face. Fortunately, there’s also the monk portrayed by Djimon Hounsou who somehow balances out Matthew’s character’s moodiness. I have to say that I haven’t seen such a crazy film with Hollywood stars in a while. Sometimes I felt like watching Interstellar from the Caribbean but I had no idea what was going on in the movie until the very end. (08/13/2019)

When Matthew McConaughey's ex-wife Anne Hathaway arrives on a small tropical island and wants him to kill her new husband, crazy things start happening. Probably a lot crazier than you'd expect, but unfortunately not very entertaining. Serenity is a combination of film-noir and femme fatale with Alex Proyas's Dark City, The Matrix, Lost, Inception, Total Recall and a documentary about fishing. If you are into that, feel free to give the cinema a try. Otherwise, I'd recommend watching any of the listed above. Even if it's your tenth time, you'll probably have a lot more fun. (01/29/2019)

Steven Knight has decided to write a screenplay in an "all-in" style and bet everything on a single card. Armed with the knowledge that an unexpected twist awaits me, I found myself in the heat, surrounded by the classically unruly Matthew McConaughey (which unsurprisingly suits him perfectly once again) and the overly artificial Anne Hathaway (who, to my great regret, does not at all suit this role). I tried to find clues to lead me in the right direction, that is, to guess the reveal. I didn't have a chance. The game, which starts with bizarre "telepathic" hints, culminates in something I don't want to talk about so as not to say too much, but without which I can't say much more. I often read opinions that the film world no longer has anything to surprise us with. To all who think the same, I would recommend a journey to Serenity, whether they will part ways with everything they meet on the way on good terms or bad. But for me, it is a half-hearted experience that from a certain point onwards has no reason to finish seemingly crucial storylines – and yet it continues to do so for dozens of minutes after. For this reason, the third star is only for unprecedented creative courage. (02/19/2019)

Interesting idea and well executed (Mathew McConaughey is a very believable wreck, Anne Hathaway is again a magazine-like femme fatale, Jason Clarke plays a Gene Hackman-like villain), However, to come up with a shocking revelation somewhere around two-thirds of the way through the film and not trump it up again by the end, and just show things that, in light of what the viewer and the main character already know, seem rather bizarre and lacking in logic or perhaps suspense... That didn't seem fortunate to me. But it was brave. (08/11/2019)

We didn’t deserve this dirty trick by Knight. I think I will need to watch Serenity another time to see how well they managed, or failed, to bend the laws of that world before and after the key twist, but I don’t want to watch it again, because the climax was disappointing given the concept, and the film irradiates an aura so depressive that I’m unwilling to absorb it a second time. That said, it’s an inconsistent and interesting film that after some time doesn’t feel as stupid as during the screening – but still stupid enough to be taken deadly serious, with a form that only ripples the surface of a semantically rich movie. (02/05/2019)