Fans of the TV show "Firefly" will not need a summary of this movie; they will have already seen it 2-4 times and will have pre-ordered the DVD. This review is for everyone else.Set in a future in which government and corporations seem indistinguishable, the crew of the ship Serenity, captained by Mal (Fillion), make their living on the fringes of society, while trying to stay under the radar of the Alliance.

Staying out of trouble gets a lot harder when they take on Simon (Maher) and his disturbed sister River (Glau). River has been rescued from a secret lab which performs experiments on gifted children, and the crew are unaware of her powers and the lengths to which the Alliance will go to get her back. What follows is a series of action packed events, which leads the crew to uncover some of The Alliances darkest secrets. Serenity has been described as a western in space, and comparisons between Mal and Han Solo are fairly obvious. Yet, perhaps because it relies more on script than on special effects, it manages to provide entertainment to both those who are familiar with the TV show and those who are not.

Lisa (McAdams), a hotel desk manager, is on her way home to Miami on an overnight flight. A suave international type with the unlikely name of Jackson Rippner (Murphy) chats up Lisa in the airport lounge, then, lo and behold, ends up in the seat next to her on the plane. At first, Lisa can't decide whether or not she's attracted to him, but, after the plane takes off and they start having a heart-to-heart, she discovers that the stomach-lurching turbulence the plane is enduring is a minor irritant compared to the dilemma she is about to face. Within minutes of take-off he explains that her father is being held hostage, that her help will be needed in a plot to blow up the deputy secretary of homeland security, and that her job is to call the hotel and have the security guy put in a suite where he can be more easily assassinated.

Rachel McAdams, in resisting the urge to overact, continues to shine on her way to apparent stardom. Cillian (whose name I'm never sure about pronouncing) Murphy is suitably creepy in the role of psycho terrorist wannabe. Let's face it, I don't think he'll ever be up for any romantic leads with his looks. As a "Survivor" geek I couldn't help but laugh when I spotted Colby from "Survivor Outback" pop up as a bodyguard. Hopefully that's his 15 minutes of fame well and truly used up.