Serenity (**1/2)

Serenity starts off wonderfully enough. It's interesting, quick-witted, and something you haven't seen before. A space western is a great idea. To do a "horse chase" with spaceships instead of horses is pretty cool. But from there on out, it just becomes another geeky, cliche sci-fi saga. I must admit that I've never seen Firefly, the Joss Whedon show that developed a huge cult following, but this film doesn't make me want to watch it. The characters are mostly flat and uninteresting. Nathan Fillion makes for a fine, Harrison Ford-type leading man, but the rest of the cast is utterly forgettable and deserve to stay on a small screen. This is not the kind of movie that reinvents the sci-fi genre. It does some small, interesting things with it, but nothing more.