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Serenity

A review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman When was the last time you saw a movie because all you heard was that it was insane? We forget in a world of franchises upon franchises that the film industry would sometimes take chances on things they had no real concept of. In 2018, we got a film like Annihilation. It was a strange brave journey but it was still based on an existing IP. Original films given a wide release and that starred actual movie stars they don’t get made anymore. If it ain’t based on something or built on something that the flick never sees the light of day. Yet somehow a film so brazenly insane not only got two OSCAR winning movie stars on board it got talent all the way across the damn call sheet was allowed to be super weird. If by some act of whatever deity you pray to you haven’t heard anything about Serenity DON’T READ ANYTHING ELSE! Most of what made this movie a bizarre modern feat of brilliance was built on me knowing so little it hurt. I remember when I first saw the trailer I thought, “these actors signed on for a Bloodline/Body Heat hybrid that takes place on a island that doesn’t exist?” Concepts in the trailer lead me to believe something about this film was more than the sum of its parts and what I got was so wild, so brave that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Everyone I saw it with on the other hand hated it and if I was a man who didn’t care about you seeing this film for yourself I would confidently say every reason why they hated it was valid but to me that is why it was a masterpiece. The storytelling choice was modern. It explained so much that it gave a film with no understandable logic, actual logic. I legit loved this movie. I feel like a crazy person saying that. Every critic on earth thinks it is insane but that’s what makes it so great. We forget that films need to take risks. They need to say “why not!” Does it try something brand new? No! Honestly it goes back to old waters in some ways but it also felt like one person’s vision. We don’t get that anymore. If you think it failed, well that’s fine at least it failed big. It failed trying to be original and it failed trying to say something. 5/5 - Best Film of 2019


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