Review Detail

Kicking off a masterful three-part cinematic adaptation of Firefly that pulls the story into line with the Serenity film, Chronicles I does a fantastic job paying homage to the story. What this film sets up, the last one pays off on, and seeing that continuity be created—especially with Mal, is a wonderful fast-paced reentry into the 'Verse after a few years away.

There are definitely places where some audio cuts are noticeable, or where music fades show up over one another. But these are few, and rare enough to not distract from the enjoyment or immersion. I could also see room for improvements through both some more advanced editing and the use of modern technology. AI upscaling of the footage from deleted scenes might yield some interesting results, for instance. But, more reasonably, there could be color grading edits that would help sew some of the scenes together better. This is a comment that I'll repeat for all three releases. However, despite this, I have to say that the overall effect is still excellent, and I wasn't particularly pulled out of the narrative by anything. Then again, I'm a Firefly superfan.

Some other reviewers have commented that setting the flashback scenes from Out of Gas at the start of Chronicles creates a problem with continuity. While I can see why they say that, I don't think it matters as much. It does slow down the pacing of the first act a little, but honestly, moments like the joke about Zoë not liking Wash at first still pays off—after all, a scene later we see that she's married him! I could see these scenes getting dispersed throughout the film in at least one or two other ways, but I like how it currently stands.

I don't think I'd start someone new to Firefly off with this, because you're going to end up missing a lot of the little moments from sideline episodes, moments that make the series what it is. But, I do think this is absolutely the edit-to-end-all-edits when it comes to *rewatching* Firefly, if you want to watch an arc that lines up **perfectly** with the Serenity film. One of the greatest problems with the film was that it needed to cater to an audience that hadn't seen the show!

Here, we're getting the first act in what is essentially one long film with Serenity as the final third. That makes for a crisp arc that's highly enjoyable.