Serenity Chronicles III: Revelations

In this final piece of the cinematic version of Firefly, we're swept away by the arrival of the Operative. Enter, Serenity. But, unlike with Serenity after a viewing of the un-edited series, this time it all comes together smoothly. The first two pieces set the arcs of this edit up *perfectly*, and make it seem like the extra narrative work in the film is a natural byproduct of the story.

The added footage is great, generally adding a lot of depth to a film that clearly got its story edited down to fit in low audience attention spans. These give us a lot more growth between characters, and even one funny action scene that beautifully showcases Mal's approach to problem solving. There was only one edit that I disagree with: the final addition of Mal's line after the Operative leaves was well-cut from the original film because it damages an otherwise incredibly poignant emotional beat with misplaced irreverent humor. We don't enter the truly perfect final scene with quite as much buy-in.

That said, this is a small niggle for an otherwise ideal edit. Very close to being the perfect way to watch Serenity.

From my review of Part I because it's relevant throughout all three edits:
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.

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!

Time to pull out my old DVDs and catch the other episodes now, though... or maybe just watch the whole thing again through. :D