Serenity (2005)

If you never watched Firefly, Serenity drops you into the middle of a family argument where everybody already knows the backstory. Joss Whedon catches you up fast, and it shows: most of the crew get one quick intro and a single trait each. The dialogue is quippy to the point of exhausting, like every character drank from the same pot of coffee. Then Chiwetel Ejiofor walks in as the Operative, a polite, calm agent who honestly believes he’s doing the right thing, and the whole movie snaps into focus. Nathan Fillion’s Mal is a scrappy cowboy captain with a rickety ship and a good heart, and Summer Glau gets a fight scene in a bar that people still bring up. The spaceship chases look great for a reported $39M budget. It made just $40.4 million worldwide. An 8.1 because it’s a TV finale squeezed into a movie, and it lands anyway. $571.41 says you hunt down the show afterward, finish it in a weekend, and get mad all over again that there isn’t more.

What works: Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Operative is a top-tier villain, and the crew has the lived-in chemistry of people who’ve been stuck on a ship together for years.

What doesn’t: Newcomers get a crash course instead of an introduction, and the nonstop quips wear thin well before the finale.

Who it’s for: Firefly fans, obviously, plus anyone who likes space westerns with a scrappy crew and a villain who believes he’s right.