Joss Whedon makes a rousing feature-directing debut, exploiting the cult status of his short-lived series Firefly to continue it on the big screen.

The settings and tone are hyper-real, yet the human behaviour is grounded and credible, the moral conflicts complex and involving. Shiny, intelligent fun.

Go out and see Joss Whedon's witty whizbang of an action movie, or we will kill a kitten.

The characters may ride spaceships and fire lasers, but this really is a frontier western, set in the wake of a polarizing civil war and driven by heroes for whom family and community are synonymous.