Last night, Christy and I went to the 7 PM showing of Serenity, Joss Whedon’s movie which carries on the story of Firefly, the critically-acclaimed cult-hit television series. Spoilers, discussion, thoughts below. If you haven’t seen it, best vamoose your gorram hide till you got it taken care of.
The Audience and the Theater
The first thing that struck me as we entered the theater was the audience. It wasn’t very large, for opening day of a hoped-for blockbuster hit. The theater was about 2/3 full. This is definitely not the opening day of the next Star Wars movie, eh? However, it was really interesting to listen to the conversations around me. These people were discussing the story, the plots, wondering whether the bad guy would be one of the “two by two, hands of blue” or something completely different, and waiting with very expectant anticipation for the movie to start.
Curiously, the movie opens with little fanfare. There is no blast of trumpets, followed by a familiar soundtrack. The opening is quiet, almost reserved, with no opportunity for the applause that often accompanies the opening of a fan favorite on its first day. You are plunged into a new, unexpected story, meeting a young version of River Tam in a dream sequence, and shortly thereafter reliving her escape at the hands of her brother, Simon.
The Opening
I’ve gotta say this: Simon is a convincing character, dressed in his military outfit. I seriously did not know what was going on for the first minute of the escape sequence, until just before Simon made it clear he was rescuing River, and not just observing her. River is disturbing as always, being where she shouldn’t be, doing things she shouldn’t do.
Unfortunately, the entry for the villain was all too expected. The moment the scientist and his two guards stormed into the records chamber demanding the assassin’s authorization, I knew they were going to die. There was no way they couldn’t! I thought, however, that the line “Well, I didn’t happen to bring a sword with me today” was a very clever segue into the assassination sequence. For once, in a movie, the reaction of an onlooker (the hall of records girl who had let him in) was believable. She’s petrified, moaning and tearful at the deaths she’s just witnessed.
The Witty Repartee
One of my favorite things about Whedon writing is the plethora of memorable one or two-line interactions between characters. The only sad thing about them in this movie is that several of the best ones were in the teaser trailer! But here are the ones I got a kick out of.
Mal: “Define Interesting.” Wash: “Oh God, Oh God, we’re all gonna’ die?”
River: “I swallowed a bug.”
Mal: “Do you wanna be Captain?” Jayne: “Yeah, I do!” Mal: “Oh. Uh…. well, you can’t!”
Kaylee: “It’s been more than a year since I had anything betwixt my nethers didn’t run on batteries!”
Wash: “I am a leaf on the wind.”
River, to Simon: “You’ve always protected me. My turn.”
Simon, to River: “Am I talking to Miranda now?” River: <makes face like “I can’t believe you just said that” and “that was dumb, bro” put together> Simon: “Never Mind.”
Zoe: “I will not turn this ship into an abomination!”
The Storyline
My main complaint about the storyline is that, to my mind, it didn’t seem to go where the TV show was taking it. Of course, since it’s a stand-alone movie, that’s not entirely unexpected, and I’m sure if someone sees the movie without knowing the TV series, this makes more sense. They did a great job of providing background for those people who had never seen the movie, I thought.
For once, I was very surprised when I learned the secret of the movie. It wasn’t so much that 30 million people had been killed by the government. I kind of expected something along those lines. It was that, through this failed experiment, the Reavers had been created. That was utterly unexpected! Given that the Reavers have been the bogeymen of both the series and the movie, I’ve never been satisfied with the explanation that they were men who “ain’t men. Or they forgot how to be. Now they’re nothing. They got out to the edge of the galaxy, to that place of nothing, and that’s what they became”. They wrapped this up very nicely.
The ending
OK, the space battle scene was amazing. It was all too brief, actually: seeing Serenity dodging, weaving, with Wash at the controls hurtling the ship around–and into–obstacles was really exciting. Alas, I realized, this was not an end to the Reavers as a plot device. Given that 30 million people perished on Miranda, there is ample opportunity to keep showing more and more Reavers in future movies and series.
I’ll have to watch the movie again, but I got the sense that the bad guy had a unique sense of honor. Much like Jubal Early (one of my favorite bad guys from the series — I wonder if they based this bad guy on him?) there is a perverse logic to what he does and how he does it. In the opening scenes, he doesn’t kill the scientist right off: he allows him to choose his own fate first, then does it for him when he fails to fall on his sword. When the weird guy with all the TV screens betrays Mal, the villain offs him with no explanation or further discourse. It’s as if he has no respect for his intended victim due to the betrayal.
“Guy killed me with a sword, Mal…” That’s a haunting line, for some reason.
Best camera shot sequence, IMHO: The blast doors open. Camera rises from the floor. River is silhouetted, posed, axe in one hand, sword in the other, dead Reavers in a circle all around her. The wall behind her implodes. Soldiers enter. Close-up of axe. A drop of blood falls to the ground. A finger tightens on a trigger. River’s eyes contract.
“Stand down.”
Loved it.
So what did you think of the movie?
— Matthew P. Barnson – – – – Thought for the moment: So much food; so little time!
DAMMIT JOSS…
WHEDON SPOILERS BELOW.. FOR ANGEL, BUFFY, AND SERENITY..
DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT MAJOR PLOTS SPOILED..
Book i expected… But Wash? He joins Anya, Tara, Jenny, Wesley, Fred, Doyle, Cordelia, and so many others that I was sitting there and suddenly.. BANG.. they’re taken form me. I hate you joss, I hate you.
I’m gonna see it again next weekend.
Total newbie
I saw Serenity this weekend, too, and this was the first time I had ever had any exposure to it. Must be a cable TV show? Anyway, as a result I found the dialect spoken by the crew pretty distracting. On the whole, however, I really liked the movie–I’d say it’s one of the best sci-fi movies I’ve seen in years.
One of the themes that stuck out to me was the importance of belief for individuals. I’m probably just biased from so much recent discussion on the topic on this blog, but I found it interesting that faith was presented as twisted through the character of the assassin, yet essential to Mal’s final development into a hero. It would have been interesting (albeit impossible due to time constraints) to get a better view of the struggle the assassin must have had as he learned the true nature of the secret he was protecting. Instead, he just sort of accepts that he has been confused. As we know from discussions on this board, people are not so easily swayed, particularly when they are as devout as the assassin was.
Finally, I liked River’s fight sequences a lot. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a mainstream action movie (since Matrix, maybe?) in which the hand-to-hand combat was shown at enough distance that the viewer can appreciate the agility and acrobatics of the fighters. They also kept the camera-motion clean, again leaving the focus with the actors, rather than trying to impress us through frenetic shaking of the camera during the fight (e.g. Chronicles of Riddick).
Firefly..
The show ran on Fox like a year ago. I own it.. cuz its awesome.
You should check it out.. And Buffy and Angel they rule too.
I hate you Joss.
Loved it
I loved it, loved the whole thing. Shocked about Wash. I still haven’t gotten over that.
My only problem is that it made me sad for what the TV show could have been had it not been canceled. The movie was great, but I was yearning for more time to spend with the characters — 7 or 8 seasons of hour-long TV dramas, to be exact. The movie was over too fast.
Hopefully, there’ll be a sequel.
— Ben
The science…
I have to chime in one more time on this thread.
One area where movies bug me is their grasp of basic science, particularly human metabolism, ability to sustain injury, and death.
Ever notice how most of the bad guys go down instantly, yet most of the good guys take a long time to die? That’s always bugged me. It’s as if there’s a “bad guy gene”, wherein the bad guys always have their vital organs in places the heroes will hit, and these selfsame vital organs will cause instant death if ruptured.
About the only realistic hero-damage was Wash. That Reaver ship rolled a critical hit, and then to cap it off rolled critical damage, too. Wash took a shot right through the heart, and lack of blood flow to the brain finished him off about 10-13 seconds later. Meanwhile, good old Mal shows that, once again, bad guys miss all vital organs when they shove sharp pointy things through his body.
Ahh, well. That wasn’t what really bugged me.
“It must have been hermetically sealed,” says Zoe as she examines the well-preserved corpses inside a building.
Hermetically sealed? That matters precisely Jack and one other word as far as decomposition of the human body. You can put a cadaver into a “hermetically sealed” casket, and if you open it up two years later, you will see a pile of goo with some clothing and a skeleton in it. That is, if the casket hasn’t actually exploded and subsequently imploded from the pressure of decomposition.
I’ve got news for people making movies: the bacteria which cause human decomposition are the same ones that cause digestion. The only ways for you to preserve a cadaver in anything resembling what the bodies looked like inside the classroom on Miranda are to either intentionally preserve the corpse using mummification techniques, or else combine intense dry with intense cold for a long time. That planet they were on looked plenty warm, and the clothing on the cadavers didn’t indicate that they were dressed for winter.
All that “hermetically sealing” the room would have done is kept the smell in. The bodies would have still been piles of goo with clothing and skeleton mixed in, not skinny-looking blotchy people with funny eyeballs.
Ahh, well. It’s a movie. They fly around in a rocket ship that doesn’t burn the grass when it lands. A captain stuck on the outside of the hull of the same rocket ship can hang on, standing up, while it accelerates at several times the force of gravity after blowing up a Reaver ship. Corpses strapped to the hull show up as blackened bones in space although it’s the fast re-entry which actually generates significant heat, not pulling out of the gravity well of Book’s planet. Cameras shake from explosions where there’s no atmosphere to transfer the shock wave.
Darnit, science is boring.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Science, bah
Not only is it a movie, it’s essentially a Western, with spaceships. Bad guys who are terrible shots and then die instantly is a long-standing tradition in the Western movie genre.
Suspend your disbelief already. 😉
— Ben
Interesting review from co-worker…
A co-worker had this to say about the movie, in essence:
Just some thoughts from a guy that had no idea there was a TV series at all. I personally loved it, but I remember how I was lost for the first few episodes of the TV series.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
That last bullet
That last bullet is the key. I saw it with my brothers-in-law, loved it, and went home and told my wife she would hate it. Reevers and “hermetically sealed” corpses aren’t her thing.
I think being lost from the start is a hallmark of great storytelling. Just think about how a classic work of fiction starts (as opposed to the latest Harry Potter novel). Just as a random example, read the first few paragraphs of Crime and Punishment. No idea who this is that’s muttering to himself, or even what he’s talking about. On the other hand, I remember reading descriptions of the Hardy Boys novels, which dedicated most of the first chapter of all 100+ books telling you exactly what everyone looked like, what their personalities were like, etc.
I’ll leave the spoon feeding for the masses. (Just added Firefly to Blockbuster Online, but I don’t think I’ll be seeing it for a while…)
Sci-Fi
I’m so lucky…
My wife and I have watched Friends, Star Trek: Voyager, Buffy, “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”, and a bunch of other TV shows together. For some reason, we really end up enjoying the same shows, and it’s great. Well, the notable exception is Penn & Teller’s “B.S.”, which she doesn’t have an interest in watching due to language 🙂
The price of Star Trek: Voyager is really off-putting, though. $100 a season? Give me a break.
I’m still going to buy it, but I’m waiting until the market is nicely saturated and I can pick them up on eBay for $20 a season. Or until Justin decides to sell his to me at that price 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Voyager?
I don’t own that show.. I’m not a nerd..
(Okay, you can’t have them.. I just finished season 4 and I want to have a complete set of all the star trek every aired when I’m done.)
What Matt fogot to say…
…is that we watched Firefly together, also. The first couple episodes were down right weird. Like you watching the movie, we weren’t used to the grammar, we were learning the background of the characters, and the Chinese words were odd.
But that’s what made it fun. Once you get to know the characters a bit, the Chinese cussing grew on us and now we love it!
But I love the cowboy background and cowboy music. I love that it’s different from Star Trek and Star Wars. After watching the first season and not having the next to put in was a big disappointment, so we were thrilled to hear they were making the movie!
After seeing the movie, you definately need to watch season 1 in order to follow everything in the movie. At this point, I’m in the samem boat with Ben and Justin, I’m anxious to see the movie again, I wish there were many more seasons coming and I hope there will be a sequel! Considering the movie was only released to 2200 theatres, I don’t think it’s very likely for a sequel, but I’m definately a fan of Joss Whedon. I need the T-shirt where Darth Vader is telling his son, “Joss Whedon is my master now.”
—
Christy
2nd viewing..
Even better. Really really good. Go see it. now.
I am continually surprised at how good this film is.
Oh.. and about what happened to you know who..
Dammit, joss.
Disappointment
Pop quiz – name a short-lived, televised sci-fi series that went on to capitalize through a movie franchise which grew the original concept into a global phenomenon. Star Trek, of course. Because they knew how to make the movies shine.
Serenity needed a Roddenberry in its development process.
Finally saw Serenity for the first time last night, recorded on the ole’ DVR. I was pretty disappointed with the movie, specifically the storyboarding. I have done nothing to research the development of the movie, so I don’t know if the originating screenplay team was thwarted in its attempt to stick to its initial outline by a studio overseer, but the end product showed a lack of focus and pummeled the core of the creative impetus into a saturated yawner.
To me, a converted fan of the 2002 serial, the core concept was about a revolutionary-cum-bandit space renegade crew taking on odd jobs in a throwback western style. A space western. Absolutely nothing in the movie gave me the western. It was as though somebody said, ‘hey, we were always shorted in budget during the TV series, so let’s make up for it with hyperactive pacing to get to the special effects.’ The movie seemed to be trying to attract a general audience by taking pre-ordained characters and pushing them through a multipart narrative in 120 minutes. Big mistake.
I had no idea what the movie was about. Was this a farewell to the TV series? A popcorn finale? Saving the universe? Solving the mystery of the bad men? You want to make a legacy film parade, then get specific about a plot. Otherwise, it’s a bunch of snappy lines that are hard to understand compressed into a typical small-vs.-big theatrical with jutting storylines hanging out every which way.
The bigger problem was that I didn’t care for any of the characters. Part of Whedon’s televised writing sparks the humor and wryness of unclean protagonists in a complex space society. This movie, though, was dark. The lighting was dark. The characters were in this protracted dark state. The only characters that made sense to me were the reavers, and I was actually rooting for them to win. Once the reavers whacked the co-pilot guy, I thought, ‘excellent, this is going to be like Aliens where only one or two people survive.’
Congratulations if the intent was to deliver a Saturday afternoon time filler for people who had seen the television episodes. However, if the intent was to try and springboard a delicious yet suppressed concept through a broader mass entertainment medium, then I’ve got a bunch of Chinese curses for the producers.