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calimacI liked it, OK? Don't be hittin' on me for the criticisms I'm about to make. That was one powerfully impacting film, and not just if you were sitting in Serenity's pilot seat during a rough landing. B and I wandered out of the theatre in a daze, wondering where on earth we had put our car. A lot had happened in the two-plus hours since we'd last seen it, and I felt much older. Joss packed a tv season's worth of power into this film, and he packed it well. But ...
The thing is, we were fortunate enough to see all the broadcast episodes of Firefly when they first appeared, but it still took me a while to get the feel of the show, to internalize all the characters and get used to the style of the storytelling. Since the DVD came out, though, I've watched all of them several times - they hold up amazingly well, and even reveal new depths. So now they all have for me a sheen of familiarity that anything new is going to lack. It's going to feel different, and unless absolutely overwhelming in a way that this was not for me, those differences will create a feeling of inferiority - until I get used to the film. And this film was so powerful I'm not sure I want to see it again any time soon. You don't turn around and run right back to go through the wringer again.
It wasn't the deaths. They made sense enough in context, I guess, shocking and surprising as they were. We already know Joss kills his most sympathetic characters: Tara ... Doyle ... Darla, just after I finally got to be able to stand her ... Anya ... now Book and Wash ... what else is new? Everybody's in constant danger in this show, we already know that, I can feel hurt but I can't feel betrayed by the creator.
I know some of you feel differently, but I can't help thinking of the people who screamed (sometimes literally) after The Empire Strikes Back that Lucas had ruined the Star Wars universe: I'm not sure how, maybe by having Luke get hurt.
What most disturbed me about this Serenity film was something quite different: that there were some places where I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. I don't recall feeling that way during any of the TV episodes. It wasn't a matter of complete bafflement, just an at-sea-ness that I don't think was entirely intentional.
One example: where did the spear, or whatever it was, come from that skewered Wash? From the Reavers, I guess, but I didn't see any Reavers or Reaver ships around when Serenity skidded to a halt (and suffered so much damage that the fix-up job at the end seemed implausible, saved only by the film's very last shot). It wasn't just a shock, it was slightly confusing. I didn't even realize at first that they were on Mr. Universe's space station, though that had been their original destination. From the wide shots of the ship ducking the battle, I thought they were now heading down to the planet.
There were other apparent holes and inconsistencies, especially relating to Miranda, but I won't detail them now.
There were a lot of things different from the TV series, enough to be distracting. The ship was physically different in a lot of ways. In the series, Jayne and Zoe are more frightened of the Reavers than anybody else is, and wouldn't think of fighting them. In the film they do, almost nonchalantly. Everybody has toughened up a lot, even Simon (who not only slugs Mal, which would have been impossible earlier, but acts more heroic after a worse bullet wound than he did in "Objects in Space") and Kaylee (who handles a gun with an assurance underivable from her abject panic with one in "War Stories").
There was a lot of humor in this film, even in unexpected places, like Mal pulling a pocketknife on the Operative in the midst of their final battle. But it didn't have the pacing and flavor of the tv show. The scene in which Serenity stirs up the Reavers and lures them on to the waiting Alliance - man that was clever, but if it had happened in one of the tv episodes I think it would have been directed with much more wit and style.
The Operative was a re-run of Jubal Early - nastier, but not anywhere near as creepy. Mr. Universe's space station, and Mal and the Operative's fight in it, reminded me awfully of Luke and Vader having it out in the bowels of Cloud City. Speaking of Mr. Universe (and where did he come from, anyway? I don't remember him being mentioned before: Wash pulls him out of a hat), he has a Buffybot! Nobody else in the 'verse has had a robot like that; does he know Warren Meers? What a resourceful guy. And River ... fair enough that it's foreshadowed, but by the end of the film she's actually turned into Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself. Check out that shadowed shot of her holding the two axes. Been there, seen that. What's more, she can fly the ship better than Mal can. Maybe she's inherited Wash's brain. What an all-purpose supergal, yadda yadda yadda.
I look forward to being argued out of some of these grumbles. I've got the script book, and had better read it. And I may steel myself to going back and seeing the film in the theatre again. I liked it, remember: I was powerfully impressed. But nothing will replace those 14 precious episodes of Firefly in my affection.
The thing is, we were fortunate enough to see all the broadcast episodes of Firefly when they first appeared, but it still took me a while to get the feel of the show, to internalize all the characters and get used to the style of the storytelling. Since the DVD came out, though, I've watched all of them several times - they hold up amazingly well, and even reveal new depths. So now they all have for me a sheen of familiarity that anything new is going to lack. It's going to feel different, and unless absolutely overwhelming in a way that this was not for me, those differences will create a feeling of inferiority - until I get used to the film. And this film was so powerful I'm not sure I want to see it again any time soon. You don't turn around and run right back to go through the wringer again.
It wasn't the deaths. They made sense enough in context, I guess, shocking and surprising as they were. We already know Joss kills his most sympathetic characters: Tara ... Doyle ... Darla, just after I finally got to be able to stand her ... Anya ... now Book and Wash ... what else is new? Everybody's in constant danger in this show, we already know that, I can feel hurt but I can't feel betrayed by the creator.
I know some of you feel differently, but I can't help thinking of the people who screamed (sometimes literally) after The Empire Strikes Back that Lucas had ruined the Star Wars universe: I'm not sure how, maybe by having Luke get hurt.
What most disturbed me about this Serenity film was something quite different: that there were some places where I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. I don't recall feeling that way during any of the TV episodes. It wasn't a matter of complete bafflement, just an at-sea-ness that I don't think was entirely intentional.
One example: where did the spear, or whatever it was, come from that skewered Wash? From the Reavers, I guess, but I didn't see any Reavers or Reaver ships around when Serenity skidded to a halt (and suffered so much damage that the fix-up job at the end seemed implausible, saved only by the film's very last shot). It wasn't just a shock, it was slightly confusing. I didn't even realize at first that they were on Mr. Universe's space station, though that had been their original destination. From the wide shots of the ship ducking the battle, I thought they were now heading down to the planet.
There were other apparent holes and inconsistencies, especially relating to Miranda, but I won't detail them now.
There were a lot of things different from the TV series, enough to be distracting. The ship was physically different in a lot of ways. In the series, Jayne and Zoe are more frightened of the Reavers than anybody else is, and wouldn't think of fighting them. In the film they do, almost nonchalantly. Everybody has toughened up a lot, even Simon (who not only slugs Mal, which would have been impossible earlier, but acts more heroic after a worse bullet wound than he did in "Objects in Space") and Kaylee (who handles a gun with an assurance underivable from her abject panic with one in "War Stories").
There was a lot of humor in this film, even in unexpected places, like Mal pulling a pocketknife on the Operative in the midst of their final battle. But it didn't have the pacing and flavor of the tv show. The scene in which Serenity stirs up the Reavers and lures them on to the waiting Alliance - man that was clever, but if it had happened in one of the tv episodes I think it would have been directed with much more wit and style.
The Operative was a re-run of Jubal Early - nastier, but not anywhere near as creepy. Mr. Universe's space station, and Mal and the Operative's fight in it, reminded me awfully of Luke and Vader having it out in the bowels of Cloud City. Speaking of Mr. Universe (and where did he come from, anyway? I don't remember him being mentioned before: Wash pulls him out of a hat), he has a Buffybot! Nobody else in the 'verse has had a robot like that; does he know Warren Meers? What a resourceful guy. And River ... fair enough that it's foreshadowed, but by the end of the film she's actually turned into Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself. Check out that shadowed shot of her holding the two axes. Been there, seen that. What's more, she can fly the ship better than Mal can. Maybe she's inherited Wash's brain. What an all-purpose supergal, yadda yadda yadda.
I look forward to being argued out of some of these grumbles. I've got the script book, and had better read it. And I may steel myself to going back and seeing the film in the theatre again. I liked it, remember: I was powerfully impressed. But nothing will replace those 14 precious episodes of Firefly in my affection.
