I'm just back in from seeing Serenity. The Verdict? Meh. Didn't like it. For anyone who hasn't seen the movie and doesn't want to know why, don't read on as the following contains SPOILERS.
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Weedon killed off two major characters for no good reason. The point and brilliance of Firefly for me was that they always escaped, always lived to fight another day. Firely's message, at least in the way I read it was that you could be brave and do the right thing and not have it cost you everything. "You all going to be here when I wake up?" Well, not anymore apparently.
It was a pretty square jawed, depressing movie all in. Of course there were Weedon's trade mark jokes peppered throughout, but they seemed curiously out of place in what was largely dour fare from the off. The balance between heroics and humour, so well handled in the TV show was lost in this.
Other major gripes? Where were the Blue Hands? The "Ring Wraiths" of the TV show and the comic book were completely expunged without explanation, replaced by a completely different character.
Also, he showed us the Reivers. The whole thing that made the Reivers scary was that you never saw them. Weedon brilliantly spun the idea of what the Reivers were and were capable of in the TV show. Here you get to see them and they amounted to little more than cannon fodder for River, who you knew was going to make mincemeat of them.
All in all, I'm pretty gutted. I was expecting to be delighted but left the cinema thoroughly depressed and disappointed.
I read today that a man in the States had bought several hundred tickets for Serenity and gave them away outside his local theatre. He wanted to do his bit to make sure that more Serenity movies get made. When I read it, I knew totally where he was coming from.
After seeing Serenity finally, I couldn't care less if there's no more. It lives and dies as a TV show for me. The movie just didn't make the grade.
3 comments:
Wow. I really didn't see THAT review coming! Entitled to your opinion, however hideous it may be. ;)
A few comments though:
>> Whedon killed off two major characters
It's what he does. If you've watched Buffy or Angel, you'll know that reasonably major characters die every season. Even popular ones.
>> The balance between heroics and humour, so well handled in the TV show was lost in this.
I'm sure on one of the dvd commentaries, Whedon mentions the fact that Mal wasn't meant to be so wisecracking and that the network had asked for him to be funnier to lighten things up a bit.
>> The Reavers
I've got mixed opinions on this too. I agree, one of the strengths was that they were an unseen horror. Now they look a little like members of Slipknot. I'm guessing that budget might have had something to do with us not seeing them in the TV series...or who's to say that there wouldn't have been a future episode where we would have actually seen them. Who knows?
Overall, I loved it. I've seen it three times now and it still holds up for me. But from the very first time I saw it, I highlighted things that were different from the TV show. The first thing I said after the festival screening was: "When did Mal become such a harsh bastard?"
I think the bottom line is that Whedon was trying to make a movie spin off from a failed TV show. He had to change things. The film is basically about two or three seasons of television squeezed into two hours. I think of it that way rather than thinking it's just one long episode with one storyline.
T
Yeah fair comment here T, but I'm still pretty disappointed in it.
I could see him killing off Book, but where was Book's back story. We never found out why book had high Alliance clearance etc. Man, I sound like a geek. Anyway, He copped out of that one.
Wash's death was just gratuitous, and robbed any future project of a great character and the terrific dynamic between his and Zoe's character, one of the aspects that made the show.
Both deaths seemed to me to be borne out of laziness and shock value and didn't serve the plot in any valuable way.
Also you are right, the Reavers looked like Slipknot. Had the plot been about an alliance virus that turned people into rubbish Heavy Metal bands, it would have been far more interesting.
And like I said, where were the blue hands and their cool brain melting gadget?
But it's your point about Mal that brings me to what I really didn't like about the film. After getting to know a character I saw as rich and complex, I thought Serenity turned mal into a two dimensional character. It was as if he was chucking a moody. The attempt to make him darker and harsher detracted from the character in my view making him less interesting and engaging and a dull focal point. Do we really need more square jawed, moody, dark heroes in action or sci-fi movies? He was fine, and a better drawn character in the TV show, even if that was as the result of Fox meddling.
I found the differences between the TV show and the movie really jarring and the other aspect you alluded to, that of it being a lot of plot squeezed into 2 hours, didn't help either. There was a sense of Whedon thinking "This is my last chance to get this story finished, better pack it all in!"
Of course there were excellent moments and Whedon is a good writer, but to be honest, I preferred the happy go lucky, breezy band they were on the TV show. Ok, the show failed, but not because what they had was no good. It was because of poor scheduling and Fox's bad attitude towards Firefly from the off (refusing to air the pilot etc). Obviously there had to be changes in terms of structure, but not in tone or character.
I pure didnae love it. Serenity is a missed opportunity. A real shame.
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