September 28, 2005
Goram Good Movie!
Full disclosure: I did not attend the bloggers screening of "Serenity" last night as a fair or impartial observer. I went as a fan, giddy with schoolboyish excitement that my three years of blogging had scored me my first ever perk.
I expected it to be superb and the film met or exceeded all my expectations. Firefly fans will not be disappointed and those who have never seen the TV show will enjoy probably the best space pic ever.
Calling it the best space pic, one has to compare it to popular "franchise" films and there is no comparison. The sterile, pretentiousness of Star Trek cannot measure up to the reality of Serenity. While I have enjoyed Lucas's Star Wars movies since I was 19, the jejune plot lines and thin characters have been getting me down. Serenity truly is "Star Wars for Grownups."
The craft is so real, the mechanical failures are genuine. Not Scotty fighting the flux of dilithium crystals, but big hunks of the ship falling off in re-entry. A Red Dwarfish squalor that spells verisimilitude to anyone acquainted with machinery and Murphy's Law.
I'll give it four and a half out of five stars. It's cruel of me to withhold the last half from such a good movie, but I have one quibble. The TV show blended sci-fi and western into a perfect metaphorical frontier and showcased it with acoustic music: fiddles and dobros, horses and spaceships.
The movie doesn't have time to develop this. so the space and sci-fi part gets the whole show. I don't imagine that they could have pulled anything else off, but some of the Firefly fans might miss it.
Lastly, I will cross the street to avoid an "action" movie, one that substitutes special effects for plot and explosives for acting. Serenity has thought and dialogue but is also a movie with a lot of action well integrated into the plot. The film never lags. It moves along with story, events and Whedonesque one liners. The theatre in Denver was filled with the faithful; the whole audience would laugh out loud every few minutes.
It opens on Friday and I suggest you cancel any other plans and hit the theatre. It is rated PG-13 and I would take older kids who can handle the concept of flesh-eating monsters. It is violent (not prurienlty so), but the swearing is in Chinese, sex is kept to a few verbal references.
Good stuff! Here's the website and trailer.
100 percent agreement, JK. 'Serenity' is a great sci-fi movie. Alas, it is a sci-fi movie, which means that anyone who doesn't know or care how things work, or why, probably won't care to see this movie either. Were it more of a fantasy film, like Star Wars or - ack - Harry Potter, the urban shopping mall suckled masses would be queing at the ticket booth. I'm dooming science fiction to the obscurity of geekdom, you say? Don't shoot the messenger.
As for the Serenity story line, it is prodigious. Whedon is quoted saying its where the TV series was ultimately headed, but in dozens more one-hour episodes. While I appreciate the cinematic value proposition this movie delivered on, I feel cheated out of all the doubtless side stories that would have accompanied the main theme over the several years it could have spanned at 1 hour per primetime week.
In conclusion, since I'm loathe to include any spoilers, let me just say that I think Captain Reynolds is the greatest proponent of rational self-interest as a philosophy of life to come out of Hollywood in a long, long time. And anyone who thinks that equality is man's greatest aspiration, and that "violence is never the answer" should all go live on ... sorry, can't give away the name.
This movie is for all of us who love life, and think it is worth fighting for, the way Islamofascist terrorists love death.
Posted by: johngalt at October 5, 2005 12:49 AM | What do you think? [1]