Post by FillionRules on Sept 24, 2005 10:19:52 GMT -5
I’ve now seen Joss Whedon’s Serenity a total of three times.
Twice amid the rush of my friends to catch one of the unprecedented public pre-screenings. (To reward Serenity’s politely rabid fan base, Universal released three unfinished cuts of the film in 35 American cities. Most screenings sold out in minutes, crashing Fandango and the movie’s website.) And once more at a recent press screening.
As a Cinderella story, Serenity has caught a lot of attention in the last few months. Few obscure television series canceled after 11 episodes get picked up by Universal Pictures. And even fewer first time directors are given buckets of cash and complete free reign by Hollywood. But Firefly was unique.
The first post-9/11 SF television series, it was gritty, sharply realistic and completely unlike anything else ever aired. Firefly's quiet genius stemmed from Whedon’s very human portrayal of family of rejects. Navigating through the quiet darkness of space in pursuit of a free life. Fans don’t buy back for the fancy effects, the shoot-outs or intrigue. They go back for the characters. In that alone, Whedon trumps all his competitors; he knows how to write people so realistic you’ll instantly hate everything else on television.
Enter Serenity.
As the writer and director of a feature film continuing his beloved, but poorly popularized, series, Joss Whedon inevitably walked a fine line. He had but two hours to return viewers both new and old to his finely crafted world. To bring his story to some semblance of completion, while still doing justice to each of his nine characters. And somehow end up with a movie that didn’t suck.
With a private cult embedded across America of everymen ready to tear apart any flaw they found, and the entire corporate structure of Hollywood horrified at his successful crusade, I think it’s fair to say Whedon was under considerable pressure.
I know that I walked into my first screening with, it must be said, absolutely no faith in him.
I don't like Vampires. I think Buffy was crap. And no, I will not shut up. Just 'cause a guy writes the wittiest scripts in Hollywood don't make him infallible. Plus the guy's fat. And I hate fat people on principle.
I am now caught in the warped position of a critic whose single artistic complaint was the shortening of a guitar sequence.
Simply put, Serenity astounded me. By a degree to which I have no comparison.
To begin with, you see, the intro bridging all the plot revealed in the series does this amazing thing where it doesn't suck.
Amazing.
One, single, straightforward, understandable, non-summarizing, crazy cool introduction that portrays everything perfectly and does it without ever turning the wrong corner into cliché.
I was prepared for an intro that I could passingly write off as a necessary evil. I was not prepared for this.
And then the real movie opens with an incredible pan of Serenity as it enters the atmosphere. Wash and Malcolm talk about their impeding doom over the plastic dinosaurs strewn across the bridge, while the rickety ship falls apart around them.
And, before Jayne even posits that he doesn't like exploding, we're back. Three years without Firefly melt away and our big damn heroes are strapping on AK-47s and arguing over whether routine bank-robbing necessitates grenades.
You'll hear a lot of talk that Serenity is about finding "belief" or even "faith."
God knows a TV show with its own Preacher, a show that began with a soldier's rejection of the divine upon his army's crushing defeat, a show with constant Buddhist influences... has more than a little contact with religion.
But the story of Malcolm Reynolds and River Tam is, I think, far better summarized as the painful voyage in search of a reason to live. Something sort of like redemption but with far more tang.
This is a zombie movie, about the walking dead. It's hardcore Anarcho-Libertarianism from a Liberal Progressive. It's a shoot-em-up Western.
In space.
With anime fruit-bar commercials.
It's a rollercoaster, leaving you gasping and licking your lips at the end.
Now how the hell do you make advertisements for that?
To Universal the answer was easy: Sell the movie with the movie itself.
Let a few thousand people watch it. And then, let them tell their friends.
ed: JH
blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/12/050019.php
Twice amid the rush of my friends to catch one of the unprecedented public pre-screenings. (To reward Serenity’s politely rabid fan base, Universal released three unfinished cuts of the film in 35 American cities. Most screenings sold out in minutes, crashing Fandango and the movie’s website.) And once more at a recent press screening.
As a Cinderella story, Serenity has caught a lot of attention in the last few months. Few obscure television series canceled after 11 episodes get picked up by Universal Pictures. And even fewer first time directors are given buckets of cash and complete free reign by Hollywood. But Firefly was unique.
The first post-9/11 SF television series, it was gritty, sharply realistic and completely unlike anything else ever aired. Firefly's quiet genius stemmed from Whedon’s very human portrayal of family of rejects. Navigating through the quiet darkness of space in pursuit of a free life. Fans don’t buy back for the fancy effects, the shoot-outs or intrigue. They go back for the characters. In that alone, Whedon trumps all his competitors; he knows how to write people so realistic you’ll instantly hate everything else on television.
Enter Serenity.
As the writer and director of a feature film continuing his beloved, but poorly popularized, series, Joss Whedon inevitably walked a fine line. He had but two hours to return viewers both new and old to his finely crafted world. To bring his story to some semblance of completion, while still doing justice to each of his nine characters. And somehow end up with a movie that didn’t suck.
With a private cult embedded across America of everymen ready to tear apart any flaw they found, and the entire corporate structure of Hollywood horrified at his successful crusade, I think it’s fair to say Whedon was under considerable pressure.
I know that I walked into my first screening with, it must be said, absolutely no faith in him.
I don't like Vampires. I think Buffy was crap. And no, I will not shut up. Just 'cause a guy writes the wittiest scripts in Hollywood don't make him infallible. Plus the guy's fat. And I hate fat people on principle.
I am now caught in the warped position of a critic whose single artistic complaint was the shortening of a guitar sequence.
Simply put, Serenity astounded me. By a degree to which I have no comparison.
To begin with, you see, the intro bridging all the plot revealed in the series does this amazing thing where it doesn't suck.
Amazing.
One, single, straightforward, understandable, non-summarizing, crazy cool introduction that portrays everything perfectly and does it without ever turning the wrong corner into cliché.
I was prepared for an intro that I could passingly write off as a necessary evil. I was not prepared for this.
And then the real movie opens with an incredible pan of Serenity as it enters the atmosphere. Wash and Malcolm talk about their impeding doom over the plastic dinosaurs strewn across the bridge, while the rickety ship falls apart around them.
And, before Jayne even posits that he doesn't like exploding, we're back. Three years without Firefly melt away and our big damn heroes are strapping on AK-47s and arguing over whether routine bank-robbing necessitates grenades.
You'll hear a lot of talk that Serenity is about finding "belief" or even "faith."
God knows a TV show with its own Preacher, a show that began with a soldier's rejection of the divine upon his army's crushing defeat, a show with constant Buddhist influences... has more than a little contact with religion.
But the story of Malcolm Reynolds and River Tam is, I think, far better summarized as the painful voyage in search of a reason to live. Something sort of like redemption but with far more tang.
This is a zombie movie, about the walking dead. It's hardcore Anarcho-Libertarianism from a Liberal Progressive. It's a shoot-em-up Western.
In space.
With anime fruit-bar commercials.
It's a rollercoaster, leaving you gasping and licking your lips at the end.
Now how the hell do you make advertisements for that?
To Universal the answer was easy: Sell the movie with the movie itself.
Let a few thousand people watch it. And then, let them tell their friends.
ed: JH
blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/12/050019.php
