Jean: A Legend In My Own Mind (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zouzounaki) wrote2005-10-08 02:02 pm
zouzounaki) wrote2005-10-08 02:02 pm
Ta ma de! Serenity is one jing-cai movie!
Okay, so despite all of the absolutely glowing reviews fans who went to the screenings gave it, I still had my reservations about Serenity, I admit it! A few well-placed, or in this case, badly-placed, spoilers plus an iffy advertising campaign had me kinda lukewarm on this one. Had Joss really dropped the ball the badly? In a word: NO! The movie is brilliant, so much more than I could have ever expected.
Shen-sheng de gao-wan, where to start? Well, at the beginning, of course! This movie from the word 'go' takes everything I loved about Firefly, the witty dialogue, the very character based action and story, the fabulous characters, and transcends the tv show in a way I never thought was possible: It makes it even better.
There's no question in my mind this is the best writing Joss has ever done, let alone the best direction, which is pretty much faultless despite him having no previous experience with the big screen. It looks fantastic and all the actors are not only up to snuff but better than they've ever been.
River was always good when she was kept in the background of the show, IMO, and the commercial campaign for the movie made me a little itchy: Was the entire story about her? Was she just another Buffy only in space and with the wacky talk? Were they really going to drag out the tiresome sci-fi cliche of the 'bodily/psychically altered uber-warrior?' Well, the story is about her in a way but was I ever delighted to see the completely new and original way he tackled it and the elements he brought into her madness and torture. He tied her into a larger picture, a mystery to be solved that involves the entire of Joss' fictional 'Verse. While I was disappointed at having Blue Sun and the Hands of Blue as no shows, the revelations about River, Miranda and the Reavers were so incredibly well done and all just seemed to blend together so seamlessly. I understand now, Joss, your grand plan. And I love it! What did we learn? Joss is boss.
The direction falters slightly, IMO, during River's first fight scene; necessary to show to the audience so the pay-off with the reavers at the climax is instantly understandable but it felt too typical to me. It's the only time I felt he was falling into his old Buffy days of it being cute and funny that a girl was kicking ass.
Book's death is affective and gut-wrenching, moreso than I could have ever dreamed when I read the spoiler that he was gonna kick it. His relationship with Mal, though obviously advanced between series and movie, fell into place perfectly and both the actors were completely up to it (Ron Glass, you are my #1 bad ass!) and the emotional pay-off of his demise is marvelous!
Wash's death, the spoiler that had me in a huff for months, that prevented me from seeing the movie for three whole days after it opened, is unfortunately less well done. Yes, truly, I am a Wash fanatic and Zoe and ol' Hoban's unlikely relationship was one of the things I enjoyed most about the show. A) After such a point being made of Reavers wanting their victims alive when they eat 'em, skewering Wash seems slightly out of character. Though if one thinks about it, killing the pilot to make sure the ship couldn't take off again makes perfect sense though Serenity was obviously in no shape to fly again after the 'leaf in the wind' landing!
B) Killing off a major character for the shock of it, to put the audience ill at ease that anyone could go next (and he plays that angle no less than three times afterwards though there are no more casualties) is, IMO, the stupidest of stupid justifcations. I applaud Joss for not being afraid to let some of his creations go but Wash's death could have been done so much better.
C) Because it's in the middle of crisis time, it's kind of quickly glossed over and is really the only other time when I feel the direction is slightly off. As an extension, Zoe beating the Reaver after she's killed it is affective and Gina Torres packs the emotional punch while still staying absolutely in Zoe's character, is not filmed well. It's almost like he doesn't want you lingering on Wash because our Big Damn Heroes are still in jeopardy but I didn't get that emotional pay-off I got from Book and that, IMO, is the movie's only mistake.
But I'm focusing on the negative and, really, there's not much negative to focus on! The editing is extremely tight (I believe it was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
guttermaiden who pointed out that if there is cut stuff, it'll be fun to watch as a curiosity but there's really nothing missing from the movie that I'd really want to see in a deleted scene), the acting so far above par it kinda blows my mind (if this doesn't make Nathan Fillion a star, I couldn't guess what could!) and the writing superb; kind of like the best of Joss multiplied to the power of 10! He never resorts to shameless one-liners, the dialogue is rich with quirky humor that keeps moving with no pause left for the laugh.
I've read charges leveled against it that it's not the ensemble piece that the show was but I just didn't find that to be true. While there were stand outs (Nathan Fillion's destined for great things and has to be the sexiest sci-fi hero since Han Solo first staggered onto screens), the entire cast is pitch perfect, jing-cai: Brilliant! The subplot with Kaylee and Simon is something I've been waiting a long time to see and to watch Simon become self-acctualized, it's actually exactly what I told my sister I would want from the movie no less than a day before we saw it!
Mr. Universe is a fabulous concept and something I get the feeling Joss would have introduced had the show gone on; he works so well, a die-hard fan might even forget, watching it, that he wasn't a part of the original show.
In a strange way, it occured to me that this was rather what I was hoping BSG 2005 was going to be: Strongly character-driven with a rich plot that serves the former (unlike BSG where, I feel a lot of the time, the characters seem to exist to serve the complex plot), dark, mature, yet still extremely accessible, funny and fun.
So, obviously the final verdict hits about a 48 on a scale of 1 to 10! This is definitely amonst not only the best movies of the year (edging out some pretty great fare, like Batman Begins) but just a revolutionary, visionary sci-fi movie, one of the best ever.
Xie xie Joss, for making this movie for the fans, for pulling it off so spectacularly, but you're also a liu kou shui de biao-zi he hou-zi de ben er-zi for making me want more of it so badly!
Peace, Ghani
*Mandarin Chinese translations from http://fireflychinese.home.att.net/
Shen-sheng de gao-wan, where to start? Well, at the beginning, of course! This movie from the word 'go' takes everything I loved about Firefly, the witty dialogue, the very character based action and story, the fabulous characters, and transcends the tv show in a way I never thought was possible: It makes it even better.
There's no question in my mind this is the best writing Joss has ever done, let alone the best direction, which is pretty much faultless despite him having no previous experience with the big screen. It looks fantastic and all the actors are not only up to snuff but better than they've ever been.
River was always good when she was kept in the background of the show, IMO, and the commercial campaign for the movie made me a little itchy: Was the entire story about her? Was she just another Buffy only in space and with the wacky talk? Were they really going to drag out the tiresome sci-fi cliche of the 'bodily/psychically altered uber-warrior?' Well, the story is about her in a way but was I ever delighted to see the completely new and original way he tackled it and the elements he brought into her madness and torture. He tied her into a larger picture, a mystery to be solved that involves the entire of Joss' fictional 'Verse. While I was disappointed at having Blue Sun and the Hands of Blue as no shows, the revelations about River, Miranda and the Reavers were so incredibly well done and all just seemed to blend together so seamlessly. I understand now, Joss, your grand plan. And I love it! What did we learn? Joss is boss.
The direction falters slightly, IMO, during River's first fight scene; necessary to show to the audience so the pay-off with the reavers at the climax is instantly understandable but it felt too typical to me. It's the only time I felt he was falling into his old Buffy days of it being cute and funny that a girl was kicking ass.
Book's death is affective and gut-wrenching, moreso than I could have ever dreamed when I read the spoiler that he was gonna kick it. His relationship with Mal, though obviously advanced between series and movie, fell into place perfectly and both the actors were completely up to it (Ron Glass, you are my #1 bad ass!) and the emotional pay-off of his demise is marvelous!
Wash's death, the spoiler that had me in a huff for months, that prevented me from seeing the movie for three whole days after it opened, is unfortunately less well done. Yes, truly, I am a Wash fanatic and Zoe and ol' Hoban's unlikely relationship was one of the things I enjoyed most about the show. A) After such a point being made of Reavers wanting their victims alive when they eat 'em, skewering Wash seems slightly out of character. Though if one thinks about it, killing the pilot to make sure the ship couldn't take off again makes perfect sense though Serenity was obviously in no shape to fly again after the 'leaf in the wind' landing!
B) Killing off a major character for the shock of it, to put the audience ill at ease that anyone could go next (and he plays that angle no less than three times afterwards though there are no more casualties) is, IMO, the stupidest of stupid justifcations. I applaud Joss for not being afraid to let some of his creations go but Wash's death could have been done so much better.
C) Because it's in the middle of crisis time, it's kind of quickly glossed over and is really the only other time when I feel the direction is slightly off. As an extension, Zoe beating the Reaver after she's killed it is affective and Gina Torres packs the emotional punch while still staying absolutely in Zoe's character, is not filmed well. It's almost like he doesn't want you lingering on Wash because our Big Damn Heroes are still in jeopardy but I didn't get that emotional pay-off I got from Book and that, IMO, is the movie's only mistake.
But I'm focusing on the negative and, really, there's not much negative to focus on! The editing is extremely tight (I believe it was
guttermaiden who pointed out that if there is cut stuff, it'll be fun to watch as a curiosity but there's really nothing missing from the movie that I'd really want to see in a deleted scene), the acting so far above par it kinda blows my mind (if this doesn't make Nathan Fillion a star, I couldn't guess what could!) and the writing superb; kind of like the best of Joss multiplied to the power of 10! He never resorts to shameless one-liners, the dialogue is rich with quirky humor that keeps moving with no pause left for the laugh.I've read charges leveled against it that it's not the ensemble piece that the show was but I just didn't find that to be true. While there were stand outs (Nathan Fillion's destined for great things and has to be the sexiest sci-fi hero since Han Solo first staggered onto screens), the entire cast is pitch perfect, jing-cai: Brilliant! The subplot with Kaylee and Simon is something I've been waiting a long time to see and to watch Simon become self-acctualized, it's actually exactly what I told my sister I would want from the movie no less than a day before we saw it!
Mr. Universe is a fabulous concept and something I get the feeling Joss would have introduced had the show gone on; he works so well, a die-hard fan might even forget, watching it, that he wasn't a part of the original show.
In a strange way, it occured to me that this was rather what I was hoping BSG 2005 was going to be: Strongly character-driven with a rich plot that serves the former (unlike BSG where, I feel a lot of the time, the characters seem to exist to serve the complex plot), dark, mature, yet still extremely accessible, funny and fun.
So, obviously the final verdict hits about a 48 on a scale of 1 to 10! This is definitely amonst not only the best movies of the year (edging out some pretty great fare, like Batman Begins) but just a revolutionary, visionary sci-fi movie, one of the best ever.
Xie xie Joss, for making this movie for the fans, for pulling it off so spectacularly, but you're also a liu kou shui de biao-zi he hou-zi de ben er-zi for making me want more of it so badly!
Peace, Ghani
*Mandarin Chinese translations from http://fireflychinese.home.att.net/