Serenity etc.
Oct. 8th, 2005 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatI've got to go to work in a bit. I'm working half of today, and all of Sunday. I had Tuesday afternoon off, and hope to have a few hours off this Wednesday, but half days don't really count as proper days off, I think. So I still think I'm working 12 days in a row. *yawn*
I wish everything wouldn't happen all at the same time. Children's Book Week. Poetry Day. Bookstart Day. Family Learning Weekend. And we've not yet recovered from the Summer Reading Challenge. From a library point of view, Children's Book Week comes at the worst possible time. Anything we do loses all impact since it's just a pale shadow of the huge-ness of the Summer Reading Challenge.
Anyway... On to the main feature.
I'd hoped to come bouncing out saying, "I loved it!" Instead, I came out musing, saying, "I think I really liked it, but I need time to be think." This often happens with films I've been awaiting for a long time. There's too much weight of anticipation there, and during a first viewing, I end up rather overwhelmed, and also too busy focusing on things they've changed from TV series/book to the big screen. On a second viewing, I've got all those concerns out of the way, and can enjoy the film on its own merits, and love it.
Actually, far and away the biggest problem was that I just couldn't hear a lot of it. Couldn't understand it, I mean. Our cinema plays everything really loud, but ironically it can be harder to make out dialogue when it's played too loudly, than it is when player more quietly. A lot of dialogue just got lost in the cacophony of background music and sound effects.
I also found the accents harder to understand than on TV. I didn't miss any of the plot, but I couldn't make out a lot of the one-liners. I suddenly had a lot of sympathy for those American viewers who can't understand British films without sub-titles.
But beyond that... I had already been spoilered some months ago, when I read a non-spoiler-protected announcement of who would die. So I've known for ages which characters would die. I didn't know how, though, so it was still a shock with Wash. It was very in-character for Zoe not to wallow in any angst at all, but just get up and get on with the job... but I would have liked a little more grieving afterwards, just for closure and catharsis for the viewer, if nothing else.
Knowing these spoilers also meant that I knew that all the others wouldn't die in that final confrontation, despite how close it looked at times. They certainly seemed to heal up quickly! In the final scene, Mal still had a graze on his face, but all the other various gunshot wounds, impaling wounds, slashing wounds etc that everyone had suffered had apparently gone.
But I'm jumping ahead of things...
The start... It's always very very hard to convey backstory without it seemed boring, or like very obvious audience orientation, but I liked how they did it, as a school lesson from River's childhood. That worked well, I thought.
I loved the first shot of Serenity, when the camera just followed people through the ship, and it felt like about ten minutes without a single cut.
I missed the cameraderie, though. One of the things I loved about the series was seeing everyone at dinner, just chatting and joking. These people bickered, but seemed to genuinely have a bond together. This felt somewhat lacking in the movie, I felt. It was too busy doing The Big Story to have those quieter, more companionable moments.
In fact, it reminded me a bit of the old X-Files thing, when we had regular episodes, then, occasionally, a bit two-part "Mytharc" episode, when everything came to a halt and we suddenly got Big, Important, and Serious, before returning to regular episodes about the monster of the week. This episode felt rather like a sweeps' week two-parter of Firefly, in which Big Stuff happens... and they'll be back to lighter fare next week.
(Unforunately, my favourite Firefly episodes are the lighter ones. Well, except for Out of Gas, which is my favourite episode... but even that blends the angst with a lot of humour in the flashbacks.)
I missed the music from the series, all twangy and folky. Instead we had generic Movie Action Music. I really really missed the original theme music.
Everything just seemed rather darker, too. (Though bear in mind that I couldn't make out many of the humorous one liners, so missed a lot of the humour). Mal was darker - perhaps more like they originally envisaged him being in the series, before the network made them lighten him up a bit. Jayne was his usual self, thank goodness. I love watching Jayne! (My Traveller character, Vera, was inspired by him.) Kaylee was rather short-changed, I think, and we didn't see much of the qualities that make her so special to everyone on the ship.
I wasn't so sure about River suddenly turning into Buffy. The uncanny aiming that she did in "War stories" could be explained by psychic ability, perhaps, but suddenly knowing how to fight...? But Pellinor gave me some lecture in the car on the way home that explained how it could be possible.
Still, the whole Action River thing does seem to me to be done for the movie audience in mind, so they can plaster their posters with a young girl in an action pose. "By the creator of Buffy... and just like Buffy!" is the sub-text. That said, I liked it a lot more than I'd thought I would.
I was puzzled by what Book was doing on Haven, rather than on the ship, but apparently this is explained somewhere in graphic novels.
And on the theme of everything being darker... The ship was, too. Everything was bigger, more movie-style... and darker. Why do they have to change sets for movies? Why doesn't anyone ever have lights in science fiction?
Relationships... So Simon and Kaylee finally got together, but Mal and Inara are still trading meaningful looks and not saying anything. Oh well... I know there are millions of fans out there that overjoyed by the Simon/Kaylee thing, but I've always been left totally unmoved by it. I've just never really taken to Simon as a character. (Sorry,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evilmissbecky Yes, he gave up everything for love of his sister, and it's all very heroic and I ought to love him for it, but I just... don't.
(I would have preferred to see Kaylee and Jayne together, actually. I've been convinced right from the first episode that Jayne has a soft spot for Kaylee, and I think it would have been fascinating to see how a relationaship between them would have evolved.)
Seeing the Reavers... Hmm... I think they're better left unseen, as this great and terrifying unseen threat, but I liked how it was handled. I also liked the revelation about the origin of the Reavers. You have to have some closure in a movie like this. Instead of having 7 years to tell the story, Joss had one two-hour movie. He has to provide some answers.
Anyway... All the above seems to be a long listing of all the things I didn't like about it. That's not an accurate indication of my feelings about the film. I did like it a lot. I was really pleased to see all those characters on screen again. I want to see it again, and I'm sure I'll like it even more on a second viewing, now all those initial niggles have been got out of the way.
I wish everything wouldn't happen all at the same time. Children's Book Week. Poetry Day. Bookstart Day. Family Learning Weekend. And we've not yet recovered from the Summer Reading Challenge. From a library point of view, Children's Book Week comes at the worst possible time. Anything we do loses all impact since it's just a pale shadow of the huge-ness of the Summer Reading Challenge.
Anyway... On to the main feature.
I'd hoped to come bouncing out saying, "I loved it!" Instead, I came out musing, saying, "I think I really liked it, but I need time to be think." This often happens with films I've been awaiting for a long time. There's too much weight of anticipation there, and during a first viewing, I end up rather overwhelmed, and also too busy focusing on things they've changed from TV series/book to the big screen. On a second viewing, I've got all those concerns out of the way, and can enjoy the film on its own merits, and love it.
Actually, far and away the biggest problem was that I just couldn't hear a lot of it. Couldn't understand it, I mean. Our cinema plays everything really loud, but ironically it can be harder to make out dialogue when it's played too loudly, than it is when player more quietly. A lot of dialogue just got lost in the cacophony of background music and sound effects.
I also found the accents harder to understand than on TV. I didn't miss any of the plot, but I couldn't make out a lot of the one-liners. I suddenly had a lot of sympathy for those American viewers who can't understand British films without sub-titles.
But beyond that... I had already been spoilered some months ago, when I read a non-spoiler-protected announcement of who would die. So I've known for ages which characters would die. I didn't know how, though, so it was still a shock with Wash. It was very in-character for Zoe not to wallow in any angst at all, but just get up and get on with the job... but I would have liked a little more grieving afterwards, just for closure and catharsis for the viewer, if nothing else.
Knowing these spoilers also meant that I knew that all the others wouldn't die in that final confrontation, despite how close it looked at times. They certainly seemed to heal up quickly! In the final scene, Mal still had a graze on his face, but all the other various gunshot wounds, impaling wounds, slashing wounds etc that everyone had suffered had apparently gone.
But I'm jumping ahead of things...
The start... It's always very very hard to convey backstory without it seemed boring, or like very obvious audience orientation, but I liked how they did it, as a school lesson from River's childhood. That worked well, I thought.
I loved the first shot of Serenity, when the camera just followed people through the ship, and it felt like about ten minutes without a single cut.
I missed the cameraderie, though. One of the things I loved about the series was seeing everyone at dinner, just chatting and joking. These people bickered, but seemed to genuinely have a bond together. This felt somewhat lacking in the movie, I felt. It was too busy doing The Big Story to have those quieter, more companionable moments.
In fact, it reminded me a bit of the old X-Files thing, when we had regular episodes, then, occasionally, a bit two-part "Mytharc" episode, when everything came to a halt and we suddenly got Big, Important, and Serious, before returning to regular episodes about the monster of the week. This episode felt rather like a sweeps' week two-parter of Firefly, in which Big Stuff happens... and they'll be back to lighter fare next week.
(Unforunately, my favourite Firefly episodes are the lighter ones. Well, except for Out of Gas, which is my favourite episode... but even that blends the angst with a lot of humour in the flashbacks.)
I missed the music from the series, all twangy and folky. Instead we had generic Movie Action Music. I really really missed the original theme music.
Everything just seemed rather darker, too. (Though bear in mind that I couldn't make out many of the humorous one liners, so missed a lot of the humour). Mal was darker - perhaps more like they originally envisaged him being in the series, before the network made them lighten him up a bit. Jayne was his usual self, thank goodness. I love watching Jayne! (My Traveller character, Vera, was inspired by him.) Kaylee was rather short-changed, I think, and we didn't see much of the qualities that make her so special to everyone on the ship.
I wasn't so sure about River suddenly turning into Buffy. The uncanny aiming that she did in "War stories" could be explained by psychic ability, perhaps, but suddenly knowing how to fight...? But Pellinor gave me some lecture in the car on the way home that explained how it could be possible.
Still, the whole Action River thing does seem to me to be done for the movie audience in mind, so they can plaster their posters with a young girl in an action pose. "By the creator of Buffy... and just like Buffy!" is the sub-text. That said, I liked it a lot more than I'd thought I would.
I was puzzled by what Book was doing on Haven, rather than on the ship, but apparently this is explained somewhere in graphic novels.
And on the theme of everything being darker... The ship was, too. Everything was bigger, more movie-style... and darker. Why do they have to change sets for movies? Why doesn't anyone ever have lights in science fiction?
Relationships... So Simon and Kaylee finally got together, but Mal and Inara are still trading meaningful looks and not saying anything. Oh well... I know there are millions of fans out there that overjoyed by the Simon/Kaylee thing, but I've always been left totally unmoved by it. I've just never really taken to Simon as a character. (Sorry,
evilmissbecky Yes, he gave up everything for love of his sister, and it's all very heroic and I ought to love him for it, but I just... don't. (I would have preferred to see Kaylee and Jayne together, actually. I've been convinced right from the first episode that Jayne has a soft spot for Kaylee, and I think it would have been fascinating to see how a relationaship between them would have evolved.)
Seeing the Reavers... Hmm... I think they're better left unseen, as this great and terrifying unseen threat, but I liked how it was handled. I also liked the revelation about the origin of the Reavers. You have to have some closure in a movie like this. Instead of having 7 years to tell the story, Joss had one two-hour movie. He has to provide some answers.
Anyway... All the above seems to be a long listing of all the things I didn't like about it. That's not an accurate indication of my feelings about the film. I did like it a lot. I was really pleased to see all those characters on screen again. I want to see it again, and I'm sure I'll like it even more on a second viewing, now all those initial niggles have been got out of the way.
