Ok, so I finally watched Serenity as you all know now.
And now to put it into words. So it would be prudent to start with my thoughts on Firefly the series.
Firefly was a good show. There is no disupting this at all. It has though been elevated by a lot of people into something that it wasn't. People judged it on what it had potential to be a few years down the line. And to be fair Firefly did have potential. A lot of it. And there is little doubt in my mind that it would have become one hellava fine TV show since that's what Joss does, he makes great TV.
But.. Firefly didn't have the most riviting concept ever. Cowboys in space isn't really something to start getting wide eyed in astonishment at.
And as for the universe that firefly inhabited as it's back drop...
Well, I always thought that it was decidedly generic and a backdrop without any great spin on it. In fact I have a hard time distinguishing the universe set up in Firefly from some of the space orientated games with similar settings. Freelancer comes to mind.
When you look at the Star Trek universe for instance or the Star Wars universe (the two most ingrained in pop culture from a Sci-Fi standpoint) you get a real sense of uniqueness and distinction from both. Yes, it's space, yes its got ships with lasers and fantastic technology but the spin was always unique. Firefly didn't ever hook into me and make me feel like I really wanted to know what was going on in it's 'world' and as a result it left me a little cold in its very concept from the start.
But..
It all comes down to characters. And this is where Firefly as a series and Joss Whedon as a writer shine. Ok, so the backdrop and concept isn't that interesting but the characters and their personalites and motivations are, so yeah, I can watch this show and enjoy it.
And for the 14 episodes of Firefly enjoy it I did. It had some great character moments, and some great episodes in its short but fun ride. You won't get any argument from me that Fox mad a mistake in no only it's handling of the show while on air but its stupid decision to axe it halfway through the first season. The ratings mess lie pretty much with Fox, not with the show itself.
But I never hailed it as the second coming as some do. It was good television. Bordering on what would of been great television, but we lost it early and as a result it never got the chance.
So now I get to Serenity. I finally got it and I have seen it and taken it in and before I get involved with talking about it's good points and bad I will say that I enjoyed it.
This isn't a shock or a surprise. If I had hated it that would of surprised me but I didn't, it did ok, though I have mixed feelings about it.
All the characters are back, the ship is back, the arc with River Tam is back and we have a new Firefly story to wrap up the fourteen episodes.
This is part of the problem.
Serenity feels like a double episode of Firefly. It feels like a TV movie. The budget could of been noticably higher for a start. I saw only a few shots in the entire movie that would of been inconcievable for a TV show in this day in age due to budgetry constraints. Actually there were a few shots that were plain awful from a CGI stand-point that shook me out of the atmosphere, but seeing as Serenity was never going to fly on eye-candy anway this is not a deal breaker.
The story is well written as would be expected from Joss, and it crammed a lot in considering it was a movie. But once again, I wouldn't call the story something especially special or something you will be thinking about after the credits roll.
The Reavers were lets face it: LAME.
I mean, they were not scary and the forced reactions to their eeire precence was stupid. They also looked generic, baddy zombie.. bored.
Kaylee was terrible, girl can't act I'm afraid. But shes easy enough to ignore. Nathan Fillion is of course the best thing about Firefly anyway and he didn't dissapoint. Jayne as well had some classic moments. But this is a movie and it never felt like one. I mean besides the space battle before the climax everything could of been done on a healthy sweeps budget.
The River fighting was also stupid. I know people find this stuff cool, I'm just not one of them. At the end of the day the character work was great but it just felt like it should be a feature length episode of Firelfy. And seeing as it was a movie and there won't be a seond one it left me kind of cold.
In a movie like this with so many main characters a few will always get short changed. This is true with Serenity. Book was the worst hit. A short scene is all he got, nothing but a cameo. Shame.
I think the movie started much better than it finsihed as well. The second half just didn't live up to the first half. It was setting it self up well enough then it just came out kind of flat throwing what you expect to see: Space battle, big gun fight, River fight, Mal kicking ass and gettign ass kicked. it was all there but it just never left an impression.
Props to the guy who played the Alliance Assasin though. not much depth to his character but he provided a decent adversary to the crew.
To wrap up abrubtly because I'm getting tired of talking about it now I will say that yes, Serenity was a good flick. But ultimatly it made a much better double episode of Firefly.
there is a lot more to add though and I will but for now my neck hurts and I need to raid the fridge fro some choco milk. I'll listen to the Joss commentary at some poitn and get back with some more thoughts..
