Serenity

[altariel]

So, just back from the cinema...

I spent a lot of the start thinking, "Yes, this is great, fine, yes, very good... ooh my viewing companion really won't be enjoying this kind and level of violence..." and then they passed through the Barrier of Death and reached the Tomb of Human Dream and Ambition, and the whole thing came together for me in a big way...

Obviously I'll need to go several thousand more times to be able to say more wise and ponderful things, but what particularly worked for me (apart from the Tomb of Human Dream and Ambition and the Simon-pretty) was the Wheel of Life thing (Book transformed into the Operative, Wash'n'Zoe into Simon'n'Kaylee). Also the Operative's big fuck-off sword and Mal's tiny penknife of unfear. That was the whole film, that was. Actually, that was the whole of Firefly, that was.

It felt like someone had filmed season 4 of Blake's 7 and done the whole thing right this time.

And it also felt like the end. Good end. Hurrah! And, of course, *sob*.

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I feel they filmed S2 of Blakes7 semi-right...I mean, could it be more StarOne if it tried?

Also, in the beginning...Aurora Chair much?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

could it be more StarOne if it tried?

Miranda? That was straight out The Stand for me.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

You're right about The Stand (I've just read it, not seen the miniseries). But I was sort of thinking about the process of communicating the decision to the crew.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what did you think of The Stand then?

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I thought it was well done but so depressing that I've never re-read it, and never read the Extended Edition.

BTW I know I'll be disappointed, but I wish that instead of a Director's Cut DVD for Serenity we'll get a fannish cut not only with every scrap of footage but with F8: Extra Denial Scenes and F9: right-click to remove this character's clothes. No Nekkid Reavers though--that's just sick!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

F9: right-click to remove this character's clothes

Surely someone can create this?!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I would want to see a sequel, or another tv series. This was a good ending.

It felt to me like it was telling the story that the show would have told. I would have liked it in TV series form, obviously, but I'll settle for this.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I can't read this properly yet, so I've just scanned the very start and end. But I've got the impression that you liked it - I'm glad about that.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I did like it. Keeping schtum now. And don't read any of the comments.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you, no, I won't. I've perfected the technique of ignoring things on the screen - usually things like, 'Glitterboy, can you fix this, please?'

[kradical.livejournal.com]

That was actually a screwdriver of unfear, but yeah, that pretty much summed up the ethos of Firefly/Serenity, didn't it? *chuckle*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ah, a screwdriver! I need new specs *and* a second viewing!

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Cf. screwdriver of unfear with Wash's VERY SMALL gun in War Stories.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Like Miles Vorkosigan, not short - concentrated.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

You said it. Beautifully.
I'm a sucker for Orson Scott Card's review, too.
:sob: So much love.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Going back this weekend to see it again!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Enjoy yourself :-D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's nice to be able to agree with Orson Scott Card about something ;-D

[stultiloquentia.livejournal.com]

Check out my friend Sylvia's review: http://www.livejournal.com/users/sylviavolk2000/3074.html

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Will read this properly when I'm back from choir, but:

Miranda. O brave new world that has such people in it!

*smacks forehead hard* Of course! Fantastic! Thank you so much for this link!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, good connections - thank you.

[stultiloquentia.livejournal.com]

Don't tell me, tell her!

I'd better rent Forbidden Planet.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I'm now starting to get intrigued. Bearing in mind that I've never seen so much as one nanosecond of Firefly, do you think I would (a) understand what the smeg it's all about, and (b) like it?

[avon7.livejournal.com]

I went to see Serenity without having ever seen Firefly or knowing anything about it and, yes, it is perfectly comprehensible and enjoyable. I'm sure Firefly fans get more out of it but it can also just be ebjoyed as a stand alone movie. I'd even go and see it again except for the thought of sitting through the endless fight scenes.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

a). There's plenty of exposition that will fill you in pretty rapidly on what's going on.

b). I love Firefly to bits, so I'm probably not the best person to ask. I'd agree with avon7 that there are a lot of fight sequences, and that perhaps it doesn't show off all that's best about Firefly the series (which is the quips, I could happily have had more of these).

[temeres.livejournal.com]

Well, on the basis of your joint recommendations, I'll jot it down as yet another film I really mean to go and see and yet never quite manage to fit in:)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-D

[gair.livejournal.com]

Saw the movie on Wednesday, enjoyed it thoroughly, then borrowed the DVD of Firefly off spacefall and were too bored to make it through the pilot episode. But if you like Westerns, you might get on with it better.

Westerns with Drucilla in them.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

too bored to make it through the pilot episode

*gasp!*

(If you can bear it, stick with it. I switched the pilot episode off first time I tried to watch it.)

[gair.livejournal.com]

We're going to have a go at Episode 3 tonight - I googled firefly boring and found out that Fox didn't air the pilot originally b/c it was, um, "too boring", so that gives me more faith in the rest of the episodes. And I did really enjoy the movie, so am predisposed to give it a few more chances.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Some people just don't get on with it, but the best episodes are yet to come: Ariel, Out of Gas, War Stories, Objects in Space (one of my official favourite episodes of anything ever).

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I can read all the reviews now. Like you I know I am not an objective witness, but I think I can tell the difference between 'appeals to me' and 'is of real quality', and this is indeed of some real quality.

A point which interests me is how different people represent the film in various ways. The political interpretations are particularly diverse.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The political interpretations are particularly diverse.

What is your reading? Perhaps because of the panel we'd had at Redemption, Mal seemed a lot more libertarian to me than ever.

The pacification programme is what I found most horrible. The Reavers felt like an aftershock of the evil that had been perpetrated on Miranda.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I think there is plenty of material there for a staunch Libertarian to say that this film was explicitly supporting their views. I also think it could be viewed as an anti-Liberal (American definition) film. I think this is why right wing SF types like Orson Scott Card have been so enthusiastic.

However, I think it's not anti-liberal in intention, but rather chameleonic. It could equally (for instance) be seen as anti-faith (I think that Miranda post you linked to makes this point about belief vs evidence) and critical of the war of all against all.

And of course Mal is not the voice of truth, he's a good guy, but he's wrong a lot of the time.

If I was inclined to be anti-liberal though, perhaps I wouldn't be making such a complex point, but saying 'hell, yeah, Joss is one of us'

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It's curious, because it never occurred to me for a minute that it was the end. I felt they were setting things up for the future (eg reducing an impractically large regular cast, not spelling out whether the Operative fell on his sword, not resolving Mal/Inara). I agree entirely about Wash/Zoe translating into Kaylee/Simon, but can't see Book and the Operative as equivalents at all; the Operative struck me as a more effective Jubal Early motivated by ideology rather than money. But this is partly because I have my own Book plot, and if Joss Whedon came and told me what was supposed to be going on I would just tell him "no, no, no, you're wrong, because obviously..." However, my plot has been pretty comprehensively sabotaged by events (so from that point of view it may be better if this is the end, though according to katlinel Whedon says that killing people doesn't actually mean they can't appear in future.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I felt they were setting things up for the future

Oh yes, it's certainly not an ending in the way B7 ends! It's definitely more open than that. But I think that's consistent with the themes of the film: we aren't left with an image of a Brave New World of perfect (submissive) people; we are left with a picture of people carrying on and living their lives.

But it did feel to me that the film was a version of the story that would have played out if the show had had its full run. The story of River and Simon's arrival on Serenity; why and how they got there, what that ultimately means for the people around them. (There are, of course, lots and lots of other stories going on in Firefly, but that's the primary narrative motivator, I think.)


the Operative struck me as a more effective Jubal Early motivated by ideology rather than money

The Operative, Early, River, and (I think) Book are all variations on a theme about violent human tools of government. (I don't think Early is motivated by money, btw; as River says, he "has issues". The Alliance finds a way to use his pathology.)

River's personal storyline is about what kind of weapon she will be. Ultimately, she becomes one of social transformation (as well as being a weapon that backfires badly and has unintended consequences; very Tolkien-esque theme!).

I have absolutely no doubt that the Operative does not fall on his sword. That's his old credo, before his conversion. Book I see as someone who has also been at this point; but we meet him much later on, after reflection, and conversion to a different kind of belief.

Have you ever posted your version of Book's story? I'd love to know what you have in mind.