Many will scoff. Many will roll their eyes at this comparison (many, many more will never read it . . .) but I tell you, that Serenity is a first. It's the first time that a TV sci-fi franchise--if you can call a colossal failure after 14 episodes a "franchise"--was brought to the big screen without making it a "feel good" fan movie. This movie is HARSH on fans, and only gives the most cursory of background to newbies and critics. That is why it is so great.
It's as if Joss Whedon said, "Great, I get to make a movie! I'll tell the story I always wanted to tell." rather than "How can I make everybody happy and keep this franchise alive?" This is not Star Trek: The Motion Picture or X-Files: Fight the Future--Watered down for non-believers, with lame homage moments for the major characters, and a few fan-tingling moments. This gives up a glimpse of where Joss would have gone with a series, if given the chance. This is like Firefly concentrate. 2-hours that are equivalent to 5 seasons. There are some shocks and most of the secrets from the series are revealed. It's all here.
I also have to say, that despite hopeful pronouncements by Universal executives and Joss himself, a $10 mil openning weekend for a $40 mil film probably means no sequel. I am, therefore operating on the assumption that this is last we'll see of our beloved crew. You never know--It could become My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Pulp Fiction and see its audience grow instead of shrink--or crazy good DVD sales could make the suits think it's worth their while to make another. But I doubt it.
I won't give a synopsis of the film (except the parts I'm highlighting, of course). Most critics have already done that for you. You may have seen me savaging some of the critics who didn't like it. The vast majority did, though, although most didn't understand the characters or the 'verse (short for "universe" in Firefly speak) in the movie. A tie for the award of best review for "getting it" goes to Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com (free pass required) and Peter Hartlaub at the San Francisco Chronicle. Read their reviews and the reviews of others. I think you'll find that a disproportionate number of critics thought that this was one of the best sci-fi movies in recent memory.
One note I'd like to clarify--In my earlier post I said that I would recommend that you see the series on DVD before watching it in the theatre. I will amend that to say that that's the way I did it, and I got a lot more out of the movie. As you can see, though, dozens of critics who had never seen an episode loved it. So go see it already, while you have the chance to see it on the big screen. If you want a taste before you go, there is a very funny episode this Friday on the Sci-fi channel @7:00PM. Mal plans a big heist with the woman who, on an earlier episode, tricked him into marrying her and tried to take over the ship. It will give you a good idea of who all of the characters are--since they all have a fairly large part in the action and play their "roles" really well.
Warning for those who haven't seen it yet: (What the hell are you waiting for?). Spoliers abound in the text below. Continue reading--all ye who have seen it or can stand to be spolied (or sit if you want--I don't care :) . . . If you haven't seen it yet, you probably don't want to read on:
So, what's my reaction? Well, I thought it was just about as perfect a film as I've seen in a long while. Granted, I'm a true believer--but I like to think that I can think critically about a film's failings. I've cringed through moments in the Matrix films, or thought that James Cameron or Steven Speilberg went way too cheesy--George Lucas . . . don't even get me started! In short, I have always been able to love, obsess over, and root for a film if I wanted it to be good, but still see the flaws. Not this time. My inner critc shut off 10 minutes in, and I was GLUED to the screen. Why? Because this was the anti-scfi-action movie without all of the comfortable conventions we've grown to expect: that the good guys win, major characters don't die--or if they do they get a grand death scene a la Spock in Star Trek II, that good guys act . . . well . . . good, and that we leave the theatre happy.
When the movie opens, we see a different side of the beloved Captian Malcom Reynolds. He could have remained his old wisecracking, confident self, but Joss decides to make him grow and develop. Mal had some dark moments in the series, but we meet him now at "rock bottom. " It's been six months since we saw him in the last episode and in the first twenty minutes he:
- Kicks a man to the savage "Reavers" to save his crew.
- We find out that he ran his love interest Inara off the ship (according to Kaylee)
- Ever loyal Zoe is questioning his decisions (when have you EVER seen that?)
- Kaylee complains that the captain will run off the whole crew when he runs River and Simon off. (When have you heard Kaylee complain about Mal?--except when he insults her.)
Of course, the "Big Damn Spoliers" of the movie is the fact that two major characters die. The first is Shepard Book (played by Barney Miller alum Ron Glass). In the six months since we've seen him last he's left Serenity and started his own colony on a world called, appropriately enough, Haven. It's sort of a ramshakle missionary camp with lots of kids running around, and a pleasant atmosphere. Mal and the others go to Haven to hide from the Operative sent by the Alliance to kill River Tam.
Book spends the majority of his scant screen time trying to tell Mal that he is, at heart, a good and noble person, and that he needs to believe in something again. Mal recoils at this, saying that he doesn't have any need to believe in God--and Book says, "Why is it that when I talk about belief, you always think that I'm talking about God?" (a "shepard" is a Christian minister in the Firefly world). Book and all of his colony are killed by the Operative as he searches for River, but Mal and the crew of Serenity arrive in time to hear Book's last words. He tells Mal again to believe in something. This is a fairly typical "hollywood death" where the character gets to speak his peace and die heroically while trying to pass on his wisdom to the hero.
Shepard Book helped Mal (slowly in the series, but more explicitly in the movie) rediscover his beliefs. In the movie, he tells Mal that he has a "way." Book has always believed that Mal is a man of principle, and that he was just playing the bad guy. Mal would like to believe that too. Book was always Mal's conscience, because, we can see that he has made a similar journey--In his past, he was a high ranking member of the alliance, and he gave it all up to join the Shepard order.
Although we don't know the details, we know that Book was a bad man, who didn't believe in anything, but that he, unlike Mal at this point, has found "serenity." He's happy in his beliefs and putting the past behind him. When Book dies and begs Mal to believe in "something"--Mal seriously doubts that there is good in himself. He almost loses his humanity--He modifies his "boat" to look like a Reaver ship, and threatens to kill his beloved crew as well if they don't obey him. He almost becomes a Reaver, at least metaphorically, and when the Operative tells Mal, "Of course you care--You're a human being, you're not a reaver." But I'm not sure Mal believes that.
When Book dies, Mal loses his soul (for a while), and he's back again in Serenity Valley with all he's lost. Book had to die to force Mal to confront his true beliefs. The Operative had to kill innocents (I'm not condoning) to force Mal out of the "how will I get out of this" mentality, into the "what's right?" mentality. As a character (I think it was Jayne) says a little later in the movie--"If you can't do something smart, at least do something right."
So why does Wash have to die? Zoe was at Serenity Valley too, but unlike Mal, she found a way out of the horror of what happened to them--a wonderful, quirky, lovable dingbat (who she "didn't like" with a mustache)--Wash. As long as she had him, that was enough. Wash had to die, so that Josh could really make us understand what the battle of Serenity Valley was all about. Back then, they lost it all for nothing--and that's why Mal can't find anything to believe in, and Zoe still follows him and clings to Wash. They couldn't hold the valley, and everybody died for nothing--or so they believe. When Wash dies--Zoe truly believes that "the signal" is all that's important. She's back in Serenity Valley, too, with a cause to fight for. Zoe and Mal finally find something to believe in (the truth about Miranda) in the BDM, and for the first time, it's worth dying for--remember, the whole crew--Simon, Jayne, Wash---everyone agrees that getting the signal out is worth risking everything. I love Wash and Book too--but don't say they died for nothing or it was random. If that were true, you wouldn't feel a thing. They died to save Mal and Zoe, and to get the signal out--to reclaim everything the Browncoats lost at Serenity Valley. I know you'll miss them. I will too.
Like all of you, I'm blown away by Wash's abrupt end. Many have written that Joss could have teased it all out over several seasons on Fox if given the chance, and that may be true. But we all have to play the cards we're dealt. Joss had to tell this story as if it was his last chance. This movie was Mal's movie, and I thought it beautifully showed his character--who opens the movie a good deal meaner, sadder, and detacted than when we saw him last--go from an empty shell of a man who throws people to the reavers to a soldier who remembers why he fought the Alliance in the first place. I was sad to see Book go, but I think that the reason that Joss put him on that boat in the first place was to save Mal's soul--not to make him Christian--but to make him believe in something again.
When Mal sees Miranda, and he sees the tape--He has a purpose again. The reason that the Browncoats fought for independence is that they don't like people being "messed with." And to any Browncoat, especially a true believer like Mal (watch the opening sequence of the first episode again) the truth about Miranda is intollerable. This, finally, is something to believe in, and a cause worth fighting for--and dying for ("although, that's not exactly plan A!"). Mal foreshadows this in an earlier conversation with Inara--"When I go to war, you'll see something different." (I'm paraphrasing the quotes).
Once it's a war, people die. Mal spent the entire series keeping his crew safe. Simon tried to keep River safe. Jayne spent the series trying to save his own ass. But once they saw Miranda, they all agreed that this was more important than them--More important than their safety. This is a long winded way of saying--Joss had to kill Wash. And it had to be Wash. Everyone who wrote in to say that they felt for Zoe--that they were too emotional to pay attention afterwards--that they thought that the whole crew would die--How else could Joss have gotten you there? Once it's a war, people are going to die. When an idea is more important than saving the people you love--that's what happens. It had to be Wash, because Zoe's grief captures this perfectly. She's a soldier, she lost everything that she holds dear, but if there's a chance Mal can get that signal out--it's worth it.
I was shocked when Wash died--but the most emotional reaction I had was right afterwards when Zoe told Mal--"This is the place, this is where we make our stand" and when Mal said "You've got to hold" (again, paraphrasing). Go back to episode 1--If they had only held the valley, they wouldn't have lost everything. For Zoe, and for Mal, this is Serenity Valley all over again. This time, they have to hold.
Mal started this movie a broken shell of a man who was alienating his whole crew, and alienating the woman he loves--until he takes Book's dying words to heart and believes in something. Wash didn't die in vain. His death was about making a stand, and fighting for what you believe instead of hiding all the time and barely living. Sorry to be so long winded--I hated seeing Wash and Book go too, but they died for something. Mal may be able to find serenity after this. He was always an idealistic "good guy" trying to convince himself he was a "bad guy" until he almost believed it. He thought he lost everything in Serenity Valley, but thanks to the sacrifice of Book and Wash, he may have gotten it back. Believe me, if they hadn't died, you wouldn't have felt this so strongly. Bless you Joss, for not taking the easy way out. You and I loved these characters, but I guarantee that Joss feels their loss more. He didn't wanna kill them--but in the end he gave them a reason to live. That's what drama's all about. That's why this is such an outstanding movie.
--Tinfoil out
1 comment:
Thanks, Tin Foil, I loved this movie, too, and I think you were dead on when you said:
This movie is HARSH on fans, and only gives the most cursory of background to newbies and critics. That is why it is so great.
More and more I like the idea of previous exposure to a fiction as a necessary prerequisite to real enjoyment and understanding of a movie like Serenity. The big screen portion is only part of the story, and to really appreciate it you have to be devoted to following the narrative on your own time. Many Firefly fans never saw it when it was on FOX. They became fans via word-of-mouth, and if you consider how comparatively large the fan base is now, that's pretty amazing! Part of that was based on Whedon’s reputation, but still. Pretty cool.
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