*raises fist at brain*
Oct. 2nd, 2005 01:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jebbypalHow crap is this? After two hours of dozing, I got up and got ready for bed. And now my gorram brain won't shut off to let me sleep!!! Pieces of potential fic keep being tossed around by portions of my brain and my muse while nothing I attempt to focus on will let it slow down again enough for sleep to come. And I need sleep so I can get up and do laundry early tomorrow as well as do my gorram poster. Arrgh.
Guess this means I officially procrastinated too long. I knew I should have done the poster and then seen Serenity.
Ahh well, I guess I'll type up my reactions now --- I think the moodiness mostly passed. One word of warning though, I still haven't read ANYONE's reactions so if this seems derivative, repetitive, or anything of the such, sorry.
Non-spoilery: I loved it. I honestly did not have any type of problem reconciling the movie with the series and I didn't find myself wishing that it was a series rather than what it was. Joss did an amazing job. I honestly think I preferred this to it being what it would have been in the series (other than then we would have more hours). Why you ask? I think that during Farscape viewing I got very used to incredibly tight and fast storytelling that still had amazing amounts of characterizations within all the speed. And I think this is what Joss accomplished in the movie. Going back to watch Firefly episodes after watching Farscape has actually been difficult because I find myself drifting during the slow pace (and the fact I know the episodes inside and out). Now don't crucify me over this, it's just how I feel. I honestly don't know what my reception of Firefly would be if I'd encountered Farscape first and I can't even fathom to tell the truth.
Additionally, I think the Universal marketing team did a wonderful job of putting together every trailer sequence for the maximum amount of pull and interest without giving away an ounce of the important parts of the stories. Somehow, I truly managed to remain a spoiler virgin and OMG was it worth it.
So the only part I sorta had a problem with was where Simon actually was in the facility breaking River out --- my impression during the series was he paid someone to do it for him and I actually have a hard time believing that early series Simon could have pulled off the subterfuge to break River out. But once I accepted this as just the quickest way for Joss to fill in the non-Browncoats in the audience without completely trashing the history we know, I moved on quickly and turned myself over thoroughly into Joss's capable hands. If only I knew what he'd do to me.
From the previews, I have to say that I was ambivalent about the Operative and didn't care for him at all. Joss totally changed my mind in the guy's first scenes. As we know with Early and Badger, Joss has an amazing ability to convey a maximum amount of characterization with a very few scenes (and the actors' natural abilities). The first scenes with the Operative were a case in point.
The bank robbery and the Reaver attack --- Perfect Serenity crew interaction although I want to know why anyone let Summer twist her face like that when she pointed to the "hero". Really, ugliest expression ever in the movie outside of the the Reavers. Mal discussing with the law guy about where to shoot him for the least amount of bleeding but best amount of evidence that the guy did his job. The chase scene, omg the chase scene. My Zoe love grew and knows no bounds --- actually had bits and pieces for Camo flow through my head simultaneous with watching this early piece of the movie before all the Joss-ness short circuited the Frog-muse. And WASH!! Is there a better pilot? REally? Sorry, River, you have big shoes to fill and you aren't even a tenth as pretty or funny as my Wash. I may have to wear Hawaiin shirts for a month in mourning.
Tavern scene---if anything argues that Joss lies through his teeth about hating to write fight scenes, this one does. So beautiful and haunting. Perfect.
Things start to blur at this point for me. I honestly thought the movie was over when Mal was giving his speech post-Miranda reveal. Thankfully I was wrong. Book's death was perfect---followed by the rest of the Operative's retribution, it truly showed us a Mal at war. I like this dark Mal. The confrontations between Jayne and Mal rang completely true.
The Miranda part was wonderfully done. A plot device as old as sci-fi itself that Joss turned to his own purposes and crafted into a thing of perfection and halloween stories. Book had honestly sold me on that piece about "men who looked into the Black too long", but wow, this was good. And great acting on the part of the woman in the vid.
And omg, a bit of outrage at the fact that now we'll NEVER truly know Book's past, though it does appear that he probably either had responsibility for several Operatives or was possibly one himself. Still, WAAAAAHHH!!
OMG, the ending(s). Mal on the canon ontop of Serenity was eerily reminiscent of the actions on the battlefield during Serenity the pilot episode now that I think about it. Nice bookending there, Joss, old chap. And the terror of the Alliance personnel and the Operative's indignity that the Reavers, who have never been acknowledged by the Alliance and instead left to terrorize the border planets to keep them under the thumb of the Alliance might, had been loosed on the innocent soldiers that he'd brought to blast Serenity out of the sky with, genius.
*cries* Wash is dead?? No!! He's a leaf in the wind!!! Why? Why? Why? (And might I say Mr. Tudyk how evil it is for you to continually let everyone believe you'd signed on for all the sequels as well?).
Granted, I actually understand why this was done. B didn't at all and kept saying afterwards that it didn't make sense because Wash didn't have to die there for any piece of the plot. It took me a few minutes to be able to explain it to him though and he still didn't accept my explanation. In truth, SOMEONE from the crew had to die after everything that had happened. If they didn't, it would have been too perfect (a la the original three star wars movies) that the entire crew of heroes emerges unscathed. Mal had offered everyone too many chances to walk away. He had said too many times that he was willing to die to get the signal out. But for Mal, the death of one of his crew would be worse than his own death. Especially Wash's because that means that Zoe suffers. The only person who could have died that would have hurt Mal worse would have been Kaylee, I think. Still...I can't imagine Serenity without Wash, which I almost think is more of the point (beyond Joss's known proclivity for torturing the fans with the deaths of beloved characters). Anything from this point on is going to be a different type of 'Verse. The wool is removed from everyone's eyes and we all know exactly how much danger River and everything she knows is. Innocence of more than just dear prudish Simon has been lost. And with that comes death.
You flew well, Wash, and it couldn't have been done without you. That makes you mighty, a big damn hero. A leaf in the wind that everyone heard when you finally fell to the ground. You'll be missed.
I won't say a lot about the final fight. Instead, I want to fastforward to the final scene between Zoe and Mal when they are discussing whether Serenity, the ship, will still fly. I love this conversation and I think it contains everything from every movie that Joss has ever written that makes him an amazing script writer--subtlety, infinite layers, and moving characterization. They talk of the ship, but at the same time they are talking about Zoe, herself, and whether she'll survive the loss of her husband. They could also be discussing River. At the same time, I think a bit of it is directed at the Firefly fandom. We were battered by the cancellation, but the core remained and continued to build during the desolation until we heard that the movie was greenlit. Since then, we've continued to grow and grow until the movie came out -- which we were all scared of on one level, scared that the thing we knew and loved would fly apart as soon as it hit atmo. It didn't though--it's sturdy and it flew true.
Thank you, Joss, it was an amazing flight. I think you have truly found your medium in the movies. Never let someone bastardize one of your babies again.
And please, for the love of Buddha, start writing the sequel as soon as the script for WonderWoman is finished!!!
*deep breath*
I feel better having written that out. I do think I just needed time to process it. Thanks to everyone on my flist for helping to keep me a virgin the entire time.
Guess this means I officially procrastinated too long. I knew I should have done the poster and then seen Serenity.
Ahh well, I guess I'll type up my reactions now --- I think the moodiness mostly passed. One word of warning though, I still haven't read ANYONE's reactions so if this seems derivative, repetitive, or anything of the such, sorry.
Non-spoilery: I loved it. I honestly did not have any type of problem reconciling the movie with the series and I didn't find myself wishing that it was a series rather than what it was. Joss did an amazing job. I honestly think I preferred this to it being what it would have been in the series (other than then we would have more hours). Why you ask? I think that during Farscape viewing I got very used to incredibly tight and fast storytelling that still had amazing amounts of characterizations within all the speed. And I think this is what Joss accomplished in the movie. Going back to watch Firefly episodes after watching Farscape has actually been difficult because I find myself drifting during the slow pace (and the fact I know the episodes inside and out). Now don't crucify me over this, it's just how I feel. I honestly don't know what my reception of Firefly would be if I'd encountered Farscape first and I can't even fathom to tell the truth.
Additionally, I think the Universal marketing team did a wonderful job of putting together every trailer sequence for the maximum amount of pull and interest without giving away an ounce of the important parts of the stories. Somehow, I truly managed to remain a spoiler virgin and OMG was it worth it.
So the only part I sorta had a problem with was where Simon actually was in the facility breaking River out --- my impression during the series was he paid someone to do it for him and I actually have a hard time believing that early series Simon could have pulled off the subterfuge to break River out. But once I accepted this as just the quickest way for Joss to fill in the non-Browncoats in the audience without completely trashing the history we know, I moved on quickly and turned myself over thoroughly into Joss's capable hands. If only I knew what he'd do to me.
From the previews, I have to say that I was ambivalent about the Operative and didn't care for him at all. Joss totally changed my mind in the guy's first scenes. As we know with Early and Badger, Joss has an amazing ability to convey a maximum amount of characterization with a very few scenes (and the actors' natural abilities). The first scenes with the Operative were a case in point.
The bank robbery and the Reaver attack --- Perfect Serenity crew interaction although I want to know why anyone let Summer twist her face like that when she pointed to the "hero". Really, ugliest expression ever in the movie outside of the the Reavers. Mal discussing with the law guy about where to shoot him for the least amount of bleeding but best amount of evidence that the guy did his job. The chase scene, omg the chase scene. My Zoe love grew and knows no bounds --- actually had bits and pieces for Camo flow through my head simultaneous with watching this early piece of the movie before all the Joss-ness short circuited the Frog-muse. And WASH!! Is there a better pilot? REally? Sorry, River, you have big shoes to fill and you aren't even a tenth as pretty or funny as my Wash. I may have to wear Hawaiin shirts for a month in mourning.
Tavern scene---if anything argues that Joss lies through his teeth about hating to write fight scenes, this one does. So beautiful and haunting. Perfect.
Things start to blur at this point for me. I honestly thought the movie was over when Mal was giving his speech post-Miranda reveal. Thankfully I was wrong. Book's death was perfect---followed by the rest of the Operative's retribution, it truly showed us a Mal at war. I like this dark Mal. The confrontations between Jayne and Mal rang completely true.
The Miranda part was wonderfully done. A plot device as old as sci-fi itself that Joss turned to his own purposes and crafted into a thing of perfection and halloween stories. Book had honestly sold me on that piece about "men who looked into the Black too long", but wow, this was good. And great acting on the part of the woman in the vid.
And omg, a bit of outrage at the fact that now we'll NEVER truly know Book's past, though it does appear that he probably either had responsibility for several Operatives or was possibly one himself. Still, WAAAAAHHH!!
OMG, the ending(s). Mal on the canon ontop of Serenity was eerily reminiscent of the actions on the battlefield during Serenity the pilot episode now that I think about it. Nice bookending there, Joss, old chap. And the terror of the Alliance personnel and the Operative's indignity that the Reavers, who have never been acknowledged by the Alliance and instead left to terrorize the border planets to keep them under the thumb of the Alliance might, had been loosed on the innocent soldiers that he'd brought to blast Serenity out of the sky with, genius.
*cries* Wash is dead?? No!! He's a leaf in the wind!!! Why? Why? Why? (And might I say Mr. Tudyk how evil it is for you to continually let everyone believe you'd signed on for all the sequels as well?).
Granted, I actually understand why this was done. B didn't at all and kept saying afterwards that it didn't make sense because Wash didn't have to die there for any piece of the plot. It took me a few minutes to be able to explain it to him though and he still didn't accept my explanation. In truth, SOMEONE from the crew had to die after everything that had happened. If they didn't, it would have been too perfect (a la the original three star wars movies) that the entire crew of heroes emerges unscathed. Mal had offered everyone too many chances to walk away. He had said too many times that he was willing to die to get the signal out. But for Mal, the death of one of his crew would be worse than his own death. Especially Wash's because that means that Zoe suffers. The only person who could have died that would have hurt Mal worse would have been Kaylee, I think. Still...I can't imagine Serenity without Wash, which I almost think is more of the point (beyond Joss's known proclivity for torturing the fans with the deaths of beloved characters). Anything from this point on is going to be a different type of 'Verse. The wool is removed from everyone's eyes and we all know exactly how much danger River and everything she knows is. Innocence of more than just dear prudish Simon has been lost. And with that comes death.
You flew well, Wash, and it couldn't have been done without you. That makes you mighty, a big damn hero. A leaf in the wind that everyone heard when you finally fell to the ground. You'll be missed.
I won't say a lot about the final fight. Instead, I want to fastforward to the final scene between Zoe and Mal when they are discussing whether Serenity, the ship, will still fly. I love this conversation and I think it contains everything from every movie that Joss has ever written that makes him an amazing script writer--subtlety, infinite layers, and moving characterization. They talk of the ship, but at the same time they are talking about Zoe, herself, and whether she'll survive the loss of her husband. They could also be discussing River. At the same time, I think a bit of it is directed at the Firefly fandom. We were battered by the cancellation, but the core remained and continued to build during the desolation until we heard that the movie was greenlit. Since then, we've continued to grow and grow until the movie came out -- which we were all scared of on one level, scared that the thing we knew and loved would fly apart as soon as it hit atmo. It didn't though--it's sturdy and it flew true.
Thank you, Joss, it was an amazing flight. I think you have truly found your medium in the movies. Never let someone bastardize one of your babies again.
And please, for the love of Buddha, start writing the sequel as soon as the script for WonderWoman is finished!!!
*deep breath*
I feel better having written that out. I do think I just needed time to process it. Thanks to everyone on my flist for helping to keep me a virgin the entire time.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 11:03 pm (UTC)As for the rest of it...::sigh:: Yeah. Just...yeah. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 11:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 10:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 11:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 06:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 11:03 am (UTC)*seconds that emotion*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 10:19 am (UTC)I'm glad you finally got to see it, and that you liked it so. First time I saw it, yeah, I also liked it, but I walked out of the theater feeling like I'd just been gut-punched. Friday marked the third time I'd seen it, and I'll hopefully be catching another showing with friends later this afternoon. The emotional impact, even knowing that certain things are coming, is still strong. :)
Was it just me, though, that thought the movie seemed just a bit off? Not character-wise or anything, but the light was a bit too harsh, the voices a bit too high -- as though the film were running just a little too fast or something? *shrug* Oh well.
I miss Wash something fierce, and I've got a weird fanfic idea in my head post his death-moment.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 10:45 am (UTC)I noticed that too. It really threw me at the beginning. Especially with River and Kaylee -- they sounded really high (and therefore young). It was odd.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 10:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 10:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 11:06 am (UTC)*is still weepy though*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 03:50 pm (UTC)that was lovely, feel the same way myself. serenity could never be the same without him, leaving us with the promise of extra juicy anxst.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-02 04:10 pm (UTC)Glad you liked it and you are so right. *hopes*