Serenity² - And The Band Played On
POSTED BY: RelFexive
UPDATED: Thursday, September 8, 2005 11:10
VIEWED: 15265
PAGE 9 of 13
I'm gonna post up a spoiler-free review of the BDM that I just stumbled across. It's probably been linked/posted/whatever somewhere else, but when I read it I thought it was one of the best bits of writing I've seen in a while and I want to repeat it; this thread's kinda quiet right now, so here I plant it.
I'm also e-mailing it like mad to people I'm trying to convince their lives won't be worth living if they don't get out and see it during one of the first two weekends it plays here.
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"You don't watch this film - you survive it" - Steve D on Serenity (No spoilers!)
Serenity is an awesome film. Literally. It provokes fear and wonder in equal measure, and on massive scales.
It’s also good, by the way. In fact, it’s exceptional, it’s brilliant, it’s incredible, it’s everything we wanted and nothing like we expected. It stands well on its own and should appeal to a fairly wide audience. As Joss said in his introduction, Firefly is for everyone and there is a lot here to enjoy. A lot of geeks will likely see it, and like it for being a great sci-fi action story, and it might even pick up some street cred in the mainstream. It’s not going to be Fellowship of the Ring but it could be bigger than Pitch Black and Solaris put together.
Okay, that’s all the obvious stuff out of the way.
It does stand alone. I was worried at the end that it mightn’t, but that was just because as well as introducing everyone, it also feels like the epic conclusion of the series. But it has a tight arc, pitching the universe and the characters quickly, and ending with the kind of big denouement which is necessary for a film. You can know nothing about Firefly before or ever again afterwards, and you will get a complete, satisfying film experience.
It does fit the series, yet it is also not the series. The characters are never wrongly portrayed, but they are slightly different in places. One gets the feeling a fair bit of time has passed since Objects in Space. Enough for things to get really raggedy. The feel is also different as a result. It keeps the emotional core of the series, but there is an adjustment of tone. Things are harder. Darker. Faster. All bets are off, and no holds are barred.
Most notably, the serenity of Serenity is gone. In order to explain this universe, introduce nine characters and tell their story and the galaxy’s, the film needs to move fast. It compresses all the excitement of Return of the King into just two hours and it does this by bombarding you with action and events. Not that character is ever forgotten, it just happens at the same speed as the action – fast and furious. Up until now, the crew have been able to tread water gently. Now, their debts and promises are being called in, and they’ve hit the rapids. Big time.
Which means at the end of the film, every muscle in my body hurt like hell, because I’d been clenched the whole time. I breathed in somewhere in the first minute and forgot to breathe out until the credits were rolling. There were tears in my eyes, but I didn’t know why yet; the real catharsis didn’t come until much, much later, dragged out of me in stages. Like when you get hit with a truck, and you don’t feel the pain until the shock wears off.
Tears. Shock. Pain. Yes, this is a heavy-going film. I’ve talked before about how, regardless of how much I adore the writing, I have trouble watching War Stories, because I literally can’t stand to see such realistic suffering put upon characters I feel very close to. And I don’t just mean the captain and Wash, I mean the choices the others make, and the horrors they are exposed to. Well, Serenity goes beyond War Stories, cranks the suffering and drama up well past eleven, past twelve, then lodges it somewhere around fifteen, tears the knob off and sets fire to your stereo.
As my good friend Cat said: “I don’t know if I’ll see it for the official preview. I mean, I love it, but do I want to put myself through that again?” Serenity is an event. You don’t see this film, you experience it. No, you SURVIVE it. Afte
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Blimey.
I now feel a bit guilty that I didn't leave the cinema clutching my chest in pain!
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Design a Serenity poster & win a Serenity t-shirt at http://www.destinything.com/id152.html
Visit the Browncoats' Photo 'Verse at http://disneypix.tripod.com/photoverse
www.cafepress.com/fireflyclass & www.cafepress.com/session416
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Well, we're going to be down in Pensacola, Florida visiting my parents during opening weekend, so we plan to drag them along to see it. Also, my sister & her husband live in Mobile, Alabama, right on the edge of the damage from Katrina, and they had a rough time of it. That's less than an hour from Pensacola, and they're both big Babylon 5 fans, so I e-mailed her the review and am trying to talk them into tearing away and joining us for the viewing--make it quite a family affair, it would.
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I can see you.
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TWG:
I'm a geek too, see:
A baryon is an elementry particle, so I reckon I could have swung it, but then all tachyons are, are particles with negative rest mass so that they can't travel slower than the speed of light, as for Star Trek science its absolute lobbocks with the odd sciency word thrown in to make it sound good:
i.e. Treknobabble...
I've never said anything quite that bad, but I have waffled on for ages, sometimes cause I can't remember, sometimes cause I've done the same boring mechanical job for a thousand other people and they've all asked me the same question... So I have to do something to have a bit of fun 
.
"Why are you replacing that circuit board in my monitor?"
"cause they have a tendency to explode, and can cause deadly shrapnel!"
and A certain two people should be enjoying a certain film by now...
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.
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soooo hungry.................need food................................anything will do..............even marmite!
edit: I heart nerds..and geeks...and dorks! not so much the dweebs though.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
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"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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*sends TWG a crate of her favorite food stuffed with her second favorite*
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.
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PBJ and a tall, frosty glass of milk. Not anything fancy, mind you, but it hits the spot and all that.
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I can see you.
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PBJ.....yum!
Citizen, very thoughtful of you.
So....the J....what kind? Jake insists on grape. i'm more of a strawberry girl myslef. When I can afford it, i splurge on boysenberry or bing cherry.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
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"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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*tries to stuff PBJ with a glass of milk for SpinLand*
*fails*
Ewww, now I'm covered in crud...
Q: What do you have when you are holding two little green balls in your hand.
A: Kermit's undivided attention.
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I'm for blueberry, but strawberry is #2. Anne's the other way: strawberry's on top in her book. We pick both kinds of berries every summer and make up a batch of jam from each.
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I can see you.
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