Defending Joss Whedon
POSTED BY: Funnylinguist
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 21:24
VIEWED: 4761
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Can't help but notice there seems to be a fair amount of whining out there about the demise of certain beloved characters in the movie Serenity.
All I can say is, get a life kids!
As a jaded, cynical, misanthropic writer, I was spending August covering the 2005 Edinburgh Film Festival for a small UK journal when I attended the press screening of Serenity, shortly before it's world premiere. I'd never seen an episode of the Firefly TV show, was unfamiliar with the characters and the Universe they inhabit and to be honest having read in the Festival programme that the movie was a TV spin-off I was fearing the worst.
However the film grabs you from the start, pitching you headlong into the action. Lean, intelligent, adult and funny, it hits the ground running and doesn't let up for 2 hours. I knew I was experiencing something special when I realised that the audience, made up mostly of jaded hacks and critics like myself were watching in silence, enthralled by the movie. Trust me, if you've ever been to a Scottish press screening, you'll know how rare that is.
Whedon has managed to deliver a film that isn't afraid to shake off the dust of TV (where it was killed off; consigned to the garbage dump of history where it could have kept Enterprise and Baywatch Nights company for the rest of eternity) and succeed on it's own merits as a stand-alone movie (something that the Star Trek movies never achieved). The movie blew me away, prompting me to seek out the series on DVD and as far as I'm concerned Whedon has made a film that's able to satisfy his core cult audience of fans whilst still appealing to wider audience completely ignorant of the show.
Every Festival screening of the film sold out within hours of the film's inclusion in the programme, with fans coming from across the globe for the premiere (and judging by the sobs at the press screenings, I think a few fans might have snuck in there too). At a Q&A session later that week, Whedon received the kinda hysterical reception usually reserved for rock stars and George Clooney, with one American woman paying £210 (about $400US) for a £7 ticket.
The reaction amongst audiences at Edinburgh wasn't just positive, it was ecstatic, and while some of the more die-hard fans may have mourned the loss of their favourite characters, they were unanimous in their praise of both the movie and Whedon.
It would have been far too easy to play it safe and just retread the TV series with one big happy, multiethnic family of space cowboys bumbling from one cosy big-screen adventure to the next until they became as tired and familiar (not to mention tubby) as the Star Trek cast. By treating his characters (and his audience) so ruthlessly, Whedon's made the time we spend with them all the more precious and served notice that out there on the Rim, it ain't safe, it ain't cosy and anything can happen.
Serenity Rocks! And I for one think we should thank Joss Whedon for that.
But if you're still bitching about the film killing off characters that Joss created himself....don't worry. I'm sure you'll still be able to dress up as them at sci-fi conventions and that your limited social life will hardly be affected.
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Dude! Please put a spoiler warning in the topic title! Not everyone has seen the movie.
"Invader's blood marches through my veins like giant radioactive rubber pants. The pants command me! Do not ignore my veins!"
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Please mark this as a spoiler thread.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
---
"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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Thank you. Well Said.
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Excellent. "Ruthless" is an apt description.
"Be ashamed to die before you have scored some victory for humanity." -- Horace Mann
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Thank you for this post.
I couldn't agree more. Except maybe the last paragraph. It is a little harsh, (shall we say... 'ruthless'?)
*~*~*
"Your toes are in the sand."
"And your head's up your..."
"Hey!"
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Quote:
Originally posted by CallMeAth:
Dude! Please put a spoiler warning in the topic title! Not everyone has seen the movie.
The reason there's no spoiler warning in the topic title is I don't actually spoil anything....
I've always worked under the assumption that a spoiler is a fact that, once revealed, spoils the movie for any potential, future audience. Like revealing the chick in The Crying Game is actually that guy from Stargate.
At no time do I reveal which (or how many) characters die nor do I reveal any major plot points. However that information is freely available in several of the other posts on this site, not to mention within posts on the IMDB and Ain't it Cool websites, and since seeing the film in August, I've found complete shooting scripts on the Net.
As I mentioned while saying my piece, I wasn't a fan of the show until I saw the film (hell, I ordered the series on Amazon that very night) but I have been reviewing films for a couple of years and with the exception of Catherine Breillat’s Anatomy of Hell (which sucks, believe me) I've never expressly revealed details of a film's content (and in my defence, even then I only pointed out the laugh-out-loud potential of one of the film's more repellant sex acts).
In fact, I was motivated to post after reading one or two rather churlish posts on this site which in my opinion reveal far too much about the film and are the work of disgruntled individuals (who quite possibly rarely leave their bedrooms) determined to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it.
My post was merely an attempt to redress the balance and I apologise if I inadvertantly revealed too much for you. By the way, the chick in The Crying Game is that dude in the pyramid in Stargate....
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word.
"It's about how much freedom you can take away from somebody before they either fold or fight," Whedon says. "It's about the right to be wrong and the nature of human beings, that they need the freedom to be wrong. That they cannot be made to be better or perfect."--Joss Whedon on Serenity
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It wasn't for my sake that I asked for the spoiler warning. I saw it back in July. However, there are many people here who don't want to know ANYTHING about the movie, and it's for their sake that I asked.
As for the your first post, I agree completely.
"Invader's blood marches through my veins like giant radioactive rubber pants. The pants command me! Do not ignore my veins!"
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Quote:
Originally posted by Funnylinguist:
Can't help but notice there seems to be a fair amount of whining out there about the demise of certain beloved characters in the movie Serenity.
All I can say is, get a life kids!
As a jaded, cynical, misanthropic writer, I was spending August covering the 2005 Edinburgh Film Festival for a small UK journal when I attended the press screening of Serenity, shortly before it's world premiere. I'd never seen an episode of the Firefly TV show, was unfamiliar with the characters and the Universe they inhabit and to be honest having read in the Festival programme that the movie was a TV spin-off I was fearing the worst.
However the film grabs you from the start, pitching you headlong into the action. Lean, intelligent, adult and funny, it hits the ground running and doesn't let up for 2 hours. I knew I was experiencing something special when I realised that the audience, made up mostly of jaded hacks and critics like myself were watching in silence, enthralled by the movie. Trust me, if you've ever been to a Scottish press screening, you'll know how rare that is.
Whedon has managed to deliver a film that isn't afraid to shake off the dust of TV (where it was killed off; consigned to the garbage dump of history where it could have kept Enterprise and Baywatch Nights company for the rest of eternity) and succeed on it's own merits as a stand-alone movie (something that the Star Trek movies never achieved). The movie blew me away, prompting me to seek out the series on DVD and as far as I'm concerned Whedon has made a film that's able to satisfy his core cult audience of fans whilst still appealing to wider audience completely ignorant of the show.
Every Festival screening of the film sold out within hours of the film's inclusion in the programme, with fans coming from across the globe for the premiere (and judging by the sobs at the press screenings, I think a few fans might have snuck in there too). At a Q&A session later that week, Whedon received the kinda hysterical reception usually reserved for rock stars and George Clooney, with one American woman paying £210 (about $400US) for a £7 ticket.
The reaction amongst audiences at Edinburgh wasn't just positive, it was ecstatic, and while some of the more die-hard fans may have mourned the loss of their favourite characters, they were unanimous in their praise of both the movie and Whedon.
It would have been far too easy to play it safe and just retread the TV series with one big happy, multiethnic family of space cowboys bumbling from one cosy big-screen adventure to the next until they became as tired and familiar (not to mention tubby) as the Star Trek cast. By treating his characters (and his audience) so ruthlessly, Whedon's made the time we spend with them all the more precious and served notice that out there on the Rim, it ain't safe, it ain't cosy and anything can happen.
Serenity Rocks! And I for one think we should thank Joss Whedon for that.
But if you're still bitching about the film killing off characters that Joss created himself....don't worry. I'm sure you'll still be able to dress up as them at sci-fi conventions and that your limited social life will hardly be affected.
Hi Funny and thanks for a delightful post. I am one of the biggest crybabies here, crying over you know who, especially. But I have to say I very much appreciate the insight your post reveals about those potential fans out there who have never heard of Firefly.
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing the movie as yet but I'm very excited because we're getting short! If the movie was so great it made you run out and buy the DVD's then hoorah for Joss! I'm happy for him and other's here have told me that the movie will make me feel better about what happened as well. At any rate, having read your post, I feel better than I did. Thanks for sharing.
And I'm thinking you weren't burdened with an over-abundance of schooling. Mal, Train Job
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