What would you have done? SPOILER WARNING

POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 11:04
VIEWED: 5036
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SIGNYM

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 1:35 PM

I was speaking w/ an avid movie-goer who saw Serenity on my say-so, and she expressed a certain amount of puzzlement about the movie. What she said was that the movie spent a fair bit of time developing the characters and then

SPOILER WARNING (Sorry, should have done this earlier)

turned them into caricatures when it veered into being an action sci-fi. Which led me think (once again) about the limitations of the movie format, the expectations of financial backers, and THEIR view of the average movie-going audience. (ie wanting to see things go "boom" and unable to handle ambiguity.)

LAST CHANCE

Select to view spoiler:

That led me to think about the plot itself- River is being hunted by the interplanetary Parliament because she knows of a secret failed experiment to pacify society, and that Serenity uses Reavers to help defeat the Alliance while neutralizing the threat to River by publicizing the secret. *takes deep breath*

I ain't got a problem with the plot as laid out. What I DO have a problem with is the "scale" of the forces involved: The ENTIRE parliament, a host of Reavers, a fleet of Alliance ships, the future of politics. It would have been far more believeable- and I think it would have made a better and more complex film- to scale down the nature of the problem: The experiment was created by a rougue element w/in Parliament. The Operative didn't represent the entire Parliamant, just this rogue element. Mr Universe isn't s super whiz-bang genius who can do anything, but a guy who an in some SOME communication channels. Only a few Reaver and Alliance ships were involved.

Once the nature of the problem is scaled down, it gives the film room to move. You could hint, for example, that Parliament actually had two competing covert programs: chemical pacification, and psychic prediction. Mr Universe may (or may not) be part of the group that sprang River. The Parliament- like all governments- has both honest and dishonest members. The Operative could have seen that his boss was simply corrupt, but still have faith in "the system". The action by the crew of Serenity is just one battle in an ongoing struggle. That way, some of the more egregiously unrealistic elements (River triumphing over a couple of dozen Reavers) could have bee avoided., and I think it would have brought the movie back to human scale and put the characters front and center.

Once you've saved the solar system where do you go form there?

So... given the requirements of successful/ popular film-making, what would YOU have done with "Serenity"?

Please don't think they give a shit.

SHIRLOCKC

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 1:54 PM

I think you should post spoiler in the title.

I have same/similar issues with the BDM, which I posted elsewhere. Much as I liked the movie and trust Joss, I can't help but wondering why the parliment didn't take care of the Miranda problem. If they could send the Operative with loadsa backup to hunt one little girl, surely they could send similar OPs to clean up the Reavers and Miranda. Yes, I know they were denying the existence of Reavers and yes, I know that the more who know the harder it is to keep a secret, but they mobolized a fleet of ships for one little girl. How secret is that? The Operative was hardly secretive with the other officers about his purpose. The very least would be to send one team to nuke/find the origin of the signal that the parliment received, ie., the one on Miranda. Obviously, someone transmitted it from somewhere and if the Serenity crew could find it so could others.

Then there is the cryptic "the Tams are no longer a threat." Why would the Operative believe this? He knows that the problem is River's psychic abilities. If she gleaned one secret surely she knows more. The Operative may have given up his beliefs but he's too intelligent to think that River is no longer a threat. Unless it was a subtle warning to Mal ...

STATIC

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 2:01 PM

Here's something folks are missing. . .and it's a result from 'over-thinking' everything.

Remember, as the audience, we are the "Gods". . .we see and know EVERYTHING.

The reason the Operative was sent was because...

"KEY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT." were in the same room as River.

NOONE really knew what it was River knew, if she knew ANYTHING. They just knew that some dumbass had put people who POSESSED secrets in the same room as a psychic. The Operative was a 'just in case' scenario.

Stop over-thinking it.

http://burstsofstatic.blogspot.com

GWEK

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 2:09 PM

I've seen "Serenity" five times now, each time with different people, and I don't think that the fault lies with the movie, but with the marketing.

Unfortunately, there's no way to pitch a movie like "Serenity" to the masses without comparing it to "Star Wars," and "Star Wars" has not been particularly well-received for the past few years. This week, I head radio ads that described "Serenity" as something like "A hipper, edgier throwback to the original Star Wars movies." Even though the quote didn't exist before the movie, that idea should've been the core of their marketing campaign. Heck, to the layman, the whole thing can be largely summed up as "Han Solo: The Series."

Like I said, I saw it five times, with a number of people including hardcore fans, casual fans, folks who'd only seen an episode or two, and the totally uninitiated. And, hey, EVERYONE WHO SAW IT LIKED IT. Many of them loved it.

I think changing the reducing the scale would have hurt the movie, actually, from a movie standpoint, anyway. I know I was concerned when I saw read some spoilers because the truth behind the Reavers isn't as visceral as, say, the Death Star, so why should people care?

Our intrepid anti-heroes don't actually save the solar system, but they get a terrible truth out there. If they had done something less, why would any movie-going audience give a damn? Where's the stake?

One one level, the movie is about Mal regaining his faith, and his opposite number, the Operative, LOSING his. If you scale things back, you take that away.

While there are certainly minor adjustments that could have been made (and everyone will differ on what these are), for Whedon to tell the story he wanted to, and keep it true for the fans AND give it a shot with a larger audience, I don't think he really could've done it any other way.

THELURKER

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 2:27 PM

Quote:
Yes, I know they were denying the existence of Reavers and yes, I know that the more who know the harder it is to keep a secret, but they mobolized a fleet of ships for one little girl. How secret is that? The Operative was hardly secretive with the other officers about his purpose.

The Operative knew why they were trying to stop Serenity, but who is to say that he told anyone else the reason? Those Alliance soldiers would have just done what they were told without a reason why. In other words, the Operative didn't need to reveal any secrets to the other ships/troops to carry out his mission.

Quote:
The very least would be to send one team to nuke/find the origin of the signal that the parliment received, ie., the one on Miranda. Obviously, someone transmitted it from somewhere and if the Serenity crew could find it so could others.

My understanding is that the signal was so faint that even Serenity's crew had trouble finding it. No one on the other side of Reaver space would even know it existed. As for not destroying the Reavers and Miranda, the full-scale military assault necessary to exterminate the Reavers would have been problematic due to their apparent numbers and ferocity.

Quote:
Then there is the cryptic "the Tams are no longer a threat." Why would the Operative believe this?

Who says he believes this? It's simply what he told the Parliament. That doesn't mean he believes it. We know he no longer believes Parliament is good or altruistic, so in his disillusionment, he no longer cares if River Tam is a threat to the Parliament. As he said "They might listen," which implies they may continue to pursue River.

THESOMNAMBULIST

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 2:29 PM

Static wrote:

Quote:

Here's something folks are missing. . .and it's a result from 'over-thinking' everything.

Remember, as the audience, we are the "Gods". . .we see and know EVERYTHING.

The reason the Operative was sent was because...

"KEY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT." were in the same room as River.

NOONE really knew what it was River knew, if she knew ANYTHING. They just knew that some dumbass had put people who POSESSED secrets in the same room as a psychic. The Operative was a 'just in case' scenario.

Stop over-thinking it.

I second this.

The
Somnambulist

Oh and I wouldn't have done a thing to change Joss' script.

www.cirqus.com

EMBERS

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 3:36 PM

I agree that you need to put 'Spoilers' in the title

we have a lot of Browncoats from other countries,
many people haven't had the opportunity to see the BDM yet.

JCLAST

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 3:58 PM

I also think scaling down the plot would have made it more believable. In Firefly, the Alliance struck me just as "the other." They weren't necessarily evil; they just weren't popular with most of the crew. Heck, Inarra was _for_ unification, and we all know she's not stupid.

Making the Alliance stereotypically evil in the film turned wonderful shades of grey into large patches of black and white. We always knew we'd keep following Serenity, but now they're the heroes. They used to just be the main characters living out their lives, and I'm going to miss that.

I have my issues with the film, but on the whole I enjoyed it. I just think that Joss made it a little too accessible. Maybe he catered to the least common denominator just a little too much.

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 9:38 PM

SignyM, I didn't see anything in the movie to make me know that the entire parlament is evil, I took from it that there were factions of parlament that were behind all this, and they had to operate secretly- inferring to me that some powerful people might be mad if they found out certain things...(public opinion polls are obviously gonna be important to future politicians, too)

And was that a WHOLE Alliance fleet? Yeah, there were quite a few, but come on, I have more dvd's in my closet than that. I hold that it was the contingent of Alliance ships fully trustworthy to keep this op a secret, and that they involved no ships who's commanders did not have leanings toward 'the dark side' (interplanetary Oliver North's, if you will).

So in the end, apart from letting certain folk live (I'm a softy that way), no, I wouldn't have changed a gorram thing plot or epic-wise.

Edit to add: time and subsequent consideration of character developement are fast making the BDM one of my favourites, if not my favourite movie ever...

But I woulda got Greg to do the music...Chrisisall

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 9:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Once you've saved the solar system where do you go form there?

Now, you tell a smaller story (like TNG did with Insurrection).

Or go into the tremendous emotional turmoil caused by the BDM's events and losses.
Serenity II will explore the rest of that iceberg, I have faith.

Chrisisall

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