10:02 PM
Last night, Annie and I went to see the big-screen treatment of the FIREFLY teevee show, SERENITY. What a fantastic movie. The story had all the oh-gee-whiz of science fiction with a decent art-director, special-efx budget, but it wasn't as mind-numbingly jarring, frenetic and ... comic as the Star Wars/Star Trek flicks. You get the feeling that they aren't trying to sell a toy line here, but tell a decent story instead. Firefly (the show) was always about the writing and the characters, and Serenity is definitely all about that-- Josh Whedon's unique signature is all over this picture. I found myself caring for the characters in a way that was unique for most science fiction films, or genre films in general.
I made a supreme mental effort to not read any online comments about the movie and spoil it for myself, so I won't be doing that here. Suffice to say the entire cast is back (though not all of them make it, sadly-- the movie ends on a downer). The interplay was as good as the show, but two characters, Inara and the Shephard, show up on the sidelines for some reason (maybe other commitments?).
The character of River is vastly expanded from the vacant, semi-drooling child of the series and she even has a few comical moments. As the commercials indicate, the movie is focused around her, so the writers had to greatly expand her role. She's quite proficient in a fight as it turns out.
The rest of the cast is not quite so developed,except for Mal Reynolds (a no-brainer), who is still noble (and pretending not to be), still complex, but not quite as funny as he was in the show. Everybody else seems to be around to get him out of trouble. Chiwetel Ejiofor is chilling, yet honorable, as the nameless bad guy. My favorite character, Jayne the mercenary, got some good lines... "hey, wouldn't this be a good time to have a grendade?"
I was impressed that the film earned rousing audience applause on two occassions-- the first time when the blasts doors open up and you see River after the big fight (sorry, can't give any more details than that) and at the end of the movie. I haven't been in a movie that was applauded in a long, long time. I sincerely hope that Josh Whedon follows this one up with another.
