Serenity (Spoiler Free)

[willow_red]

Twelve hours ago, I was driving home from the theater after seeing the sneak preview of Serenity. The movie rocked my socks. I think it's safe to say, without hyperbole, that this will probably be the best movie I see all year.

I went with lilacwire, sea_siren, and tsubame_gaeshi, who are now the only people I can really talk to about Serenity for the next four months. I have vowed not to share spoilers because that would be evil. In the meantime, here is my generic, spoiler-free review.


I was a little nervous about how Firefly would transition to the big screen. Visually, it's fine, as are most sci-fi epics, but a lot of Joss Whedon's strengths are in multi-episode story arcs. The other problem is that a big screen movie has to cater to those who have never seen the series without boring the fans with too much rehash. That said, I had nothing to worry about. The background for the new people adds significantly to what the fans already know.

But now I'm getting ahead of myself. No actors showed up at the Denver showing, but there was a filmed statement from Joss before the movie started. Joss explained the history behind the Firefly TV series and how it ended up in a movie against all odds. However, in his typical, light-hearted way, he thanked all the fans for being there and said that we were all an important part of the movie. Therefore, if it sucks, it's all our fault! ;) He also said that he was depending on word-of-mouth advertising, so if we like the film, we should tell everyone (as I'm doing here), but if we don't like it, this is a time for quiet.

The film itself was incomplete, though I would have only barely noticed if I hadn't been told. Some of the scenes looked like they hadn't been through final cleanup and color processing and light balancing, and some of the music was placeholder stuff. Also, the credits were missing. Aside from that, it was fully edited, and the special effects were quite nice. Still no sound in space, thank you.

Now to break it down, piece by piece.

Story: Awesome, interesting, the trailer (in standard Joss practice) tells you nothing. Not only do you not want spoilers for the end; you don't want them for the middle either. The story takes twists and turns, most of which you never see coming.

Suspense: On several occasions, I did stop breathing because I was so caught up in what was going on. Joss has a great skill of leading you on in one direction, then slapping you up the side where you weren't looking.

Action: Lots of it. This movie carries an R rating, which it deserves, for violence, not the standard sex R rating. Parts are not very pretty, but they are not gratuitous either. Most of the violence is necessary to the story or character development. (You could argue in some places, but I won't get into that.)

Sci-Fi: This was a good, solid sci-fi story, complete with underlying message applicable to our own day and age. Most of all, the story is cohesive and makes sense.

Characters: Every one of them is multi-dimensional. I've been asked who has the coolest bit, but the only way I can answer is this: each person (with a couple of debatable exceptions) gets at least one moment where you say, "OMG, _______ is so freaking cool!" So yes, plenty of cool moments for everyone. And it even avoids the trap of spending too much time on one or two characters and ignoring the rest. This is an ensemble cast.

Villain: All too often, bad guys in movies fall into any of a number of traps where they just go after the good guys with no other real motivation. In Serenity, the bad guy has depth, motivation, and makes sense in his role. We may not agree with him, we may not like him, but we are able to understand him.

FX: Used where they matter, and where they add to the story, which is how it should be. Are these the best special effects I've ever seen? No. Do I care? No, really don't. They get the point across without being distracting, and that's what matters.

Dialogue: This continues to be one of Joss's strong suits. I'd love to quote some here, but I promised to be spoiler-free. Suffice to say that everyone has some good lines, I've already memorized a few, and will memorize many more with future viewings.

Angst: You know I love how Joss does angst. There is definitely some here, certainly enough to make me happy, but it isn't overly present, in case you don't like that sort of thing.

I could go on, but I'll stop here.

As part of the early preview, we filled out surveys. In accordance with what I said I'd do on mine, here is my recommendation. If you like Firefly, see this movie and you will not be disappointed. If you like Joss Whedon's other work (Buffy, Angel, Astonishing X-Men comics), see this movie. If you like science fiction, but haven't seen Firefly, you have four months to borrow, rent, or buy the DVDs and watch them before seeing this movie. Alternately, you could see the movie first, but I know you can find 14 hours in the next four months. If you like action movies, but are so-so on the sci-fi aspect, you'll still like this movie.

Go see it. Get your friends to see it. Drag in random people off the street. If Serenity is successful, there might be more movies, or maybe even another TV series.

Can't stop the signal...
(Yes, that will make sense eventually, and I have a theory about it too, but I can't share it for another four months!)