(I was joking the other day about how nearly every article I’ve read about the new Joss Whedon movie Serenity somehow incorporates the phrase “serenity now!” in the headline… and now here I am hopping on the bandwagon. Oh well.)
Thanks to Ahe’s mini-review of Serenity earlier in my blog, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the movie’s release. I wasn’t a hardcore-enough fan to go see it opening night, but I did catch it this afternoon, and I must say that I thoroughly loved it.
I am curious, however, about the reaction of people who didn’t watch Firefly the television show. While the movie does, for the most part, stand on its own, as Ahe noted:
… you don’t need to have seen the series to understand what’s going on, although, it does help… especially since two of the characters are basically no longer part of the crew… you understand who they *were* and why they matter.
There are two deaths in the film. One of them was ho-hum for me, but the second one was a pretty big deal. And I’m not sure that the second one would have been a big deal had I not known that person via the television show. (The first character’s death is somewhat expected since that character was pretty minor in the television show, as well.)
Slate had an article the other day, “Joss Whedon: Why he should stick to television,” that I must say I agree with wholeheartedly. Although that headline sorta suggests that the writer (Seth Stevenson) thought Serenity sucked, that’s not the case. Like Ahe’s point above, Stevenson notes that without the emotional background given by the television show, the movie isn’t quite the same.
In one of the last posts on my old website, I wrote about “The Joys of Mythology.” Here are some relevant excerpts:
the deeper and more complex something is, the more rewarding it is to be totally immersed in it… david lynch has said that he loves doing television shows (despite the fact that they always get canceled [see twin peaks, on the air, and hotel room]) because he doesn’t like the two or three hour time you have in films. he likes to create the universe and play there. he likes the stories.
Basically, I wish that filmmakers like Whedon and Lynch would follow Stevenson’s advice and, rather than make films in which they have to cut out a lot of richness, tried pitching some ideas to HBO or something instead of ruthless networks that cancel their shows prematurely and without mercy. As much as I loved the film version of Mulholland Drive, I cannot help but wonder what would’ve happened in the world Lynch created had ABC picked up the pilot. (Back story: Mulholland Drive originally started off as a pilot television show — approximately the first hour-and-a-half/two-hours of the movie. After ABC decided they didn’t want the show, the French company Canal Plus decided to give Lynch the money he needed to finish the film.)
Since it’s too late for shows like Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, I guess the best we can hope for are more movies. Things were left pretty wide open at the end of Serenity, and I am willing to bet that Whedon is already working on a sequel (now let’s hope that the film makes enough money to convince the studios that it’d be a worthwhile investment).
So I would recommend checking out Serenity — even if you haven’t watched Firefly. After seeing the movie I can almost guarantee that you will want to go back and checkout the series on DVD. The two together create an emotionally rich and complex world that is truly worth experiencing.
