Okay, so everyone and their dog has used that cheesy headline to blog about the new Firefly movie. So sue me. I can't be witty and creative every time out of the blocks.
The movie itself was a big ol' ball of fun. Yes, there were some times where it felt episodic, and a scene or two that had a series television vibe going, but overall it gets a big thumbs up from me. This movie shows that space opera doesn't have to be big explosions and nonsensical plot twists. There was a wit and an intelligence to Serenity that is invariably lacking in most big SF action films. The characters were well-drawn (granted, having a TV show to rely on makes the writing job a bit easier in this instance) and the dialogue was snappy and had some clever turns of phrases.
I knew there were two major deaths going into the film, and the first one didn't surprise me at all. There are some sub-plot elements with the character left over from the series and hinted at in the film that I wonder if will ever be addressed (assuming Firefly continues on in some incarnation), but it fit the story and overall it worked. The second death was unexpected, and definitely not one of the characters I'd thought would bite it. And the more I think about it, the more I think it was a strategic mistake on Joss Whedon's part. The only purpose the death served was to warn the audience that anyone could die at any time--that nobody was safe. Yet this was already established with the preceeding death. The second death sort of blows past in the rush of events. There's no catharsis, no emotional resonance and no plot motivation derived from it. It's essentially shock for shock's sake, and that same impact could've been accomplished by a grevious wound--which many of the surviving characters suffer shortly thereafter in various fashions.
And for all the good things and smart writing that went into this space opera, there was one throwaway line that made me groan. According to the backstory presented in the film, all the events--the Alliance worlds, the civil war, the frontier worlds, Reaver space--all take place in a single solar system. A solar system with literally dozens of habitable worlds, orbiting a single star. Now, they did do some hand-waving to explain this by saying there was a lot of terraforming involved, but there is no amount of terraforming that will make Jupiter or Pluto suitable for human habitation. It's silly. It's dumb. It's dumb on the level of the Vegan star system from the Omega Men comic series. Scattering these worlds out among a cluster of stars would be a great deal more plausible (even accepting the base absurdity of FTL--that's become an accepted form of the genre). But clustering more than a dozen terrestrial planets in between the orbits of Mars and Venus? That's downright lunatic!
Still, I fixate on details like that. The movie itself is good fun. Go see it the first chance you get.
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I agree with you on that second death's being a miscalculation. It just felt wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who hasn't seen the film, consider this a spoiler warning.
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Bill, I was utterly flummoxed by Wash's death. I knew Gina Torres wasn't dying because of interviews and stuff I'd seen in advance. I did know Book was a goner. I'd actually though River or Simon would bite it because 1) River's so dangerous and powerful, the inclination in Hollywood is to eliminate that element to make storytelling easier, 2) Simon is just a boring, whiney character. After that I suspected Inara or Kaylee might die, simply because I'd heard they didn't have much to do in the flick, so hey, bump off the cute women.
But Wash? Wash was the steady background character constantly flummoxed by events beyond his control. He worked as both the straight man and the comic relief. The dynamic he had with his wife made her character more than just a hard-edged female thug, and was unique in media SF. Sure, his death upset her, but her character didn't change or evolve because of it. Her anger got the better of her during the Reaver attack. Big deal. That didn't impact the outcome any.
Big, big mistake on Whedon's part. Offing Simon would've been more interesting in regard to future potential storylines (which may or may not happen), since Mal's now got to deal with River directly, without her brother acting as intermediary.
Shepherd Book's death wasn't surprising, but it is puzzling. In the series it's mentioned several times (and in the film as well) that he wasn't always a Shepherd. In one episode, he's severely injured and near death, so that Mal takes him to an Alliance base for medical treatment. The Alliance folk are about to throw them all out when they run an ID scan on Book and abruptly do a 180--offering him all sorts of advanced treatment. The implications are that Book was once a high muckety-muck in the Alliance with a great deal of blood on his hands, and he's on a pilgrimmage to redeem his soul as a Shepherd. Pity we'll never get to see that resolved--at least not with Book playing an active role.