Friday, September 30, 2005

Serene

The long-term reader of this blog will have picked up that I am enthusiastic, verging on evangelical, about the work of Joss Whedon. Sure, 'Angel' was largely lacklustre, and I wasn't very impressed by the script for 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire', but I was a devoted fan of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (watching it with friends every week by gothic candlelight) and deeply enamoured with 'Firefly'... what little there was of it. So when the movie version of 'Firefly' opened yesterday, I was there with my fellow Firies, almost giddy with glee.


It'd be hard to properly review the film without including spoilers. Suffice to say, I wish I was a woman so that I could have Joss Whedon's love child.


'Serenity' was perfect. It was Whedon at his finest, full of that unique blend of sassy humour and heart-clenching fear that shone out of all of the best episodes of 'Buffy', 'Angel' and 'Firefly'. I could go on like a drooling fanboy about the marvellous characters, the masterful use of sound-effects to convey information instead of showing it, and the intelligent economy of the storytelling (one scene consists of a shot of a man approaching a woman, and a shot of the woman's face, and it tells you everything you need to know, wordlessly and in maybe five seconds, about what's going on), but I doubt I could do it without a) spoilers and b) embarrassing myself.


The cleverest thing about it was that it managed to wrap up most of the important issues from the TV series, so that I will be satisfied even if another peek into that universe is never offered, but at the same time it left room for sequels, should the film company wish to cough up another $40 million. And of course, I hope they do.

2 Comments:

Blogger MC Etcher said...

I'm still undecided about Mr. Wedon... Have you seen these shirts? Right up your alley!

11:39 PM  
Blogger Laziest Girl said...

I thought it was a great film - I liked they way that the plot was more character-driven than most films of this genre. Those Reavers were scary fuckers though - I nearly jumped out of my seat at one point. It was also very suspenseful - I think I held my breath for about half of it.

6:26 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home