October 3, 2005

I Saw Serenity (Twice)

First off, I saw it twice, and within a three day period, so that should tell you something.I saw it opening night with Nin, C and a friend of hers, and yesterday with Jen and Dave. We were going to see Corpse Bride, but all of us decided we wanted to see Serenity a second time instead.

I thought it was excellent. I laughed, I cried, I jumped outta my seat.

The rest of the review -- WITH SPOILERS -- is down in the extended entry. Spoilers are allowed in the comments, so you may want to avoid reading the comments section if you wish to remain pure.

.... I knew about Wash from something like six months back, so that didn't shock me as it did some people.Time wore down my inital howls of NOOOO! I wasn't expecting Book to die as well, so by the last part of the movie, I had no idea who would make it. That last stand against the Reavers reminded me of the last scene in Angel -- except with a resolution.

I thought the soundtrack was great, I enjoyed getting to know the characters a bit more, and I thought the villain of the piece was several cuts above the usual movie bad guy. I really loved the look of the movie as well. About half way through the movie, I whispered to April that I bet the Alliance was somehow responsible for Reavers, though I was thinking they were some botched experiment along the lines of what they did to River.

Posted by Ithildin at October 3, 2005 11:20 AM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE

I'm probably going again today for the 5:00 slightly-cheaper showing....

Posted by: CrankyBeach at October 3, 2005 11:45 AM

I wasn't expecting Wash to die at all. I think I swore several times after that. Like what's next, you going to bring out some kittens and light them on fire? It was a great movie, but ouch.

Posted by: erin at October 3, 2005 12:16 PM

I only saw a few Firely episodes way back when, so I wasn't as invested in the characters. However, I was very sad that Wash died like that - he was great!

We really enjoyed the movie and I think I'm going to add the Firely DVDs to my NetFlix queue.

Posted by: jen at October 3, 2005 12:28 PM

Well, after Wash was gone (I was SO SHOCKED!!), I wasn't sure that the rest of the group wouldn't be toast, as well. Man, that was tense.

I jumped a couple of times, too, like when River's face appeared at the control room window...eek!

Posted by: Princess Jami at October 3, 2005 12:29 PM

Oh, yeah, and I want to see it, again, too! :-)

Posted by: Princess Jami at October 3, 2005 12:29 PM

$5 says that Book was an Operative in his younger years. I've read some comments that there was a scene in the first part of the movie that conflicted with the show, anybody know what they were talking about? I only saw all the episodes once and couldn't pick it out.

"Been more'n a year since I had anything twixt my nethers didn't run on batteries!"

Best. Line. Ever. My mom (yes, I went with my parents ages 62 and 61, they loved it) literally spit up her Coke and giggled for 2 minutes.

Posted by: Brass at October 3, 2005 1:36 PM

The only possibility I can think of is that in the series, Simon says he hired people to break River out, but in the moive, he broke her out. Only reason that stands out was that on Friday night we showed C's friend the two part pilot, and that bit jumped out at me.

I think Book was porbably an operative, or something similar, as well.

That was indeed a funny bit! And Mal's look of horror was priceless.

Posted by: Ith at October 3, 2005 1:49 PM

I'm with you, Ith. Simon said he paid people to bring River out in cryo. In the movie he broke her out himself. In the novelization, he broke her out, and persuaded her to get into the cryo tank in the one-man ship he did the job in.

Posted by: CrankyBeach at October 3, 2005 2:56 PM

I am in the oppinion that Shepard was an operative as well, most of the people I've talked to that followed the series and saw the movie agree.

Wash dying brought out a strangled growl of horror from me in the theater, he and Jayne are my two fav characters, to kill him off just cut me deep. Shepard dying only bothered me because I wanted to know more about his background.

After Wash died I was just waiting for the rest of the crew to get killed off, kind of like one big farewell.

Posted by: Contagion at October 4, 2005 5:56 AM

I just got home from seeing it - finally!

I had successfully avoided the spoilers, except that one of the crew was going to die. I was disappointed that Book went... but then when Wash was killed, I was actually stunned. He was my favorite character... just, damn.

That was one fine movie. I'll definitely try to catch it again before it goes away.

I suppose it's too early to pre-order the DVD....

Posted by: Russ at October 16, 2005 6:57 PM