serenity: spoiler-free.
For about the first, 5/6 of the movie I was having periodic fits of, 'No wonder uninitiated critics are bitching about this.' It does feel just like you were dumped in the middle of a TV series.
I really got the feeling that they simply didn't have enough computer-generation funds to hold the wide/panoramic explanatory shots, or to set the color and tone and texture every shot (this, possibly just the photography geek in me), or to give as rich/layered an orchestratic score to the whole film (though that did bring the dialogue to the fore; I'd just really liked the music in Serenity, and film tends to work music even harder).
As a result, the introduction of the setting, story premise, characters flew by a series of too-quick but extremely clever transitions. Throughout, we spent a lot of time in tight frame though the characters' bodies and fancy futuristic settings should have been doing a lot of talking too. Remember how small and vaguely incomplete Buffy felt, with the superheroes keeping headquarters in a highschool library that was about 1/4 the size of real highschool library? Hardly kills the story, but felt like a TV episode, that's what I mean. That damn budget; the same thing that's keeping advertising compaigns so low.
Throughout the first half or so, it occured and reoccured to me that Whedon was trying -- really trying to narrate his story in such a way that the uninitiated wouldn't be lost. I also felt that he largely succeeded.
And once I got past all the technical drivel that no one else notices anyway--
Right now, my soul is utterly crushed. I feel literally sick with grief, I am so impressed. My roommate was literally sobbing when we left the theatre. Shiny spaceship stories aren't supposed to hurt you this good. D:
10/10;;;;;;;
I really got the feeling that they simply didn't have enough computer-generation funds to hold the wide/panoramic explanatory shots, or to set the color and tone and texture every shot (this, possibly just the photography geek in me), or to give as rich/layered an orchestratic score to the whole film (though that did bring the dialogue to the fore; I'd just really liked the music in Serenity, and film tends to work music even harder).
As a result, the introduction of the setting, story premise, characters flew by a series of too-quick but extremely clever transitions. Throughout, we spent a lot of time in tight frame though the characters' bodies and fancy futuristic settings should have been doing a lot of talking too. Remember how small and vaguely incomplete Buffy felt, with the superheroes keeping headquarters in a highschool library that was about 1/4 the size of real highschool library? Hardly kills the story, but felt like a TV episode, that's what I mean. That damn budget; the same thing that's keeping advertising compaigns so low.
Throughout the first half or so, it occured and reoccured to me that Whedon was trying -- really trying to narrate his story in such a way that the uninitiated wouldn't be lost. I also felt that he largely succeeded.
And once I got past all the technical drivel that no one else notices anyway--
Right now, my soul is utterly crushed. I feel literally sick with grief, I am so impressed. My roommate was literally sobbing when we left the theatre. Shiny spaceship stories aren't supposed to hurt you this good. D:
10/10;;;;;;;