Serenity: Three Times and Counting (spoilers)
So, I've seen Serenity three times now. Each time, I've liked it better (and I liked it a good deal the first time 'round). It really is a movie that rewards repeat viewing. The first time around, it's near to overwhelming. Well, I lie, actually. It is overwhelming. My whelm was definitely spilling way above the line. Torturing of the language aside, Serenity was even better the second time. I understood what River was talking about, which was fun, and I wasn't shocked by Wash's death. Okay, I was gripping jic's hand really tightly during that part, but this is understandable.
By the third time, I could finally wallow in the massive coolness of having Firefly up there on the big screen (okay, still needed some hand-holding in that battle, but Wash dies! This is cause for needing hand-holding.). This time around, I saw just how the barnswallow happened in the beginning of the movie, and just how Serenity twisted about at the end of that space battle thus leaving Wash vulnerable to the Reaver harpoon.
I was impressed at how Joss really did make Serenity a life-changing event for every single member of the crew. Wash and Book both die without finishing their stories, but still showing just why they were so very needed. And Wash's death is the only thing that could have given Zoe a character-shift, so that actually makes quite a bit of sense (Wash's death, Mal's death, or having a baby, really, but only one of those is plausible in the type of movie that Joss was making). Both River and Simon's lives change dramatically when she gets to Miranda and sees just what's been inside her head. And it makes sense of why Simon couldn't help her in the series -- he was 'going up the downslide', to quote River herself. He was trying to take her backwards, back to being who she'd been before, and to heal her that way, but that's impossible. You have to go forward, to the new place. She had to integrate what she'd seen and what they'd done to her into who she was. Now, Simon can reach for a touch of happiness his own self. Which leads to Kaylee, getting battle-brave for the sake of sex. And seeing Inara with that much lighter, simpler look at the end was just breathtaking. She looked gorgeous, prettier than when she's all made-up in dark reds. And then Jayne. "When you can't do something smart, do something right." He and Book really did have a neat work-out buddy friendship on the show, so Book's death was a huge deal for him, too.
Of course, Mal got to be a rebel again. He's a rebel again, instead of an outlaw, a petty crook. Being a crook never suited Mal -- Inara points that out in Shindig. "You don't get along with regular criminals, either," she tells him. Again, in the movie, the brothers tell us that Mal, "Run[s] when [he] ought to fight, fight[s] when [he] ought to deal." Niska said that Mal was "an extraordinary man" and we see that, in War Stories, where he keeps Wash alive and aware. We see that in the loyalty that he inspires from Zoe, the love he inspires from Kaylee, the fascination that Inara has with him. This is a man who can withstand enormous amounts of physical pain, who gets beaten up but always rises again (showcased in both the movie and in War Stories).
God, that's so hot.
Sorry, sorry, I just... need a moment.
On new things: I loved Fanty and Mingo, partly because it's always a treat to hear Mal call a guy 'pretty'. I also loved Mr. Universe. Giddish love for him. He's clearly a lonely, emotionally stunted kind of kid. He reminded me a bit of Tracey, actually. Quite a bit, though clearly much smarter (*pets her poor, dead Tracey*). Not sure why. Just a vibe, I suppose. And I loved his last line as himself, "Toss me my thirty pieces of coin" is both an obvious and appropriate allusion to Judas betraying Jesus, and then he goes on to say, "But I gotta tell you-" but the Operative kills him before he can finish and I'm really interested in what he was going to say. Mr. Universe clearly believed that Mal would make it past those Alliance troops somehow (since he left a message on his lovebot). That and the possible 'sir', do make me wonder if Mr. Universe was one of Mal's soldiers from the war, like Tracey. One of the four hundred (?) that he kept alive after the end of it.
And then, there is the Operative. I love him. From the first time I saw the movie, I loved this character. It started when he said, "We're making a better world. All of them, better worlds." And he just sounded... distant and vaguely regretful. He knows that he's does evil things, but believes that the ends justify the means. It's an easy argument to buy into, if you go slowly enough. A practical man can easily fall into that line of thinking, the way Mal did near the beginning of the movie, pushing that man off the Mule because he'd slow them down. The end of escape justified the means of what amounted to murder. Mal judged getting that money to his ship to be more important than a man's life. Ends and means are a thing that I find very interesting. Mostly because I'm with Season Five Buffy on the subject. I believe that no end is worth the means of the murder of even one innocent life. There is no goal bright and shiny enough to justify that, not in my mind. Saving one life is as vital and true as saving a million. Killing one innocent is no greater crime than slaughtering millions.
On this particular point, I have a rather... inflexible morality.
But I also believe that people can change, and that this makes a difference (witness my warming to Spike, post-soul). At the end of the movie, the Operative calls for his men to stand down. Makes amends to the crew in the best way that he can. And he has three choices laid out before him -- revenge, repentence, or oblivion. He can try to take down Parliment, he could turn Shepherd in his own way, or he can fall on his sword. Any way he chooses, he poses no threat to Mal and to Mal's people, not anymore. The audience never sees just what the Reaver does to the captain (researcher?) in the vid. But we can guess, from what Zoe said in the pilot episode, from what the woman said herself. They don't just kill. They eat human flesh, they rape, they desecrate. And the Operative watched, watched what a supposed 'better world' created out of an innocent person, the kind of person that he wanted a better world for. Thirty worlds watched. Wouldn't destroy the Alliance, of course, but I do believe that it would have an effect on the landscape, as Mal would say.
Yeah, I really want to see the movie again.
Many thanks to the people on my flist who had timeline thoughts. I'm leaning on the side of Joss not having the best math in the 'verse, as is common with writers. Though repeated viewings of everything in order may help me on figuring things.