(no subject)
And lo I saw Serenity last night. And lo I used an LJ cut like all good LJers.
I didn't like it.
I know, I know, it's by Joss Whedon, god of good TV, it's Firefly, that great show we all love. I has to be good right?
I think it suffered from the Hitchhiker's syndrome, you just can't squeeze an entire introduction to the Firefly universe, the complex web of characters, the long-running themes and a good story for those who've already seen it into a film. As such the plot was somewhat sucky and predicable with holes you could herd a reaver battle fleet through.
The style was good though, very much in the darker manner of the pilot and it took the show to a very dark conclusion.
I'd be happy if they didn't make a sequel. I'm not sure how you could resurrect the show unless you retconed out much of the film's plot. A spinoff would be good.
Anywho to summerise:
Stuff I liked:
* Wash's death. That was unforeseen and genuinely had me wondering how many of the crew would survive. A very nice piece of writing there.
* The very dark place where they started. It was obvious that the ship and the crew were falling apart and was thoroughly believable.
* River kicking arse.
* Simon rescuing River. That scene was a very nice opening.
* The operative. One of the better bad guys I've seen.
* Reaver serenity and Mal going seriously bad-ass.
* The "No grenades!" introduction
* Simon/Kaylee
* "Of course I am wearing body armour, I'm not a complete moron!"
Stuff I didn't like:
* Shepard Book's death. Cliched to hell and back.
* The whole reaver plot, including the cliched and formulaic manner in which it was revealed.
* Mr. Plotdevice, who utters the movie's tag-line early on just in case you thought that a stereotypical two dimensional character with a massive personality deficit for the amount screen-time he gets might actually be anything else.
* Showdown on a precarious ledge with pointless chains. Because that's never been done before.
* Hero defeats the bad guy's special move though sheer dumb luck which no one could ever see coming rather than through any particular virtue.
* The necessity to have people scream Mal's inner demons at him because there's not enough time to explore them properly in a subtle manner.
* Since when do Alliance troops ask for authorisation to shoot people already at gun-point?
* Jayne getting more continuous dialog than he's had for 14 episodes simply in order to hold a socratic musing with Kaylee over the nature of reavers. That plot exposition was just painful.
I didn't like it.
I know, I know, it's by Joss Whedon, god of good TV, it's Firefly, that great show we all love. I has to be good right?
I think it suffered from the Hitchhiker's syndrome, you just can't squeeze an entire introduction to the Firefly universe, the complex web of characters, the long-running themes and a good story for those who've already seen it into a film. As such the plot was somewhat sucky and predicable with holes you could herd a reaver battle fleet through.
The style was good though, very much in the darker manner of the pilot and it took the show to a very dark conclusion.
I'd be happy if they didn't make a sequel. I'm not sure how you could resurrect the show unless you retconed out much of the film's plot. A spinoff would be good.
Anywho to summerise:
Stuff I liked:
* Wash's death. That was unforeseen and genuinely had me wondering how many of the crew would survive. A very nice piece of writing there.
* The very dark place where they started. It was obvious that the ship and the crew were falling apart and was thoroughly believable.
* River kicking arse.
* Simon rescuing River. That scene was a very nice opening.
* The operative. One of the better bad guys I've seen.
* Reaver serenity and Mal going seriously bad-ass.
* The "No grenades!" introduction
* Simon/Kaylee
* "Of course I am wearing body armour, I'm not a complete moron!"
Stuff I didn't like:
* Shepard Book's death. Cliched to hell and back.
* The whole reaver plot, including the cliched and formulaic manner in which it was revealed.
* Mr. Plotdevice, who utters the movie's tag-line early on just in case you thought that a stereotypical two dimensional character with a massive personality deficit for the amount screen-time he gets might actually be anything else.
* Showdown on a precarious ledge with pointless chains. Because that's never been done before.
* Hero defeats the bad guy's special move though sheer dumb luck which no one could ever see coming rather than through any particular virtue.
* The necessity to have people scream Mal's inner demons at him because there's not enough time to explore them properly in a subtle manner.
* Since when do Alliance troops ask for authorisation to shoot people already at gun-point?
* Jayne getting more continuous dialog than he's had for 14 episodes simply in order to hold a socratic musing with Kaylee over the nature of reavers. That plot exposition was just painful.