DVD: Firefly 萤火虫 - Serenity 宁静 (2005) (spoilers under the cut)
This movie never made it to the cinemas here in China. It wasn't big enough to make it into the 20 foreign movies per year quota. I loved the series Firefly and was sad when it was cancelled. I remember watching the special features on the dvd and being quite touched by how sad Joss Whedon and all the cast were. They all appeared so genuinely disappointed and sad that their beloved show had been cancelled.
I've said it before though about many shows that I like: "This show is intelligent, it is low key, it is about relationships and isn't flashy. I like it. It's sure to be cancelled.".
I was wondering when I'd ever get a chance to see it. I feel like one of the last people around to see this movie. I'm glad I read spoilers for it because I was mentally prepared and also in a way my expectations had been lowered by some of the less positive reviews.
It's quite bleak but it's also an amazingly good movie. It doesn't feel like something that's just a longer episode for a television series - it really has the look, feel and atmosphere of a suspenseful and real movie. I'm definitely going to watch it again because I really loved it.
The cover of the DVD I bought seemed to have a combination of the image and the one below. Mal's coat is a bit unfortunate. Makes him look kind of ... large.
I had read a lot of the reviews for the movie at the time it was released. One of my brother's emails was probably the most blunt:
No, they kill Shepherd (no big loss) and yeah, Wash (the pilot) unfortunately carks it.
Normally I wouldn’t tell someone..but..
It’s you. You can take it. Take the pain. Hnggh.
*grin*
My first thought when the movie started was just that it was so nice to see everyone again. The opening scene was extremely suspenseful and well-done. I was already impressed by how 'good' it looked. It wasn't a television show on a limited budget, it was a real movie! Then when we saw everyone, I started to smile because the way the series was cancelled was almost heart-breaking. I bought the series on DVD back in Hong Kong so at the time didn't know anything about its history and its cancellation, it was only after I finished it that I realised that the set I had, was all there was and there wasn't going to be anymore. I bought a box set to send to a friend and then sent my set to my brother, making two more converts to the cause.
Then as I was watching, I thought not for the first time that it's awfully weird that I'm watching a movie for a show that's already been cancelled. I wonder what happens next .... I guess they won't bring the series back but will there be another movie? I had debated whether I should watch the series again before watching Serenity given that it's been more than a year since I've watched the series. Then I thought, well technically I shouldn't have to given that this movie's also supposed to be accessible to people who haven't ever watched the series.
I loved all my usual characters. Mal I've always adored, Wash and Zoe are my second favourite followed by Jayne. During the series,, I didn't like the other characters so much. Kaylee's was always too 'cute as a button', Simon annoyingly dutiful, Book boring and both Inara and River annoying beyond belief. I'd always thought that River had watched too much Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Watching Serenity made me change my mind and come to like almost everybody - except Book who's still boring. Kaylee comes across as more mature and compassionate. Simon comes across as strong and self-sacrificing, Inara's not in it enough but I very much liked her in the movie and as for River .... wow. This is her movie. Who knew? I certainly didn't. She blew me away - Summer Glau is amazing. Not just her fighting which is always guaranteed to win me over because I'm a sucker for martial arts, but also her acting. I realise now what Joss Whedon was saying when he said that the series was cut off just as we were going to find out more about River. She wasn't being annoying or a bad actress, she was acting exactly the way River was supposed on the assumption that her full character and story arc were going to get told in full.
The acting was excellent. Nathan Fillion is always hilarious yet poignant as Mal, Gina Torres as Zoe broke my heart and Alan Tudyk was wonderful - but so doomed.... I have to admit I was shocked when he died because although I knew he died, I wasn't quite sure how he died and Zoe's reaction was just so perfect. She didn't fall apart, she kept it together but you could just see that she was dying on the inside and that part of her wanted to die as well.
Adam Baldwin as Jayne was excellent value as always. I always have to laugh at how different he is from his part in Independence Day. Although Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative was sufficiently chilling, why do evil guys always have to have British accents? Also, although he came across as chilling and evil at the beginning, towards the end he was just coming across as a bit of a loser who couldn't get the job done.
I was disappointed that there wasn't so much Chinese used in Serenity as there was in the series, but on the upside, the Mandarin pronunciation was heaps better than it was in the series and actually recognisable in most instances.
I debated whether to leave the Chinese subtitles on or off because I find them distracting. In the end, I elected to leave them on and to challenge myself further, I put it on traditional characters because I really do want to try to recognise traditional characters as well as simplified. Oh god, whoever did the Chinese translation should seriously be taken out and shot. Just a few examples:
Mal calls Simon 博士 bóshì which means doctor as in Ph.D rather than medical doctor!?!? Well it's possible that Simon has a Ph.D but I would have thought that when he calls him doctor, it's in his capacity as an MD.
"It only works on her Jayne" was translated as: "This is the only way Jayne".
"Show them the bad" was translated as "Don't move my shoulder".
More horrifyingly, sometimes the word used for 'River' was interchanged with the word used for 'Reavers'. Honestly, if you didn't speak English and you just followed the Chinese subtitles - you would get completely the wrong idea of what was going on ......
Anyway, just my 2c. I hope to watch it again soon :) As a balm for the bleakness, I watched the outtakes and they were hilarious. The actors all look like they had such a good time and when they made mistakes they were so funny about it. When I get back to Australia or if I stop by Hong Kong, I'll definitely buy the legitimate version of this dvd. Watching Joss Whedon's very emotional introduction makes you want to go out and buy several copies of the dvd just to support him. :)
Updated: My pairing of choice .... Mal & River. Sure they were about to shoot one another but she crumples unconscious to the ground and he picks her up. Then when she breaks out of her prison, he's the one who finds her - although yes again they were about to shoot one another. Then there's the final rather gorgeous scene of them together at the end talking to each other as Mal thinks he's going to fly Serenity but River does instead. It's really sweet. Sure she's kind of pyschotic, but she's on the mend and Mal gets beaten up so often that he probably needs a chick who can take care of him.
Favourite quotes
Zoë: [after breaking into a practically empty bank safe]
Zoë: At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime.
Jayne Cobb: Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?
Fanty: Do you know that girl?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I really don't.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You had a gorram time bomb living with us! Who we gonna find in there when she wakes up? The girl? Or the weapon?
Dr. Simon Tam: I thought she was getting better.
Jayne Cobb: And I thought they was getting off. Didn't we have an intricate plan on how they was gonna not be here any more?
Kaylee Frye: We couldn't leave them now.
Jayne Cobb: No, now that she's a killer woman, we ought to be bringing her tea and dumplings.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [to Inara] You spin me about.
The Operative: That girl will rain destruction down on you and your ship. She is an albatross, Captain.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [to Inara] Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.
Dr. Simon Tam: [about River] Oh, one simple job! She'll be fine!
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: She *is* fine! Except for being still crazy, she's a picture of health!
[as Serenity descends toward Lilac, a large piece breaks off of the nose with a loud bang and goes sailing past the front windscreen]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [jumping, startled] What was that?
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: [incredulous] Did you see that?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Was that the primary buffer panel?
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: It did seem to resemble...
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [interrupting, mock-jokingly] Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorram ship for no apparent reason?
[Another loud bang]
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: Looks like!
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [hitting switches] I thought Kaylee just checked the entry couplings! I have a very clear memory of...
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: Yeah, well, if she doesn't get us some extra flow from the engine room to offset the burnthrough, this landing is gonna get pretty interesting.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Define "interesting".
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: [shrugging] "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die"?
Jayne Cobb: I won't get et! You shoot me if they take me!
[Mal aims pistol squarely at Jayne]
Jayne Cobb: Well, don't shoot me first!
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: But it ain't all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin' is? Well I suppose you do, since you already know what I'm about to say.
River Tam: I do. But I like to hear you say it.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her home.
River Tam: Storm's getting worse.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: We'll pass through it soon enough.
[preparing for heist]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Hey, little one. Understand your part in all this?
River Tam: Do you?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: This is what I do, darlin'.
[River walks away]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: This is what I do.
Dr. Simon Tam: [to River] If there's any fighting, you fall down or run away.
[pause; regarding the rest of the crew]
Dr. Simon Tam: It's okay to leave them to die.
[after the hovercraft makes a crash landing in the hanger of Serenity. Simon runs to his sister]
Dr. Simon Tam: River! River? Are you okay?
River Tam: I swallowed a bug.
Jayne Cobb: We're gonna explode? I don't wanna explode!
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Jayne, how many weapons you plan on bringing? You only got the two arms.
Jayne Cobb: I just get excitable as to choice- like to have my options open.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I don't plan on any shooting taking place during this job.
Jayne Cobb: Well, what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: No grenades.
[Jayne groans]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: No grenades!
Zoë: We gonna crash again?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Go talk to your husband. Is the mule prepped?
Zoë: Good to go sir. Just loading her up. Are those grenades?
Jayne Cobb: Cap'n doesn't want them.
Zoë: We're robbing the place, we're not occupying it.
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: I am a leaf on the wind - watch how I soar.
Jayne Cobb: She is startin' to damage my calm.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I've staked my crew's life on the theory that you're a person, actual and whole, and if I'm wrong, you'd best shoot me now...
[River cocks the gun she is pointing at Mal]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Or, we could talk some more.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [on the ship's intercom] This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then - explode.
The Operative: You're fighting a war you've already lost.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Yeah, well, I'm known for that.
Jayne Cobb: Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [about protective goggles] Fine, I'll wear 'em. But I'll look like an idiot.
Zoë: I should think you'd be used to that, sir.
Zoë: So-trap?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Trap.
Zoë: We goin' in?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Ain't but a few hours out.
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: Yeah, but remember the part where it's a trap?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave.
The Operative: It's worse than you know.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: It usually is.
Zoë: Do you really think any of us is gonna get through this?
[looks at the other crew members struggling with their guns]
Jayne Cobb: Well, I might.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Do you want to run this ship?
Jayne Cobb: Yes!
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [caught off guard] Well... you can't...
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a little plastic rocket...
The Operative: [to Mal] You cannot make me angry.
Inara Serra: Please, spend an hour with him!
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: Can I make a suggestion that doesn't involve violence, or is this the wrong crowd for that?
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: It's okay, I'm a leaf on the wind!
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: What does that mean?
Zoë: In the time of war, we would never have left a man behind.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Maybe that's why we lost.