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This past weekend, we went to Serenity with J&A Friday night. Allison, being insane, got into line at 4:30 for a 7:30 show, but was rewarded with a Serenity poster for her devotion (by being first in line). Saturday morning we drove out to Bill's place in Somerville, Jo met us and we went to see Mirrormask in Cambridge, dinner, and then Serenity again.
I'll try to be spoiler free in talking about them. Serenity is absolutely amazing. It's hard for me to think of it as anything other than the culmination of the series, obviously, but I think it stood well enough on it's own. Reviews and exit polls seem to hold that up. Some of the characters aren't as well developed if you've only seen the movie, though that's unavoidable. Only Mal, River, Jayne, and Wash really felt like they came across. In particular, Zoe and her relationship with Wash felt underplayed. However, that takes nothing away from the movie. The writing is absolutely fantastic. I have newfound respect for Joss and his mastery of pacing. Fast, slow, light, heavy, he knows exactly which way to pull the audience. When the movie gets really dark, he knows how to give you just enough to hang on to.
The acting of course was uniformly fantastic. The new bad guy fit right in, and worked wonderfully. I actually thought Mr. Universe didn't work as well as he could have, but that's a minor gripe, if anything.
All being said, it was fantastic. Everyone should go see it. Particularly given it only made $10 million on its opening weekend. What's wrong with you people?! Go to the movies!
Actually, given their target demographic (rabid fans who got the movie greenlit by buying the Firefly DVDs in droves), I suspect it will have pretty good sustainability, leading to good but not great performance, and then Universal will release the DVD and wonder where the dumptruck of money came from.
Mirrormask, on the other hand, was an art film. In the literal sense. I didn't know why it was being marketted that way, with such a small release, but that was cleared up rather quickly. I'm pretty sure the creative process was Dave McKean drawing a whole bunch of stuff, and Neil writing a story to tie it together. Most of the movie takes place in a fantasy world that is one big animated Dave McKean drawing/painting/collage. It's really, really pretty, though a bit lighter on story than I would have expected for something Gaiman wrote. But that's ok, though, because did I mention that it's really, really pretty?
After the movie we went home where Kim fell asleep on the couch and Bill showed me Logan's Run. Sunday we picked up Jo and went apple picking with some friends of Bill's. After stopping off for a chinese lunch, we dropped Jo off and Bill made us pie, and we watched a couple of episodes of Farscape, and then we came home. With enough apples to make at least a couple of apple dishes.
I'll try to be spoiler free in talking about them. Serenity is absolutely amazing. It's hard for me to think of it as anything other than the culmination of the series, obviously, but I think it stood well enough on it's own. Reviews and exit polls seem to hold that up. Some of the characters aren't as well developed if you've only seen the movie, though that's unavoidable. Only Mal, River, Jayne, and Wash really felt like they came across. In particular, Zoe and her relationship with Wash felt underplayed. However, that takes nothing away from the movie. The writing is absolutely fantastic. I have newfound respect for Joss and his mastery of pacing. Fast, slow, light, heavy, he knows exactly which way to pull the audience. When the movie gets really dark, he knows how to give you just enough to hang on to.
The acting of course was uniformly fantastic. The new bad guy fit right in, and worked wonderfully. I actually thought Mr. Universe didn't work as well as he could have, but that's a minor gripe, if anything.
All being said, it was fantastic. Everyone should go see it. Particularly given it only made $10 million on its opening weekend. What's wrong with you people?! Go to the movies!
Actually, given their target demographic (rabid fans who got the movie greenlit by buying the Firefly DVDs in droves), I suspect it will have pretty good sustainability, leading to good but not great performance, and then Universal will release the DVD and wonder where the dumptruck of money came from.
Mirrormask, on the other hand, was an art film. In the literal sense. I didn't know why it was being marketted that way, with such a small release, but that was cleared up rather quickly. I'm pretty sure the creative process was Dave McKean drawing a whole bunch of stuff, and Neil writing a story to tie it together. Most of the movie takes place in a fantasy world that is one big animated Dave McKean drawing/painting/collage. It's really, really pretty, though a bit lighter on story than I would have expected for something Gaiman wrote. But that's ok, though, because did I mention that it's really, really pretty?
After the movie we went home where Kim fell asleep on the couch and Bill showed me Logan's Run. Sunday we picked up Jo and went apple picking with some friends of Bill's. After stopping off for a chinese lunch, we dropped Jo off and Bill made us pie, and we watched a couple of episodes of Farscape, and then we came home. With enough apples to make at least a couple of apple dishes.