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AAAAAAAHHH!!
Fuck! You killed Wash! FUCK! And Book, okay, which pisses me off because now we'll never learn what the deal is with his past. But... you killed Wash! WASH! Fuckety fuck fuck FUCK!
On the one hand, go Joss, subverting expectations and boldly offing two main characters. On the other... FUCK! WASH! FUCKFUCKFUCK! And oh, Zoe, my hot stoic Amazon queen, tearing out of her seat, calling him baby, and it all happening so hard and fast my eyes didn't even have time to tear. Wash.
(he didn't have enough lines to die, dammit. Which is, again, the subverting conventions thing, which is always cool unless someone you love gets offed.)
Overall, I found the movie highly satisfying. I'm not totally sure of how well it works or doesn't work as a film independent of the tv show. Visually stunning, well written with only a few false or labored bits (among them, sadly, Mal's final speech about love), well-acted except one line out of Inara (her line reading on something she said to Mal made me wince), totally cool music
I was skeptical about the opening exposition until the reveal of the framing device of River's dream-teacher, because I was trying to figure out who was talking, and how this was going to fit. And while the Simon-breaks-River-out scene was wicked cool, I was distracted throughout by thoughts of "omg retcon!" In conversation afterwards, I came to think that maybe it's not total retcon, and that it could simply be my interpretation of what Simon said in Serenity-the-episode that made me think he hadn't actually seen River before Mal opened the box, that the people he contracted with got her out, put her in the box, and delivered her to Simon. What do you all think? Did you have any sense before the movie of how hands-on Simon was in the actual extraction of River? If so, did the Simon-comes-in-and-sees-her-being-tortured thing correspond to your impressions from the series, or not?
Even if Simon's direct, central role in the actual extraction of River isn't totally contradicted by information given in the series, I find the movie version of the rescue problematic in terms of Simon's character arc on the show for two reasons.
First, as I said to the folks after the film, it strikes me as very weird that Simon would be able to do 'undercover' so incredibly well, even when directly confronted with the sight of his long-lost sister being tortured, but to then be so utterly incompetent in "Jaynestown" when required to play a much simpler role for much lower stakes in less distressing circumstances. It blows his character arc all to hell for him to have been so criminally competent before even meeting the Serenity gang.
Second, it blows his motivations for the in-show period all to hell for him to have had a guided tour and briefing on the project at the time of the extraction. He spends the entire show trying to figure out what they did to River and why - I think he'd have made much faster progress if he'd seen the program in action.
That Simon issue is my single biggest problem with the film as a continuation of the series. I have a couple questions about the film as a stand-alone piece, questions that are hard for me to answer as a geek who's watched the dvds a whole lot. For Firefly virgins, I'm not sure how the Mal/Inara thing would play, or how much weight the onboard crew's relationship with Book would have, or how compelling the Simon/Kaylee stuff would be. In general, though, I think it's a bang-up movie, with damn good pacing, fucking awesome space battles (not fought on a plane but in 3-D, baby! Even if the ships always do seem to have oriented with the same 'down'), good music (I thought I was going to cry when Serenity first came on screen to that guitar-or-other-plucked-string-instrument theme that managed to sound both western and Chinese-ish at the same time) and good character moments for just about everybody.
I LOVED the explanation for the Reavers. Loved that they started off with a bank heist, just like in the old west. Giggled hysterically at Simon in his tight sweater showing off his man-boobs.
Mal looked much more lined and worn to me here than he did on tv. And he seemed harsher - I wonder, is this the unsoftened, not-for-network-tv Mal?
So. There are my disorganized thoughts. Now I can go read everyone else's posts. :D
Oh, one more thing... having seen the movies, and the DEATHS involved, I'm very proud of fandom that there haven't been spoiler kerfuffles every thirty seconds since the day of the first preview screening. Go team!
Fuck! You killed Wash! FUCK! And Book, okay, which pisses me off because now we'll never learn what the deal is with his past. But... you killed Wash! WASH! Fuckety fuck fuck FUCK!
On the one hand, go Joss, subverting expectations and boldly offing two main characters. On the other... FUCK! WASH! FUCKFUCKFUCK! And oh, Zoe, my hot stoic Amazon queen, tearing out of her seat, calling him baby, and it all happening so hard and fast my eyes didn't even have time to tear. Wash.
(he didn't have enough lines to die, dammit. Which is, again, the subverting conventions thing, which is always cool unless someone you love gets offed.)
Overall, I found the movie highly satisfying. I'm not totally sure of how well it works or doesn't work as a film independent of the tv show. Visually stunning, well written with only a few false or labored bits (among them, sadly, Mal's final speech about love), well-acted except one line out of Inara (her line reading on something she said to Mal made me wince), totally cool music
I was skeptical about the opening exposition until the reveal of the framing device of River's dream-teacher, because I was trying to figure out who was talking, and how this was going to fit. And while the Simon-breaks-River-out scene was wicked cool, I was distracted throughout by thoughts of "omg retcon!" In conversation afterwards, I came to think that maybe it's not total retcon, and that it could simply be my interpretation of what Simon said in Serenity-the-episode that made me think he hadn't actually seen River before Mal opened the box, that the people he contracted with got her out, put her in the box, and delivered her to Simon. What do you all think? Did you have any sense before the movie of how hands-on Simon was in the actual extraction of River? If so, did the Simon-comes-in-and-sees-her-being-tortured thing correspond to your impressions from the series, or not?
Even if Simon's direct, central role in the actual extraction of River isn't totally contradicted by information given in the series, I find the movie version of the rescue problematic in terms of Simon's character arc on the show for two reasons.
First, as I said to the folks after the film, it strikes me as very weird that Simon would be able to do 'undercover' so incredibly well, even when directly confronted with the sight of his long-lost sister being tortured, but to then be so utterly incompetent in "Jaynestown" when required to play a much simpler role for much lower stakes in less distressing circumstances. It blows his character arc all to hell for him to have been so criminally competent before even meeting the Serenity gang.
Second, it blows his motivations for the in-show period all to hell for him to have had a guided tour and briefing on the project at the time of the extraction. He spends the entire show trying to figure out what they did to River and why - I think he'd have made much faster progress if he'd seen the program in action.
That Simon issue is my single biggest problem with the film as a continuation of the series. I have a couple questions about the film as a stand-alone piece, questions that are hard for me to answer as a geek who's watched the dvds a whole lot. For Firefly virgins, I'm not sure how the Mal/Inara thing would play, or how much weight the onboard crew's relationship with Book would have, or how compelling the Simon/Kaylee stuff would be. In general, though, I think it's a bang-up movie, with damn good pacing, fucking awesome space battles (not fought on a plane but in 3-D, baby! Even if the ships always do seem to have oriented with the same 'down'), good music (I thought I was going to cry when Serenity first came on screen to that guitar-or-other-plucked-string-instrument theme that managed to sound both western and Chinese-ish at the same time) and good character moments for just about everybody.
I LOVED the explanation for the Reavers. Loved that they started off with a bank heist, just like in the old west. Giggled hysterically at Simon in his tight sweater showing off his man-boobs.
Mal looked much more lined and worn to me here than he did on tv. And he seemed harsher - I wonder, is this the unsoftened, not-for-network-tv Mal?
So. There are my disorganized thoughts. Now I can go read everyone else's posts. :D
Oh, one more thing... having seen the movies, and the DEATHS involved, I'm very proud of fandom that there haven't been spoiler kerfuffles every thirty seconds since the day of the first preview screening. Go team!
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Also, sincerely thought Simon was dead till he was shirtless... was very very peeved.
Miss Book, he was really the character I had the most outright empathy for, and I wanted to know tons more about him, but don't see how they could keep him in flashbacks like Wash.
There was too much Mal talking, too, by the by.
And? Way wussy on the Inara-Mal front.
OK, done geeking for now. =)
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