GET THEE TO A THEATER
Sep. 30th, 2005 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogmagogWell, I just got back from Serenity. OH. MY. GOD. I laughed, I cried, and damn Joss Whedon for making me laugh again even AS I cried.
First, the non-spoilery stuff. (And don't worry, any spoilery stuff is under the cut.) The audience at the showing I went to was pretty good-sized (like, the theater was packed), which is especially good for a 12:30 Friday matinee. It was pretty clearly primarily Firefly fans, but there were non-fans there too who seemed to really enjoy it.
I can now say definitively that you don't have to have seen the series to see the movie. Joss sets up the few things you need to know about the backstory pretty well, and then just goes to town. (This is not to say that you shouldn't see the series if you have a chance, though, because a lot of the moments are just SO MUCH MORE EMOTIONAL than I think they would be to a non-fan. I don't know if non-fans would cry, but if you're a fan you will choke up if you have ANY VESTIGE OF HUMAN EMOTION AT ALL.)
And for the Firefly fans, let's just say that Joss takes everything you expect from a Firefly movie, and ramps it up like times a thousand. Everything you hope for, or secretly fear, he gives you and gives it a million times more emotional impact than you expect, and then adds stuff you'd never expect.
I have to give Joss and the cast credit - he takes your emotions and swings them around like a dead cat on a ceiling fan; he puts the characters through eighteen different kinds of hell, and the cast sells it like you wouldn't believe. It helps that they'd already done the series before, and so the chemistry and emotion is all already there, but still...DAYUM.
Oh, and stay for the end of the credits if you want to hear a poignant version of the Firefly theme. :D
Now, the spoilery stuff. OH MY GOD THEY KILLED WASH! And Book, too, but...WASH! ;_;
Book's always been kind of an enigma, so while I was sad when he died it wasn't the gutwrenching sad that I felt when Wash was spitted (right in the middle of a wisecrack!) and God, poor Zoe. ;_;
On the plus side, Simon and Kaylee finally got together (I'm sorry that I said you were gay Simon!) and there seems to be hope for Mal/Inara finally happening as well. It's funny - the two moments that the audience clapped (well, aside from the end) was Kaylee's "the hell with this, I wanna live!" exclamation (which was HILARIOUS, by the way, and is one of those "make you laugh as you're sobbing" moments) and then the door opening showing a bloodstained River standing over a pile of Reaver corpses.
I totally thought they were going to kill everyone else too for a while. The tension in this movie was really amazing, and I was completely on the edge of my seat for the entire second half. But basically starting with Wash's death, I was OMG SAD, and when River's talking to Simon right before she goes out to handle the Reavers I lost it and started sniffling, all NO NOT RIVER TOO DAMMIT.
...seriously, this movie is SO GOOD. Is it wrong that I want to go back tomorrow and see it again? XD
But I mean, seriously, I hung around the mall for another 20 minutes after the movie, had a 35-minute walk home, spent 10 minutes writing this entry and I'm still kind of sniffly.
Speaking of the walk there and home though, it was better than I expected except for the FUCKING BEES. Seriously, I'm not sure whether it was a) that I had just washed my hair with orange-scented shower gel before leaving, or b) was wearing a black and gold T-shirt, but seriously, it seemed that every fucking bee between here and the Sycamore Mall was intent on divebombing me and molesting my hair. Seriously, DO I LOOK LIKE A FUCKING FLOWER?
...I must have looked hella funny on the way home, though. Flailing wildly around my head, occasionally breaking into a run to try and outpace the bees, and occasionally roaring "get the fuck AWAY FROM ME AUGH," all the while looking about this far away from bursting into tears again. XD
First, the non-spoilery stuff. (And don't worry, any spoilery stuff is under the cut.) The audience at the showing I went to was pretty good-sized (like, the theater was packed), which is especially good for a 12:30 Friday matinee. It was pretty clearly primarily Firefly fans, but there were non-fans there too who seemed to really enjoy it.
I can now say definitively that you don't have to have seen the series to see the movie. Joss sets up the few things you need to know about the backstory pretty well, and then just goes to town. (This is not to say that you shouldn't see the series if you have a chance, though, because a lot of the moments are just SO MUCH MORE EMOTIONAL than I think they would be to a non-fan. I don't know if non-fans would cry, but if you're a fan you will choke up if you have ANY VESTIGE OF HUMAN EMOTION AT ALL.)
And for the Firefly fans, let's just say that Joss takes everything you expect from a Firefly movie, and ramps it up like times a thousand. Everything you hope for, or secretly fear, he gives you and gives it a million times more emotional impact than you expect, and then adds stuff you'd never expect.
I have to give Joss and the cast credit - he takes your emotions and swings them around like a dead cat on a ceiling fan; he puts the characters through eighteen different kinds of hell, and the cast sells it like you wouldn't believe. It helps that they'd already done the series before, and so the chemistry and emotion is all already there, but still...DAYUM.
Oh, and stay for the end of the credits if you want to hear a poignant version of the Firefly theme. :D
Now, the spoilery stuff. OH MY GOD THEY KILLED WASH! And Book, too, but...WASH! ;_;
Book's always been kind of an enigma, so while I was sad when he died it wasn't the gutwrenching sad that I felt when Wash was spitted (right in the middle of a wisecrack!) and God, poor Zoe. ;_;
On the plus side, Simon and Kaylee finally got together (I'm sorry that I said you were gay Simon!) and there seems to be hope for Mal/Inara finally happening as well. It's funny - the two moments that the audience clapped (well, aside from the end) was Kaylee's "the hell with this, I wanna live!" exclamation (which was HILARIOUS, by the way, and is one of those "make you laugh as you're sobbing" moments) and then the door opening showing a bloodstained River standing over a pile of Reaver corpses.
I totally thought they were going to kill everyone else too for a while. The tension in this movie was really amazing, and I was completely on the edge of my seat for the entire second half. But basically starting with Wash's death, I was OMG SAD, and when River's talking to Simon right before she goes out to handle the Reavers I lost it and started sniffling, all NO NOT RIVER TOO DAMMIT.
...seriously, this movie is SO GOOD. Is it wrong that I want to go back tomorrow and see it again? XD
But I mean, seriously, I hung around the mall for another 20 minutes after the movie, had a 35-minute walk home, spent 10 minutes writing this entry and I'm still kind of sniffly.
Speaking of the walk there and home though, it was better than I expected except for the FUCKING BEES. Seriously, I'm not sure whether it was a) that I had just washed my hair with orange-scented shower gel before leaving, or b) was wearing a black and gold T-shirt, but seriously, it seemed that every fucking bee between here and the Sycamore Mall was intent on divebombing me and molesting my hair. Seriously, DO I LOOK LIKE A FUCKING FLOWER?
...I must have looked hella funny on the way home, though. Flailing wildly around my head, occasionally breaking into a run to try and outpace the bees, and occasionally roaring "get the fuck AWAY FROM ME AUGH," all the while looking about this far away from bursting into tears again. XD
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 05:18 am (UTC)Two main characters dead. I'm saddened. The way Wash died, I don't feel comfortable about it one bit. As for Shepherd, he was such a minor character in the show itself, and I feel that those who watch the movie without having watched Firefly would have no idea he was even in the series. At least he died a hero.
Simon, gay? Nah, I KNEW Simon and Kaylee would get together in the movie. Their attraction was pretty obvious in the series, I think.
Good movie. I want to watch it again.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 05:37 pm (UTC)But Wash was one of the better characters on the show, and the fact that he was willing to kill Wash, I think, made me a lot more worried about the others - I know for a while there, I was truly wondering how he'd manage to get the crew out without them all being killed by Reavers, rather than thinking "oh, I know they'll all make it out OK." (Well, OK, I thought Mal and River would probably have to survive, as Joss has talked about sequels, but everything else was up in the air. I know for a time there I thought Simon and Kaylee were both goners, and then River going out...)
And it wasn't so much that I thought Simon was gay per se as that I thought he wasn't interested in Kaylee, because let's face it, she did everything but say "TAKE ME NOW, TAKE ME HARD" and he did...well, nothing. But I think, with the explanation that he was so worried about making sure River was safe that he didn't want to fulfill any of his own wants, that that makes sense now.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 04:41 pm (UTC)I totally thought for awhile that everyone was going to die too! And I kept whispering to Vinnie "I hate this!" and was clenching my fists. But, they redeemed themselves by not killing anyone else at the end (I did want the operative to get killed though).
So yeah, minus killing Wash (for no good reason!!), I loved the movie.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 05:40 pm (UTC)But like I said above, I think if he hadn't killed Wash we wouldn't have been in as much suspense as to the rest of the characters' survival.
Plus, also, Joss likes to put his characters through hell a lot. Happy relationships, especially, tend to leave one open for death (see: Maclay, Tara; Burkle, Winifred).
But I'm still pissed at Joss for killing one of my favorite characters and ruining my OTP. >_