Film: Serenity

[clearspira]

I've gotta say it... I just don't like this film. I tried to, I wanted to, but I can't. All in all I am not suprised that this film flopped and that the series was never renewed off its back.

1) The fact that this is one season condensed into a film imo is felt all the way through. Plots are not given the detail they need to be properly fleshed out. Kind of reminds me of watching The Last Airbender just not as extreme.

2) I think that the seemingly invincible Operative as well as River's brand new superpowers belong in a different film. Firefly was a grounded series, especially compared to other sci-fi of the day (it was a contempory of Star Trek Enterprise, SG-1 and Andromeda to give you some basis for comparison).

I think that the era that this film was made in coloured it negatively. 2005 was that ''post Spider-Man/X-Men/Fantastic 4 but before the Dark Knight'' era of film making where boring invincible characters were all the rage. Look at Christian Bale's Equilibrium or Mila Jovovich's Resident Evil to see what I am getting at. I think Whedon thought ''everyone else is doing it so we need a superman too'' and kind of ruined one of the main selling points of his franchise.

3) Killing Wash? No. Just no. And it was such a Tasha Yar death as well. No meaning to it, no heroism. He just dies and the film moves on save for the bit with the dinosaurs.
Edit: I didn't mind the death of Shepherd Book quite so much because I do think that it has an impact on both Mel and the plot. The fact that he was killed off on Whedon's whim is BS though.

[bz316]

I enjoyed this movie overall, but one thing I didn't like about it was how much of this universe's moral ambiguity got simplified. One of the things I liked most about the tv show was that it was always something of an open question mark how "bad" the Alliance really was and how "good" the protagonists were. Most of the shit-talking we got in the show about the Core worlds came from Zoe and Mal, two people who were definitely biased. They never really explain what the impetus behind the War of Independence was (note, very few wars of independence are JUST about not wanting to be controlled by a larger government) and, given the fact that this scenario was based somewhat off a book about ex-Confederates during the reconstruction era, it REALLY makes you wonder what exactly the political ideology of the Browncoats actually was. Additionally, most of the series takes place on worlds which, according to the opening narration, were planets either outside the Alliance's control (or only loosely controlled), and they almost universally suck ass (indentured servitude, human trafficking, etc). Meanwhile, the only things we explicitly know about the Alliance (based on what we see and hear) are that they have parliamentary democracy, freedom of religion, and a robustly-patrolled network of interstellar trade.

But then, this movie comes along and is like "Oh yeah, the Alliance transformed an entire colony into Space Cannibals with a mind-control gas experiment gone wrong," and the whole thing gets made so groan-inducingly black and white

[stryke]

It's one of my main examples of just because Fox cancelled a show after one season without really giving it a chance doesn't mean it was a bad thing that they did it. The film is meh at best, showcasing some of Whedon's worst writing tics that would go on to make Age of Ultron so very bad, and then there's that infamous story of what they wanted to do in season 2 with the gangrape of the poisoned vagina scene suggesting that even more so.

[Riedquat]

I liked the film. I don't disagree with the OP's criticisms but I still enjoyed it. The only part where I'm in 100% agreement, and it left a sour taste in my mouth when I left the cinema, was killing Wash.

[Fianna]

Even in the series, the Alliance was kidnapping people to use for human experimentation and sending black ops agents to kill innocent people to cover up their mistakes. Of course, that was all secret and small scale stuff, where it's unclear how much the people doing that are sanctioned by the larger government.

[stellar_coyote]

I remember seeing this in theaters with some family members, I was just a young teen and had never seen any of "Firefly" so I had no attachment to any of the characters.

The movie does a pretty good job establishing the characters and their dynamics and I liked the sci fi/western aesthetic but because my first experience with the show was at the end I never got too into it.
Plus my dad rewatches the whole series fairly regularly so I just had a burnout of the series after the third rewatch.

[Frustration]

I dislike the lighting of the film - it seems much darker and 'colder' than the TV show, perhaps as a way to conceal issues with the sets?

The movie does a very good job of wrapping up the story, so I'm grateful for that.

It's worth noting that the actors who couldn't commit were also the ones who would have had the biggest salaries at the time. It sucks that Whedon had to make such practical decisions, but that's life.

Of course, since then, Whedon has behaved so boorishly that he's largely lost the devoted fanbase he had at the time. I don't approve of 'cancelling' but I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for seeing any further projects of his either.

[Frustration]

Meanwhile, the only things we explicitly know about the Alliance (based on what we see and hear) are that they have parliamentary democracy, freedom of religion, and a robustly-patrolled network of interstellar trade.

And River's being abducted by people who cut up her brain. I grant you, you shouldn't judge American society by the actions of the CIA, or the Alliance by its equivalent, but we see Alliance people doing all sorts of unsympathetic things in the show, and they're clearly not virtuous and heroic either.

[clearspira]

I dislike the lighting of the film - it seems much darker and 'colder' than the TV show, perhaps as a way to conceal issues with the sets?

The movie does a very good job of wrapping up the story, so I'm grateful for that.

It's worth noting that the actors who couldn't commit were also the ones who would have had the biggest salaries at the time. It sucks that Whedon had to make such practical decisions, but that's life.

Of course, since then, Whedon has behaved so boorishly that he's largely lost the devoted fanbase he had at the time. I don't approve of 'cancelling' but I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for seeing any further projects of his either.

Meh. I don't approve of cancel culture when we are talking about some Tweet that used the N-word ten years ago that the person in question has said sorry for. When we are talking about is a significant amount of people coming out and saying that they were either sexually harassed or bullied by him, i'm all for it.

The only reason I didn't bring it up is that I have a belief in separating creator from product.

[bz316]

Meanwhile, the only things we explicitly know about the Alliance (based on what we see and hear) are that they have parliamentary democracy, freedom of religion, and a robustly-patrolled network of interstellar trade.

And River's being abducted by people who cut up her brain. I grant you, you shouldn't judge American society by the actions of the CIA, or the Alliance by its equivalent, but we see Alliance people doing all sorts of unsympathetic things in the show, and they're clearly not virtuous and heroic either.

To be clear, I never said the Alliance was "good," just that the degree to which it was "bad" was an open question. I'm not saying what was done to River was okay, but as you point out we don't know the extent to which it was actually authorized (or even known) by the wider government until the movie, nor the reasons for it. All we really know about River, beyond her being a genius, is that she is also apparently some kind of telepath (something that does not appear to be widespread in this universe). Was the impetus for what was done to her some kind of nefarious military experiment? Was it some kind of attempt to contain her and understand how her abilities might be a threat to the wider population (i.e., well-intentioned extremism)?

Again, the main reason I liked the show was this ambiguity. How bad was the Alliance? How good were our protagonists? Were the Browncoats heroes fighting for freedom, or was that a self-serving cover for a vile political philosophy? Was River the victim of an evil black-ops organization trying to increase their power, or by a group of people who were using extreme (and unethical) methods to prevent a threat to the wider population? All of this marvelous ambiguity was wiped away by the black and white moralizing of the movie...