Serenity

Last night instead of Copwatching I saw the rough cut of Serenity the big screen follow-up to Joss Whedon's brilliant TV series Firefly.

If you are a fan of Whedon or Firefly, the movie is awesome; if not you might have trouble tracking the ten character main cast. I'd suggest begging, borrowing, or stealing the DVD's of Firefly to understand the nuances of Inayra, Book, Kaylee, Zoe, and Wash; otherwise they'll come off as underdeveloped foils for Mal (which really is all they are, as Mal died in everyway but physically after emerging from a civil war on the losing side; the crew of his boat are expressions of all the parts of himself that he has cut-off). It opens with a long multi-layered flashback/dream/history lesson that effectively sets-up the world of the film, then quickly sets up the conflict and then the first hilarious and terrifying action sequence. I'm damn glad that Reavers (screaming, cannibalistic, self-mutilating, rapists with spaceships) aren't real

Serenity successfully rises above the overblown TV show feel of some of Whedon's other big screen projects, most notably Alien: Resurrection. The big action set pieces are just candy, the meat of this movie is the characters and the story. The tone is significantly darker than the series, the stakes are higher, it really feels like everyone is going to die at several points. I choked up at a couple of the more vicious turns, someting I haven't felt from a movie since Ricky Baker got killed in Boyz in the Hood.

Hopefully this will get punched up over the summer, the print I saw needed color correction, some sound work, and some more transit shots.

The real treat was the intro and Q&A doled out by Alan Tudyk and Gina Torres this kind of fan appreciation is rare, and illustrates the crucial genius of Whedon and his crew. They understand that popular culture is a conversation between the creators and the viewer/participants, they don't sit in a tower and spit out a product every couple of years to rake in a bit more cash. They are passionate about the stories they tell, who they tell them to, and how they are told. Input, feedback and questions are cherished, not dismissed as fanboy revisionism.

Science fiction has always been away to talk about the world we live in. Now that Whedon is unencumbered by Fox TV, he has some very pointed comments to make about where we are living, what we are doing, and most importantly how we think about it.