S E R E N I T Y

FIRST LIVEJOURNAL POST ABOUT SE-- what?! Ok, FIRST LIVEJOURNAL POST BY ME ABOUT SERENITY. I'll make this one the non-spoilered entry and then hide a spoilered discussion in another post so if you wanna comment on this one but don't want specifics, you don't have to scroll down past the cut and accidentally see something like "holy shit River had alien implants all along?!"

Oh. Wait.

Anyway. So the rough cut of Serenity, right? Excellent. The Western angle is still there, just not as pronounced as in the series. Darker characters. It's some solid sci-fi, really. Exciting, emotional, smart dialogue without being Joss Whedon Cheesy, and just really well done. Moments of levity are put in very well with the darker moments, so you always get a good release. Some of the plotlines left dangling by the series' cancellation will be tied up for you. Others? We'll never get to know.

And once again, a trailer is proven to be the way the dimwitted film execs want to see the picture. There's no River Matrix kung-fu, no. She does get to kick a lot of ass, but it's well within the confines of the story and there's nary a moment of shitty bullet time to be seen. There's no driving rock score (the full score has yet to be finalized but honestly judging from what we already heard, it'll be fine.) The climactic space battle at the end is very well done, and doesn't last as long as you'd expect. Joss Whedon took all he learned from working on Titan AE and shows he can learn and make more gooder.

All the film really needs now is a little more exposition for the first-timers. We had a pre-recorded introduction from Joss Whedon before the film began. He thanked all the fans for their support and said "With all you've done, really, it's your film. So if it sucks..." He also mentioned he knows he has the support of the fans of the show. Now he needs the new people. As long as they have a clear introduction of the characters, they're going to be fine. As it is now, the film is pretty much in Welcome Back mode for most of the beginning, with every main character getting a nice entrance and time for applause.

You probably know someone who went to the Boston screening. Neil and Beckie drove me to the theatre, and by the time we got there the place was filled with geeks of all shapes and sizes. Neil and Beckie sat up near the back, but they only had two seats available, so I wandered down and found Gilly and Babish and Michael II Electric Boogaloo. They were in the front row and there was an available seat, so I took it. Then the TV cameras started coming down our way, filming for Universal promotional purposes. Babish and I decided that if they were going to interview us, we were going to bullshit our way through the entire thing.

"Yeah, I really can't wait to see this film, I mean, I really loved Firebug, it was one of the best series ever on the WB."
"Oh, totally! I also love Alec Baldwin, I can't wait to see him again."
"I've always been a Josh Whedon fan, ever since Buffy the Vampire and Angela, and it's about time he starred in his own movie."

They didn't get to us because by the time they finished interviewing the people next to us, surprise! Enter some actors! Out came Sean Maher and Morena Baccarin (Simon and Inara, respectively) to a nice prolonged standing ovation. They looked so amazed to see the huge mass of fans in one theatre -- though they'd just come back from a junket in London, and were, in Morena's words, "jetlagged and hungover." Still, they were great sports, they sat and watched the film with us (they hadn't seen the cut yet and were just as excited to see it as we were) and then they stayed around afterwards and signed autographs. I thanked 'em both. We were at the front of the line. So we split rather quick. 50 points though goes to obra for being the first on my friendslist with a Serenity post. (Sorry, Gilly!)

All in all very wonderful. You will really enjoy the film when it comes out on September 30, I bet. Yay!