I saw Serenity last Friday. The final installment in my must-see Science Fiction Summer movie series noted earlier on this blog. I have to say I am surprised I got to see all four movies (Star Wars III, War o’ the Worlds, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Serenity) in the theater. Considering how few movies we get out to these days, I was pretty much figuring that I’d miss at least one.
But it so happens that we (significant other and I) made it to all four. It helps that she, although not strictly a science fiction fan, had at least a passing interest in all four movies, and is a big fan of Serenity director Josh Wheadon and the TV series that spawned the Serenity movie, Firefly.
The bottom line is that Serenity is the best movie of the bunch. Hitchhiker’s was funny at times and did capture some of the brilliant goofiness of the book (or radio series or TV series, whatever), but too often it strained to translate Doug Adam’s whimsy onto the big screen. Star Wars III was not as awful as the last two, but still, pretty bad as far as dialogue and believable plotlines. War of the Worlds was slick and mindless, and really pretty forgettable, despite some respectable work from Tom Cruise.
Wheadon is still establishing his reputation and is relatively young, and it showed, because he took some chances and broke a few rules. For example, he wasn’t afraid to kill off a few key characters. (Sure, Lucas did too this time but NOT SOON ENOUGH.)
And his take on a futuristic society is relatively unique, although questionable in some places. For example, the movie presents us with a single solar system containing what appears to be dozens of inhabited, earth-like planets. Not possible. No amount of terraforming is going to make planets far away from the sun (star) warm enough for the Earth-like conditions we saw at every stop. And if they’re so great at terraforming, why didn’t they just do that in our own solar system? Huh? Come on, vampire man, let’s hear some answers! You’re on my turf now…
Ahem. Anyhow, the one thing I really liked about the movie was Wheadon’s unusual decision to try to write dialogue that is unique to the situation, that is, it reflected the different culture and times the characters were in. This is rarely attempted in science fiction movies anymore, because it can make the movie even more difficult for the masses to follow, and because it can quickly descend into Nanoo Nanoo land.
But Wheadon wades bravely in, having his characters mouth lines that reflect the weird mix of buckskin and hi-tech that first Firefly and now Serenity features. If at times it sounds like Mormons in orbit, so be it. To my ears, it works pretty well, although more than once the SigO and I turned to each other and said, "What did he say?" That just gives us something to look forward to with the DVD.
I suspect this isn’t going to be a big hit, but I hope I’m wrong. Wheadon is a bit of a specialized taste, his audience tends to be a bit more sophisticated, and literate than, say, the demo that thought WotW looked like a rad movie. ("Rad." Even my attempts at snobbishness are out of date. Sigh.)
What I do know is that the crowd at the theater we were in seemed to be made up almost entirely of Firefly fans. They laughed knowingly at the characters’ lines, applauded at the end, and sat through the entire credits—that is, until the projector was turned off, at which point the crowd loudly voiced its disapproval for the quick hook. When a crowd is angry over not being able to see the complete list of grips and set makers, you know you’re dealing with true fans.
None of the big Science Fiction releases this summer (ok, summer/fall) are going to be remembered as classics of the genre, in my opinion. And the reason why is pretty obvious. None of them are new. WotW, remake. HH's Guide, remake, more or less. SWIII, final instalment in an old and tired franchise. Even Serenity, though it might be new to some, is basically a remake, boiling down a TV season into one movie. Like I said, the best of the bunch, but still, it didn't blow me away.
