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Serenity is the latest creation from the man who brought us the TV version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon. It's showing now at a cinema near you. It wasn't mind blowing by my high standards, I didn't think it was that great but you get your money's worth no doubt. Following directly on from Whendon's much acclaimed TV show Firefly, the movie is a Star Trek meets Old Westerns concatenation.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the starship Serenity has to give his small crew not only the leadership to survive the Orwellian regime of The Alliance but to defy it. Part of his crew is a girl named River who has escaped the Alliance and the plot of the movie revolves around them trying to get her back. It is dramatic, action-packed and peppered with a liberal seasoning of clever wise-cracks. The audience at Melbourne Central this weekend was laughing out loud, so that's the sort of flick it is. There are two major triumphs that impress me about this creation.
Firstly, the vernacular. I love that wise-ass Buffy and West Wing jive. Even in crisis this manages to convey a sense of calm, control and camaraderie. Maybe they're 'at each other's throats' or facing down death but the context of their speech always underlies the fact that they're mates and that their nerve is irrepressible. The Old West hayseed-talk is a great touch too, I haven't yet seen Firefly, I didn't know they did that. And it's not just the talk either, it's the look. River's little brow wrinkle expressions say so much.
I think a vernacular somewhat like this is what the teenie-bopper girl clusters we see on the trams and trains of the world are trying to discover and build.
The second triumph of this movie is that it shows us how to fight. The (very well cast) bad guy is a true believer, he's 'justified', well groomed and lethal. He is fully convinced that the pious might of his regime is unstoppable, one small ship- one man- is no match for the empire. The film makes us feel the full weight of just how well-armed and well-supplied these regimented demi-god rulers are. What a contrast to the rag-tag, loose-talking, freedom-loving crew of Serenity! But in the face of such gravity of oppression our guys refuse to be oppressed, it is never shown. We feel it as viewers but the goodies don't buy into it for a second. Clean uniforms and shiny sleek ships are not the same thing as justice. Illegal is not the same as criminal. The antagonist could not have been deserving of a worse fate.
Now I've made it sound a bit like a fantastic movie you have to see. I didn't mean to. But perhaps it is. :)
ps I know I said most of this before. But I figure if I pad it out a bit and say it twice I'm going to get double atlas points, and that's all I really care about. So.
http://solohq.com/Forum/GeneralForum/0645.shtml#0
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