![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynFirst of all, I would like to state that there are spoilers within. If you haven't seen this film yet, I don't think you should read this. Secondly, I am warning in advance that this is a rather negative review. Despite this, I'm aware that 'Serenity' is a film which has brought a lot of my friends a lot of happiness, and as such I think it's probably a good thing.
I am writing this as an explanation to those who have asked 'so why didn't you like the film?'.
This is why I didn't like that film...
The Massive Overhype
I am prepared to admit that in many ways I entered 'Serenity' with some heavy duty biases against it. To be precise, I entered 'Serenity' thinking 'this better be pretty damn good if it is even vaguely going to justify the truly sickening levels of hype around it'. I entered wanting to know why this one film had apparently merited turning the entirety of my friends into fangirls of the type most commonly found screaming outside boy band concerts, and I wanted the reason to be good.
It sadly wasn't.
As I said, I think I am partly being unfair, because so much of the overhype has been quietly (or maybe noisily - I'm not often quiet) irritating the hell out of me for weeks. It irritates me that I now am not sure who on earth has written an entry when I see an Inara icon. It irritates me that 'Serenity' has been made the cinematic event of the year, far above dull films about genocide, like 'Hotel Rwanda'. It's the only film this year that I've seen a large group of my friends list drive all the way to Scotland and back in a night, just to see. It's the only film I've ever seen take over my friends list to this extent. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, none of them had this effect.
All this would bug me less if I just had the slightest clue why?
OK, the TV series was nice enough, in a generic Joss Whedon TV series kind of way (he had the same five characters he always has, with exactly the same witty dialogue that his characters always speak), and I did enjoy it, but why was it so very wonderful?
I didn't get it. Therefore it was probably with stroppy thoughts that I headed off to the cinema.
The Dialogue
OK, so it's a western in space. So it shouldn't be full of technobabble and should maybe be a bit more...well...western. Yes, yes, yes, I accept this. Just...well...I've watched westerns. I've watched films with Clint Eastwood. I've even watched Unforgiven. I'm sure none of them were quite so...well...bad.
And that is one of the most distressing features to this entire film. Normally when I watch something written by Joss Whedon, my main complaint is not the lack of witty dialogue. In fact, I have an entire rant which is mostly based around the fact that all Joss Whedon can write is witty dialogue. Buffy, Angel, the TV series of Firefly; they are all entirely based on the notion that people in extremely stressful and life threatening (not to mention world threatening) situations are prone to witty banter.
When I find myself thinking 'gah! That's so goddamn hackneyed' when listening to Joss Whedon dialogue, you know it's gone pretty badly wrong.
rweishaar claims that the dialogue was just as unconvincing in the series, and that I'm being unfair here. I am wondering if I was asleep through the entire series if that is the case. How could I not have noticed how deeply stilted and unreal the entire dialogue was?
"I've had nothing twixt my nethers that didn't have batteries"? The entirety of Dark Brooding Assassin's dialogue (and that's another rant)? It honestly made me cringe with the predictability and clunking heaviness of it all.
The absolute lack of any kind of emotional dynamic being actually shown on screen
Look. I understand that this film is entirely for people who saw the series. I understand that if you are one of the multitude on my friends list who own the DVDs, and can quote entire episodes without pausing for breath, then you know all the about characters' relationships already. You've seen The One Where Wash Gets Jealous, and you've see The One Where Mal Punches Out That Bloke Coz Of Inara and you've seen All The Ones Where Kaleigh Makes Big Eyes At The Doctor. You know all about this and as such can be touched and affected by the film.
I'm not entirely convinced that someone who hadn't watched the series would be able to do that.
Wash and Zoe were probably the biggest example of this. Throughout the entire film the single, sole reference to Zoe and Wash being husband and wife was when Mal made some reference to Zoe about 'your husband'. Beyond that there was nothing. There were no scenes between them. No real dialogue between them. When Wash died and Zoe got all angsty, a bit of my brain said 'oh, yeah, they were married weren't they?' and I suspect that that was the bit of my brain which had watched the series. The rest of my brain may well have been slightly confused by the entire thing.
Mal and Inara, I felt, were equally badly served. Mal made some reference to 'it's a set up - has to be - we weren't arguing', which I felt was rather meant to a) appeal to the Browncoats and b) explain the entire dynamic to anyone new who is then meant to take it on faith. Beyond that, Mal and Inara didn't bicker that much. They smile at each other a bit, and bicker slightly, but the entire dynamic is overshadowed by the constant Impending Doom to the extent that at the end, when Inara does agree to stay, it doesn't really mean much.
OK, she's staying. Erm. Yeah. Oh, doesn't Mal fancy her?
The film has been ignoring this pretty solidly for most of the last couple of hours. I'm not sure why Joss Whedon is so sure the audience won't as well.
The overwhelming sheer awfulness and cliche of the plot
Oh c'mon! You lot can't seriously think that that was not predictable? You lot can't seriously have taken that seriously?
I've encountered the 'reavers & government experiment plot gone wrong' plot before. It was in a tabletop game that I played in when I was 19. It really hasn't gotten any better. And the Dark Brooding Assassin With A Strange Sense Of Honour? Did Joss Whedon really just call up the Paramount props department and ask them if they had anything kicking around he could borrow?
I can imagine the conversation now.
Joss: Look, guys, I need a bad guy, but I can't afford an actor and I'm out of ideas for dialogue.
Paramount Props: It's OK. We've got an old bad guy from a load of other bad sci fi films that comes with his own cassette of generic assassin/bounty hunter lines. He's a bit wooden, but...
Joss: That's OK. Have you seen the rest of my cast?
In fact, I think we're getting to the crux of my irritation with this film, which was a deep sense of disappointment and a feeling that Joss had somewhere along the line decided to jetison everything that was cool about the series.
I quite liked the mystery about the Reavers. Where had they come from? What had driven men to these extremes? I liked the poetry in the half dreamt explanations - Shepherd describing them as 'men who got to the edge of space and looked out over that vast emptiness, and couldn't take it'*. I thought the bad guys in the TV series were really interesting visually - 'two by two with hands of blue' - and really didn't understand why the quiet, menacing men with the weird gloves were replaced with a paint by numbers Dark And Brooding Assassin With A Sense Of Honour. It was as if Joss looked at everything that was remotely quirky, or different, or original and decided it was all too risky. Probably why his show got cut in the first place. Best replace it with a series of cliches from the last 30 years of science fiction.
The TV series was vastly overhyped, but on the quiet I rather liked it. I found it comfortable to watch and had some cute characters. OK, it wasn't stunning, and Joss Whedon plot has always been fairly clunky, but I never found myself sitting through it thinking 'when can I go' which was a constant refrain in my head throughout the film.
*Yes. That was a line from the film. I actually quite liked it. I think that was one of the four I liked. See. I'm not all hatred and bile.
And that's me done.
In other news, I really liked 'A History Of Violence' and found it a very moving and interesting film dealing with some interesting issues. Can I also recommend 'It's All Gone Pete Tong' which I think is out of DVD now. It wasn't big and many may not get it, but I rather liked that as well.
And now, work is done and I am heading home!
I am writing this as an explanation to those who have asked 'so why didn't you like the film?'.
This is why I didn't like that film...
The Massive Overhype
I am prepared to admit that in many ways I entered 'Serenity' with some heavy duty biases against it. To be precise, I entered 'Serenity' thinking 'this better be pretty damn good if it is even vaguely going to justify the truly sickening levels of hype around it'. I entered wanting to know why this one film had apparently merited turning the entirety of my friends into fangirls of the type most commonly found screaming outside boy band concerts, and I wanted the reason to be good.
It sadly wasn't.
As I said, I think I am partly being unfair, because so much of the overhype has been quietly (or maybe noisily - I'm not often quiet) irritating the hell out of me for weeks. It irritates me that I now am not sure who on earth has written an entry when I see an Inara icon. It irritates me that 'Serenity' has been made the cinematic event of the year, far above dull films about genocide, like 'Hotel Rwanda'. It's the only film this year that I've seen a large group of my friends list drive all the way to Scotland and back in a night, just to see. It's the only film I've ever seen take over my friends list to this extent. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, none of them had this effect.
All this would bug me less if I just had the slightest clue why?
OK, the TV series was nice enough, in a generic Joss Whedon TV series kind of way (he had the same five characters he always has, with exactly the same witty dialogue that his characters always speak), and I did enjoy it, but why was it so very wonderful?
I didn't get it. Therefore it was probably with stroppy thoughts that I headed off to the cinema.
The Dialogue
OK, so it's a western in space. So it shouldn't be full of technobabble and should maybe be a bit more...well...western. Yes, yes, yes, I accept this. Just...well...I've watched westerns. I've watched films with Clint Eastwood. I've even watched Unforgiven. I'm sure none of them were quite so...well...bad.
And that is one of the most distressing features to this entire film. Normally when I watch something written by Joss Whedon, my main complaint is not the lack of witty dialogue. In fact, I have an entire rant which is mostly based around the fact that all Joss Whedon can write is witty dialogue. Buffy, Angel, the TV series of Firefly; they are all entirely based on the notion that people in extremely stressful and life threatening (not to mention world threatening) situations are prone to witty banter.
When I find myself thinking 'gah! That's so goddamn hackneyed' when listening to Joss Whedon dialogue, you know it's gone pretty badly wrong.
rweishaar claims that the dialogue was just as unconvincing in the series, and that I'm being unfair here. I am wondering if I was asleep through the entire series if that is the case. How could I not have noticed how deeply stilted and unreal the entire dialogue was?"I've had nothing twixt my nethers that didn't have batteries"? The entirety of Dark Brooding Assassin's dialogue (and that's another rant)? It honestly made me cringe with the predictability and clunking heaviness of it all.
The absolute lack of any kind of emotional dynamic being actually shown on screen
Look. I understand that this film is entirely for people who saw the series. I understand that if you are one of the multitude on my friends list who own the DVDs, and can quote entire episodes without pausing for breath, then you know all the about characters' relationships already. You've seen The One Where Wash Gets Jealous, and you've see The One Where Mal Punches Out That Bloke Coz Of Inara and you've seen All The Ones Where Kaleigh Makes Big Eyes At The Doctor. You know all about this and as such can be touched and affected by the film.
I'm not entirely convinced that someone who hadn't watched the series would be able to do that.
Wash and Zoe were probably the biggest example of this. Throughout the entire film the single, sole reference to Zoe and Wash being husband and wife was when Mal made some reference to Zoe about 'your husband'. Beyond that there was nothing. There were no scenes between them. No real dialogue between them. When Wash died and Zoe got all angsty, a bit of my brain said 'oh, yeah, they were married weren't they?' and I suspect that that was the bit of my brain which had watched the series. The rest of my brain may well have been slightly confused by the entire thing.
Mal and Inara, I felt, were equally badly served. Mal made some reference to 'it's a set up - has to be - we weren't arguing', which I felt was rather meant to a) appeal to the Browncoats and b) explain the entire dynamic to anyone new who is then meant to take it on faith. Beyond that, Mal and Inara didn't bicker that much. They smile at each other a bit, and bicker slightly, but the entire dynamic is overshadowed by the constant Impending Doom to the extent that at the end, when Inara does agree to stay, it doesn't really mean much.
OK, she's staying. Erm. Yeah. Oh, doesn't Mal fancy her?
The film has been ignoring this pretty solidly for most of the last couple of hours. I'm not sure why Joss Whedon is so sure the audience won't as well.
The overwhelming sheer awfulness and cliche of the plot
Oh c'mon! You lot can't seriously think that that was not predictable? You lot can't seriously have taken that seriously?
I've encountered the 'reavers & government experiment plot gone wrong' plot before. It was in a tabletop game that I played in when I was 19. It really hasn't gotten any better. And the Dark Brooding Assassin With A Strange Sense Of Honour? Did Joss Whedon really just call up the Paramount props department and ask them if they had anything kicking around he could borrow?
I can imagine the conversation now.
Joss: Look, guys, I need a bad guy, but I can't afford an actor and I'm out of ideas for dialogue.
Paramount Props: It's OK. We've got an old bad guy from a load of other bad sci fi films that comes with his own cassette of generic assassin/bounty hunter lines. He's a bit wooden, but...
Joss: That's OK. Have you seen the rest of my cast?
In fact, I think we're getting to the crux of my irritation with this film, which was a deep sense of disappointment and a feeling that Joss had somewhere along the line decided to jetison everything that was cool about the series.
I quite liked the mystery about the Reavers. Where had they come from? What had driven men to these extremes? I liked the poetry in the half dreamt explanations - Shepherd describing them as 'men who got to the edge of space and looked out over that vast emptiness, and couldn't take it'*. I thought the bad guys in the TV series were really interesting visually - 'two by two with hands of blue' - and really didn't understand why the quiet, menacing men with the weird gloves were replaced with a paint by numbers Dark And Brooding Assassin With A Sense Of Honour. It was as if Joss looked at everything that was remotely quirky, or different, or original and decided it was all too risky. Probably why his show got cut in the first place. Best replace it with a series of cliches from the last 30 years of science fiction.
The TV series was vastly overhyped, but on the quiet I rather liked it. I found it comfortable to watch and had some cute characters. OK, it wasn't stunning, and Joss Whedon plot has always been fairly clunky, but I never found myself sitting through it thinking 'when can I go' which was a constant refrain in my head throughout the film.
*Yes. That was a line from the film. I actually quite liked it. I think that was one of the four I liked. See. I'm not all hatred and bile.
And that's me done.
In other news, I really liked 'A History Of Violence' and found it a very moving and interesting film dealing with some interesting issues. Can I also recommend 'It's All Gone Pete Tong' which I think is out of DVD now. It wasn't big and many may not get it, but I rather liked that as well.
And now, work is done and I am heading home!
