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"Serenity" a smart space opera |
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Written by SHAWN FEAKINS
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Friday, 30 September 2005 |
Let's get this out of the way. I'm a geek. “Star Wars,” comic books, ’80s cartoons, even sci-fi conventions. So it's a minor miracle that I have a hot girlfriend. So when “Serenity,” Joss Whedon's movie version of his fan-fueled resurrected series, not even a raging case of testicular appendicitis (where I feel like I'm being kicked in the balls every 15 minutes, thank you very much) could keep me away on opening night.
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"Serenity"
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 Entertainment
 Art
Writted and directed by Joss Whedon
Starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, and some sexual references.
Released September 30, 2005
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Whedon's “Firefly” universe takes geekdom's "final frontier" mantra literally and creates a universe of the sci-fi western. Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan FIllion) leads a diverse crew of misfits and thieves, all while lending his protection to a brother and sister on the run from the very government he helped lose a war against. It is these siblings that causes a government operative to attempt to reclaim them, as the sister, River (Summer Glau) was modified with psychic ability and managed to hang around too many top-secret officials with leaky brains. It's a large cast, but like the best of ensemble pieces, they mesh and bounce off one another perfectly. Whedon's famed ear for off-kilter dialogue is in full effect, leading even non-geeks into peals of laughter in the theater. Non-geeks are brought up to speed within the first five minutes, in an ingenious narrative device which also furthers the plot at the same time. Whedon's greatest strength is his ability to subvert the audience's expectations by hiding plot twists under common narrative tropes. For instance, the classic pan shot of the space ship, with swelling music and the like is subverted by piece of it falling off in mid musical cue... Whedon is a geek, and he's seen enough TV and movies to know what people expect, and he plays the audience the entire way through. But that makes this movie sound like it's a thinker, which it can be. But you also have space-cannibals (the Indians to the Cowboys), a richly built world mixing Asian and Western sensibilities, a ludicrously balletic series of fight scenes, giant explosive space battles, and many rousing speeches by men determined to do what is right. It's space-opera with a brain. And I'm geek enough to admit that this movie can probably make a man out of me, and a geek out of other men and women. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
