a more excellent shade of blue
Watched and greatly enjoyed Serenity last night. I’d watch the series but Tom from my Tuesday morning men’s group saw a few episodes and cautioned me there are some unsavory moments in it, things I’d rather avoid. The movie, ironically (since TV shows are usually tamer than their film adaptations), was pretty clean.
I won’t go into a plot exposition, but only point out that it’s a kind of a sci-fi/western hybrid with excellent characterizations and fresh, witty dialogue. The way the characters are portrayed is especially good—they’re given smart exchanges that allow them to feel like more than just two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Not only that, their interpersonal chemistry is palpable and rounds them out further; it makes you care about them and gives an emotional backbone to the action scenes.
I couldn’t help noticing a marked contrast between the film and the steamroller sci-fi franchise of the past 15 years or so: The Star Wars prequel trilogy. The comparison is especially apt given that Serenity and Revenge of the Sith came out roughly at the same time. Everything the Star Wars movies did wrong, Serenity does right. I could go on for ages, but I’ll just point out a few of the contrasting elements:
- Instead of just cramming as much sci-fi garbage as they could on the screen, Serenity focuses on story, dialogue and character development, connecting you to the sense of urgency the characters feel and giving a strong emotional center to the action scenes in spite of the fact that there isn’t nearly as much crap going on as there is in the Lucas films.
- The dialogue and acting in Serenity is exponentially better than in Star Wars. This is no difficult achievement given how utterly, mind-bogglingly terrible those elements were in the prequel trilogy. And not only do they stand out in comparison to the Star Wars prequels, the dialogue and acting actually shine in comparison to good films of any genre—there’s a crispness to the words and the inflection with which they’re delivered that keeps you engaged and interested on many levels.
In addition to the Star Wars smackdown, there are some other noteworthy aspects to Serenity:
Though he’s not the first to present a less-than-polished vision of the future (in contrast to the Star Trek universe, where “war, poverty and disease have disappeared”), I admire how forthcoming Joss Whedon is about the worldview reflected in his film:
“…nothing will change in the future: technology will advance, but we will still have the same political, moral, and ethical problems as today.”
I know it’s implied in many other sci-fi works (take the rough-and-tumble neo-noir dystopian vision of Blade Runner, for example); I guess I just admire Whedon for being so explicit about the take on human nature that informed his screenwriting and directing.
One more thing about the film: I also couldn’t help noticing the parallels to Cowboy Bebop:
- The rag-tag group of mercenaries with nothing binding them together except their own fickle loyalties
- The disgrunted yet charismatic “leader” driven by a certain philosophy/outlook on life
- And even the synthesis of a future universe with iconic 19th- and 20th-century elements.
All in all, Serenity is a great film. It’s in my sci fi top-five for sure. Two thumbs up.