{"id":1640,"date":"2010-05-24T11:44:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T16:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2010-06-24T16:28:58","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T21:28:58","slug":"a-more-excellent-shade-of-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boldulysses.com\/?p=1640","title":{"rendered":"a more excellent shade of blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watched and greatly enjoyed Serenity<\/em><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2014they’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<\/em> about them and gives an emotional backbone to the action scenes.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t help noticing a marked contrast between the film and the<\/em> steamroller sci-fi franchise of the past 15 years or so: The Star Wars<\/em> prequel trilogy. The comparison is especially apt given that Serenity<\/em> and Revenge of the Sith<\/em> came out roughly at the same time. Everything the Star Wars<\/em> movies did wrong, Serenity<\/em> does right. I could go on for ages, but I’ll just point out a few of the contrasting elements:<\/p>\n