Sunday 10/09/05
Saw Serenity tonight. It was engaging and engrossing and it sucked me in totally. There were a couple of completely clever plot twists. I had got a pretty bad spoiler beforehand, but I was still shocked when the spoiled event actually happened -- somehow I'd forgotten.
Contrary to published reports, the original "Firefly" theme does make an appearance, albeit without any singing, if you sit in your seat long enough.
There were a few things that bothered me about it, nits I could pick. For one thing, someone needs to tell Joss Whedon that space is three dimensional. (I'll elaborate in comments if necessary.) For another, I kept expecting a certain character to break into plausible-sounding but ultimately wrong exposition about how numbers explain everything, and I found this bit of casting quite distracting. The character himself is pretty lame and cliche, really -- you've seen him before. You have also seen the part of the plot that involves him before, and there are no real twists to it either.
A good sci-fi flick. Not a great one. It doesn't have quite enough style and verve to get away with its plot weaknesses. Its $10 million opening weekend sounds about right to me. Still, it was a lot of fun and it sure was good to see that universe again. I'll probably buy the DVD.
aspcomments2 by Jerry Kindall
based on aspcomments by sneaker