Me too -- so whew!

Another late night for me.

The Flick Filosopher, whose caption contest I linked to yesterday, has her initial thoughts on the overall series up.

It often leaves the viewer to infer meaning from context, and that puts Firefly in a league all its own: it assumes a degree of intelligence on the part of the audience that few shows dare to try to get away with. Which is perhaps why it crashed and burned before it had a chance to find its audience: which isn't to say that the mainstream audience is stupid (though it may be), but that network execs weren't willing to take the chance that it wasn't.

Tomorrow, she'll be posting about individual eps, and then either Thursday or Friday will have the Serenity movie review available.

A review from a friend:

I've realized I've actually been writing on things and not sending them out. Oh well. This one is important because I do want to get the word out. Serenity is a solid action sci-fi movie which lacks in WOW factor but has what all other Sci-Fi movies are missing (character development, interesting subtext, tasty dialogue). Now let's not confuse it, this is a TV show that has been made into a movie, This is not for people that are fans of FIREFLY, but those that are not. This movie will not do any insane amount of business, but it will get Joss Whedon noticed as a feature director. Better than the TV show it is based on, it is a good primer for those who are not in the cult of Whedon.

I know that some really hate writer/director Joss Whedon while others diefy him, but he is one of the better writers of sharp ensemble dialogue. While he trades heavily on genre cliches, like Nicholas Meyer before him, he relishes in humanizing these cliches and giving these old archetypes new life. You quickly to his characters, even if you are unfamiliar with them. Firefly the TV show has a large ensemble cast and it is all assembled here. The movie also benefits from Chiwetel Ejiofor (from Dirty Pretty Things) playing the calm and methodical "Operative." Unfortunately for non-show fans, one of the most interesting parts of his character is his character symmetry with a Sheperd who has a brief cameo in the movie. Many of the regular cast get lost in the mix, but luckily the rest get to shine (specifically the very Han-Solo-ish lead Nathon Fillion and his live-wire goon Adam Baldwin). One thing these two actors are exceptional at (which is Whedon's breed and butter) is to deliver hard-core pulp dialogue and then give it a spin of confusion or vulnerability. Like when Baldwin declares mutanous thoughts and Fillion barks at him, "Do you want to be Captain?" and Baldwin replies plainly, "Yeah, I do." Then Fillion pauses awkwardly, uncertain how to continue since he didn't expect Baldwin to stand up and remarks childishly, "Well, you can't!"

Even better is as the climax starts winding up, Whedon does his typical "no one is safe" routine and people you like get badly wounded and even die.

The action scenes are fine when its a one on one between characters (there's a nice organic smallness to the exchanges) , but whenever the action gets into large scale scuffles, the movie looks visually clunky. Now in truth, What Whedon needs is a good second unit director like a Mark Ellis or Vic Armstrong to punch his action. But this is a good $40 million dollar start. Let's see what he can do with more.

Serenity not doing well at Rotten Tomatoes (currently 57%).

eta: Though I saw this comment in place of one review:

SORRY - despite the fact that this film has already been screened to the general public at the Edinburgh Festival, Universal has slapped on an extra embargo, and the full review cannot appear here until two days before the film opens in the USA. No idea why, since it's actually rather good. All we can say is come back here on Sep 28th...

So the numbers might change dramatically tomorrow.

I love that rottentomatoes calls the Variety review a splat and the Village Voice a fresh, while metacritic calls both of them a 70.

I tried reading the Variety review to see why it would be considered "splatty" and my brain threatened hurl itself out my ears after just two paragraphs of Variety-speak.

I don't think it's a bad review at all. Metacritic called it better.

On my way home from work I heard an ad for Serenity. Interesting thing about the ad is that it focused on the "sneak preview" showings, how fast they sold out and the reaction of the viewers.(though that was fairly generic)

This weekend, I discovered that Atherton Wing = Danny Hecht! Hee.

You know, I caught part of the first Alias episode on Sunday and I was wondering why Danny looked familiar (beyond me having seen the episode before.) Of course, I thought Atherton looked familiar and couldn't place him either. It all makes sense now.