Woohoo! I understand ita was right.

t is dejected in her wrongness

Saw Serenity again tonight with a group of Browncoats in a "VIP" theatre (like, 24 seats and they bring drinks to your seat). It was a nice way to see it.

This is how I want to see it again.

Personally, I would have kept the Dark!Mal moments in. It's the driving of the characters to extreme circumstances that interests me. Fox!Mal (as evident by the difference of 'Serenity' (pilot) to 'The Train Job') annoys me. If I wanted Chandler, I'd watch Friends.

I certainly think the advertising for Serenity is just.. not right, in retrospect. But it's a hard thing to market. I had a go at putting together a trailer for the DVD yesterday, which roughly included:

- Starts "Secrets are not my concern. Keeping them, is" from The Operative.

- "Serenity" theme, Universal logo.

- Serenity logo, pulls out to ship.

- Fly by of Serenity at the end of the film ("Love").

- Serenity landing in Beaumonde.

- River pre-Miranda Fruity Oaty Bar freakage (not the Oaty Bar itself, River's flash reactions).

- "Who are we going to find in there... the girl, or the weapon?"

- River Reaver grabbing throat freakage.

- Kaylee on Haven, shocked. River stood beside the burning swing.

- "From Oscar nominee Joss Whedon"

- Shots of crew, with guns, wondering around Miranda.

- Bodies. River freaking out. "God, make me a stone".

- Review quote.

- "I know the secret. The truth that burned up River Tam's brain."

- Another review quote.

- "This is what they feared she knew. Somebody has to speak for these people".

- "Serenity on DVD" with date.

The end. It's all undercut with emotional music. It's very serious in tone. There's little CGI. It's nearly all character shots talking.

It won't go anywhere, as I don't edit trailers for a living. And it's quite possibly crap. But I think it's more newbie friendly, as it's very much not screaming "B MOVIE@~!" to me, it's saying "Intelligent, serious film about.. something".

Personally, I would have kept the Dark!Mal moments in. It's the driving of the characters to extreme circumstances that interests me. Fox!Mal (as evident by the difference of 'Serenity' (pilot) to 'The Train Job') annoys me. If I wanted Chandler, I'd watch Friends

There is a point where you go from dark and interesting to "no redeeming value". I personally think making him darker than he already was in the film would cross that line. Yes, TTJ!Mal is the lightest we ever see him, but still kicks Crow into the engine. He's still not all flowers and puppies. He also pretty close to Serenity the pilot Mal in every other episode of the series.

I have to agree with the level of torturedness displayed by Mal in the movie. I like Dark!Mal, but any darker and I would have been saying "WTF, why aren't these people mutinying?" As it was, I asked that a couple times in the movie, anyway! The only excuse I had was having knowledge of the series, and there's a percentage of the people who went to the movie who didn't have that to refer back to. As much as I like Dark!Mal, I wonder how many viewers were turned off by him?

Thinking about DarkMal, take a look at recent TV shows. House, Criminal Minds, The Inside, Lost.. all with dark elements. Its just time.

(and yes, there are lots more shows that I didn't name)

Hmmm. Yeah, but there's a certain level of dark the general viewing public won't go for. And, The Inside is another good example. It got cancelled, too.

I don't find Lost dark -- and certainly none of the leads are. I barely find House dark either.

ita is me. House is just bitter but with a heart of gold and someone in the corner pukes blood because of a disease -- hardly the stuff real darkness is made of.

And Criminal Minds? Where's the dark in that?