The Serenity thread below has stayed spoiler-free, so I'm offering this post as a place to launch into full, SPOILER-laden discussion of the movie. Don't click on the comments if you haven't seen it yet.
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I was glad my prediction was wrong. Initially, I assumed that only one of the "crew" would survive (either River or Shepard Book). So I'm glad I was wrong about that.
But Wash? Noooo! He was the plucky comic relief! I can't believe they killed him!
The plot was fantastic, the action was intense (even though they cheated and had sound in space) and the music was outstanding.
What bugs me is that Wash dies so stupidly. Book at least dies for a reason and advances the plot. Wash's seemed like we'd missed our violence quota for the week or something. :(
I think that was the point of Wash's death - not all deaths are noble or courageous, sometimes they just happen. Having seen it twice now that's what I conclude. That and he wanted to show Zoey cut off her emotions and snap back to soldier personae while being ready to die because she had nothing left to live for.
I agree. Joss is always about avoiding the cliche. It reminds me of that henchman in the Train Job, whom Mal kicks into the engine. No guns-a-blazing, big-death-speech there. Sometimes, people just die.
Wash's death serves several points, narratively speaking.
1) David's points about motivating Zoe.
2) It establishes the Reavers as a credible threat. (Just as Book's death, besides motivating Mal into action, establishes the Operative as a credible threat.) After all, how real a threat can they be if no one dies?
3) By killing "plucky comic relief" guy, who never dies in these movies, you really make a statement that "all bets are off" from here on out. Anyone could die. When you then see Zoe take a blade to the back, Jayne and Simon get shot, and Kaylee take a spread of darts (are they poisoned?), you don't really know for sure whether they'll make it or not.
4) It hits the fans where it hurts. Ask the Firefly fans who their favorite character is, and nearly all of them will answer Wash or Jayne. By killing one of them, you raise the stakes on the whole movie for fans of the series.
As for the timing of the death, and the notion that it wasn't noble or courageous, I sort of disagree. Wash dies just moments after he saved the day with his amazing piloting skills. He died "in his element," doing the thing he does best. He died having had his perfect, heroic moment.
We know Wash is not a fighter. If he had totally survived the crash only to end up defending the bottleneck with everyone else and getting killed there, it would have been a "less appropriate" death for Wash, I think. Instead, he dies in the pilot chair -- exactly the way he "ought to."
I was kinda quiet on the ride home from the theater, and LWC asked if I was disappointed. I said no, I am wholly and totally appointed, or whatever the opposite of that is.
Before the first Trek movie came out, we said things like: It should be just like a regular episode but longer! Do things you can't do on a TV show! Tie up some loose ends! Explain some things! Make something big happen in the universe! Kill off a couple of characters!
Serenity did it ALL and did it PERFECTLY. I am stunned by how good it was. I wanted so badly for it to be good, and am pleased beyond my wildest imagination. Nothing was spoiled for me either, thank God.
When Wash died, I truly believed Joss was going to kill them all off and then have prequels as sequels. Or "midquels," or whatever you call them.
I agree that Wash died in his heroic moment, and that he hurt the worst. He wasn't my favorite character, but man, he was the funny husband guy.
I missed the theme song, and yes we did stay until the end to hear the instrumental.
I am much looking forward to the sequel, and I think it will be fantastic. I just hope it makes enough money. If it makes $100 million, that'll do it. Fingers crossed.
I can't agree more; As DH will attest, nothing aggrivates me more than the "Tell my wife I love her..." Death scenes... "Saving Private Ryan" had the most amazing death scenes because they were really what happens... either you just die, or you scream for your mommy while you die... or you babble about nothing that makes sense. But rarely... if ever... do you go on explaining what the rest of the group ought to do or give mission orders or tell the others to carry on without them...
The other thing that Joss did that I absolutely loved was completely and totally make you believe that Simon was done for... You might think Zoe was going to make it, you might even think Kaylee was going to make it... but when Simon took the bullet... everything went quiet... and he told River he loved her... and he looked like he was a gonner... We were sure of that... Simon was gone...
Psyche!
I loved that... Joss proved once again that saying "Tell my wife I love her" doesn't mean it's the end of that character... and not saying it doesn't mean it isn't the end...
DH... There is word verification! That's awesome! Seeing as how all I get is spam now, I think I'll see if I can't activate that! Suweet!
nerfnipple: Anyone know if Alan is livid? Can we start a protest site?
I went and saw the preview back in June or so and Nathan Fillion was there to do a Q&A afterward. During the movie, he got a text message on his phone from Alan Tudyk that said:
"Please tell everyone that it is a good thing that Wash died. He had a very serious drinking problem that was never brought up in the show or the film, but if he'd continued to fly under the influence, he would certainly have killed everyone eventually."
So, if he can joke about it, I doubt he's too mad.
Also, there was a site called savewash.com (or maybe .org?) that popped up back around May. It was pretty much pushing for Wash showing up at the end and saying, "Ow, I'm hurt pretty bad, but I think I'll be okay..."
Re: sound in space, IIRC Joss in interview said they were able to cheat it because the big space battle takes place just inside a planet's atmosphere. I'll be watching for that when I see the finished movie.
Were there any obvious cuts, reshoots or other changes from the preview version?
There are very few changes from the preview version. Nothing significant at all. In fact, they may not actually be changes -- it just may be that the preview print was so washed-out and of such low quality that you couldn't totally see what was there before. For example:
There's a nifty forcefield on the records room where The Operative watches the recording of Simon and River's escape at the beginning of the film.
When River starts kicking ass at the Maidenhead bar, the first few seconds of the fight are sort of "her point of view." The background sounds are gone, and the whole picture has a blue-ish tint to it that's slightly blurred at the edges.
Really, the only thing that I can say changed for sure was the opening credits. Slightly. Where they used to just come on the screen, then go away, they now sort of "ripple" on to the screen like a wave... or something. It's a little hard to explain. You'll recognize it when you see it though.
10 comments:
I was glad my prediction was wrong. Initially, I assumed that only one of the "crew" would survive (either River or Shepard Book). So I'm glad I was wrong about that.
But Wash? Noooo! He was the plucky comic relief! I can't believe they killed him!
The plot was fantastic, the action was intense (even though they cheated and had sound in space) and the music was outstanding.
Can't wait for the next one :)
What bugs me is that Wash dies so stupidly. Book at least dies for a reason and advances the plot. Wash's seemed like we'd missed our violence quota for the week or something. :(
Gonna make doing a sequel a bit tricky...
I think that was the point of Wash's death - not all deaths are noble or courageous, sometimes they just happen. Having seen it twice now that's what I conclude. That and he wanted to show Zoey cut off her emotions and snap back to soldier personae while being ready to die because she had nothing left to live for.
I agree. Joss is always about avoiding the cliche. It reminds me of that henchman in the Train Job, whom Mal kicks into the engine. No guns-a-blazing, big-death-speech there. Sometimes, people just die.
Wash's death serves several points, narratively speaking.
1) David's points about motivating Zoe.
2) It establishes the Reavers as a credible threat. (Just as Book's death, besides motivating Mal into action, establishes the Operative as a credible threat.) After all, how real a threat can they be if no one dies?
3) By killing "plucky comic relief" guy, who never dies in these movies, you really make a statement that "all bets are off" from here on out. Anyone could die. When you then see Zoe take a blade to the back, Jayne and Simon get shot, and Kaylee take a spread of darts (are they poisoned?), you don't really know for sure whether they'll make it or not.
4) It hits the fans where it hurts. Ask the Firefly fans who their favorite character is, and nearly all of them will answer Wash or Jayne. By killing one of them, you raise the stakes on the whole movie for fans of the series.
As for the timing of the death, and the notion that it wasn't noble or courageous, I sort of disagree. Wash dies just moments after he saved the day with his amazing piloting skills. He died "in his element," doing the thing he does best. He died having had his perfect, heroic moment.
We know Wash is not a fighter. If he had totally survived the crash only to end up defending the bottleneck with everyone else and getting killed there, it would have been a "less appropriate" death for Wash, I think. Instead, he dies in the pilot chair -- exactly the way he "ought to."
I was kinda quiet on the ride home from the theater, and LWC asked if I was disappointed. I said no, I am wholly and totally appointed, or whatever the opposite of that is.
Before the first Trek movie came out, we said things like: It should be just like a regular episode but longer! Do things you can't do on a TV show! Tie up some loose ends! Explain some things! Make something big happen in the universe! Kill off a couple of characters!
Serenity did it ALL and did it PERFECTLY. I am stunned by how good it was. I wanted so badly for it to be good, and am pleased beyond my wildest imagination. Nothing was spoiled for me either, thank God.
When Wash died, I truly believed Joss was going to kill them all off and then have prequels as sequels. Or "midquels," or whatever you call them.
I agree that Wash died in his heroic moment, and that he hurt the worst. He wasn't my favorite character, but man, he was the funny husband guy.
I missed the theme song, and yes we did stay until the end to hear the instrumental.
I am much looking forward to the sequel, and I think it will be fantastic. I just hope it makes enough money. If it makes $100 million, that'll do it. Fingers crossed.
I can't agree more; As DH will attest, nothing aggrivates me more than the "Tell my wife I love her..." Death scenes... "Saving Private Ryan" had the most amazing death scenes because they were really what happens... either you just die, or you scream for your mommy while you die... or you babble about nothing that makes sense. But rarely... if ever... do you go on explaining what the rest of the group ought to do or give mission orders or tell the others to carry on without them...
The other thing that Joss did that I absolutely loved was completely and totally make you believe that Simon was done for... You might think Zoe was going to make it, you might even think Kaylee was going to make it... but when Simon took the bullet... everything went quiet... and he told River he loved her... and he looked like he was a gonner... We were sure of that... Simon was gone...
Psyche!
I loved that... Joss proved once again that saying "Tell my wife I love her" doesn't mean it's the end of that character... and not saying it doesn't mean it isn't the end...
DH... There is word verification! That's awesome! Seeing as how all I get is spam now, I think I'll see if I can't activate that! Suweet!
From a Fark thread, and too funny not to post:
nerfnipple: Anyone know if Alan is livid? Can we start a protest site?
I went and saw the preview back in June or so and Nathan Fillion was there to do a Q&A afterward. During the movie, he got a text message on his phone from Alan Tudyk that said:
"Please tell everyone that it is a good thing that Wash died. He had a very serious drinking problem that was never brought up in the show or the film, but if he'd continued to fly under the influence, he would certainly have killed everyone eventually."
So, if he can joke about it, I doubt he's too mad.
Also, there was a site called savewash.com (or maybe .org?) that popped up back around May. It was pretty much pushing for Wash showing up at the end and saying, "Ow, I'm hurt pretty bad, but I think I'll be okay..."
Re: sound in space, IIRC Joss in interview said they were able to cheat it because the big space battle takes place just inside a planet's atmosphere. I'll be watching for that when I see the finished movie.
Were there any obvious cuts, reshoots or other changes from the preview version?
There are very few changes from the preview version. Nothing significant at all. In fact, they may not actually be changes -- it just may be that the preview print was so washed-out and of such low quality that you couldn't totally see what was there before. For example:
There's a nifty forcefield on the records room where The Operative watches the recording of Simon and River's escape at the beginning of the film.
When River starts kicking ass at the Maidenhead bar, the first few seconds of the fight are sort of "her point of view." The background sounds are gone, and the whole picture has a blue-ish tint to it that's slightly blurred at the edges.
Really, the only thing that I can say changed for sure was the opening credits. Slightly. Where they used to just come on the screen, then go away, they now sort of "ripple" on to the screen like a wave... or something. It's a little hard to explain. You'll recognize it when you see it though.
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