Serenity Now!

Firefly the movie! I waited a long time for this. I was expecting excitement, hilarity, big screen action and the return of all the gang… and I came away from the movie sad and heartbroken. This is not how I wanted to feel. I shouldn’t say now what happened in the movie to make me feel so miserable, but I will once all the fans have seen for themselves. As a fan myself, I will buy the DVD when it is out and see if Josh Wedon (writer and creator) has a decent explanation for what he did. I can see no reason. Shock value has no place in “Firefly.” We know life is cruel, but Serenity was a haven. Those in it were broken to begin with, and might get hurt sometimes, but no should have to… well, I’ve said too much already. Let’s move on to the general pros and cons of the film itself.

On the plus side, the movie opens with an awesome walk-through of the ship. It starts on the outside, goes through the front window into the bridge (a little banter between Mal and Wash), then Mal goes down the corridor, banters with Zoe, banters with Jayne, into the kitchen, into the engine room (yells at Kaylee), back out to the hold (argues with Simon), fires up the new and improved Mule and out the back. Wonderful, this is Josh at his best, showing us the ship and its symbiotic relationship with the beloved crew. Strangely missing is Book and Inara who we find out later, have gone off at some time and are doing their own thing. Away from the ship, these two looked radically different from the show. Inara somehow didn’t look quite so glamorous and Book looked old beyond his years.

There’s a great deal to be said on the negative side (see the first paragraph), but I will only talk about the structure. Unlike the series, there was little quiet time for the crew due to the motion picture level of constant action. The banter was also somewhat rushed and hard to catch on occasion. Another point is that there were very few questions from the series answered. Kaylee gets to kiss Simon, but Mal and Inara’s relationship isn’t addressed. We will never know what Book’s secret was or the romantic beginnings of Wash and Zoe. The men with the blue hands never showed up and the Blue Sun Corporation was never mentioned. The main question that they did answer, “What are the origins of the Reavers?” was one that I never even bothered to ask.

Right now, I can’t say too much more about the movie; I’m still moving through the seven stages of grieving. I think I’m at the “Hurt Josh” level.

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LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)

Firefly Disc 4

The movie’s coming! Here’s the last of the episodes…

“The Message” – What was the message, besides the dead body that was mailed to Mal and Zoe? It is “When you can’t run, then crawl, and when you can’t crawl, get someone to carry you.” Throughout this episode, the last part was never spoken; we didn’t know what the message was until the very end. But another message is clear for this crew. Mal and Zoe may have a permanent link to their old war buddies, but they are even more loyal to their current crew.

“Heart of Gold” – so, there are regular, run of the mill whores left in the universe. I feel better now. Some episodes come very close to being a western. This one crosses the line. Is it SF or is it a western? This is the question at the core of “Firefly.” It’s less of a western than “Gunsmoke”, and less of a SF than “StarTrek.” In the middle ground between the two “Firefly” has found a happy home. A home free from fancy laser weapons, free of aliens with bumpy foreheads, free of alternate universes with convenient deus-ex-machina endings… free of all the trappings of SF, and with more horses.

“Objects in Space” – the most awesome episode. This one was a great way to wrap up the truncated series. Even though River’s powers are still not explained or defined, at least she and Kaylee are friends again. A scene where Inara plans on leaving the ship was cut out for continuity’s sake. But it can be found in deleted scenes.

<*<*<*<>*>*>* >LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)

Short snips

I started my MLIS classes online from Drexel University this week, so the “reading for fun” part of my time is taken away by the “reading to get my degree” time. But I managed to see a few things this week.

The Doctor Who episode “Mind Robbers” just came out on DVD so I have to go backwards a bit to include it in my marathon. It features the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. D, Z, and J are all trapped in the Land of Fiction, where they are in danger of becoming fictional characters. It reminds me a little of Jasper Fforde’s books featuring Thursday Next. (I have four of them and have only read the first two so far.) As usual, the extras are extra special, with a boatload of people giving commentary and many interesting documentaries.

I watched the four-part series “The Crusades” hosted and written by Terry Jones. I just love documentaries about little known times in history. And I love it when the old axiom “Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it” rears its ugly head. The info is also helpful background to the Cadfael books I am supposedly reading.

“Yugi-Oh” the movie is nothing like the novel. Ha, just kidding! It’s a snappy little manga movie that doesn’t require months of commitment like most regular anime series. It was great!

“House” a television series started up for the fall season. If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now…. I really liked Hugh Laurie when he was British and funny. Here as a sour, grumpy American (New Jersey no less!) he is not so funny, but I watch the show. It’s on a month long hiatus for some sports or other, which frees up my Tuesday nights for homework.

In case you’re wondering… I’ve officially giving up on “Monarch of the Glen.” One less hour per week of wasted effort, one more hour to do homework. It was blissfully missing for two weeks while my local PBS station ran a pledge drive. I didn’t miss it. But, I’ll probably start watching again once Lexie leaves.


<*<*<*<>*>*>* >LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)

Dune the Movie

I realize that most movies are radically different from the book they came from. This one had the standard condensation of plot and elimination of lesser scenes for the sake of time. But it also had some completely new stuff like the “weirding” weapons, and the folding of space by the mutated Guild members. There was a great deal of unnecessary voice-over thoughts. Many of these asides were not needed especially if the actors were doing their jobs. However, it certainly wasn’t as bad or redundant as Bruce Willis’ blithery opening in the movie “Last Man Standing.”

The last scene where it rained was very bizarre… what did it mean? Was Paul a God? In the book there was a lot of prophesy and the coming of the “One,” but I believed it was all just the clever planning of the Bene Gesserit. The movie didn’t have any of that prophesy-seeding stuff and made it seem like the Gods really sent Paul.

David Lynch probably made it more “mystical” just like he makes most of his films, but even so it didn’t really feel like a Lynch film. There isn’t enough time in the world to afford this movie the same slow, tempered pace that is the hallmark of a Lynch film. But you can still have fun pointing out his standard cast of players, and the director himself as a spice miner.

Overall, it was a decent movie. Netflix has the mini-series version that was made more recently, but I will wait a while to watch that since I am all Duned out.

<*<*<*<>*>*>* >LIBRARIANS: the books, the fame, the fortune… What more could you want? (Maybe more books.)