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Review of X3: The Last Stand (Part 3)
Problem #3 SOUND AND SCORE. This is the first movie that I have seen where someone else besides me has commented that the score annoyed them so much that they were almost willing to leave in the middle of the movie. John Powell’s score for X3 would have been perfect if he was trying to score the Pelican Brief or Polyanna, not a liet-motiff driven superhero summer blockbuster. John Ottman did such a beautiful job cleaning up the mess left by Michael Kamen from X-men (Rest in Peace, Mr. Kamen) that X3’s score should have written itself. Instead, Powell’s score loses its way numerous times and provides a miscued counterpart to the already uncoordinated visuals. The score was only further harmed by the lack of proper sound editing. In many cases, the sounds seemed way off what should (or what feasibly could) be happening. 
A great example of this is the scene when Wolverine faces off against Spike (the spear throwing mutant) in the forest. As Wolverine jumps into him and kills him, we hear very loud sounds of what seems like water droplets falling. I know what you’re thinking…Wolverine was stabbed while he killed Spike and that’s blood dripping from the wound. Yes, Wolverine got stabbed, but the wound wasn’t dripping since the blood was being absorbed by the shirt. Even if blood was dripping from the wound, it shouldn’t have been THAT LOUD! This may sound like such a minor point, but it really bugged the daylights out of me! I admit that I have little experience with sound mixing, but even I know that blood dropping in a forest should not be as loud as water dropping in a completely silent room when done for dramatic effect. Even the sound of Peter’s blood droplet hitting the floor in the first Spiderman movie was more quiet than this (and it played an actual role in the story)!
Problem #4: PHOENIX IS ALL POWERFUL AND STUPID!
Ratner does a good job showing that Phoenix is extremely powerful and won’t be anyone’s fool when Charles Xavier tries to quell her emotional rage in her old home. The problem is…right after Magneto tells Charles that Phoenix won’t fall for it, he makes a similar plea and she falls for it. Okay…to be honest, Magneto may have sweet-talked her a little better than Xavier did. 
But then he basically tells her that he is just using her during the final battle. In fact, if Phoenix is so powerful, why didn’t she do anything during the first half of the battle? Phoenix should have been able to disarm the guards and kill Leech (played reasonably well, given the little dialogue and screen time that his character was despite being at the center of the movie’s plot, by Cameron Bright) herself. 
In fact, if the writers of X3 used this, they could have spared themselves a lot of headache trying to give the other 100 mutants in the Brotherhood a purpose and special powers (and the story would have been that much more powerful). Instead, Phoenix, the most powerful mutant there just stands around. You could try to argue that Phoenix would have done something but the little bit of Jean still left in her was holding her back. If that was the case, SHOW that. That would have made the movie for me right there. I would have forgiven EVERYTHING I hated about this movie if Phoenix struggled more with Jean Grey than the small bit actually shown in the movie. That would have made the story ten times stronger and given much more depth and importance to X3’s central character, Phoenix! It seems so simple but it would have been brilliant!!!
Problem #5: The JUGGERNAUT IS ALL POWERFUL AND STUPID!
Let’s admit it, even in the comics Cain Marko (Juggernaut) wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But come on, not even he was THIS dumb. As Xavier and Magneto enter Jean’s house, the only thing that Magneto tells Juggernaut to do is to keep the X-Men out of the house. It’s a simple enough task, even for someone as dim-witted as Juggernaut. So what’s the first thing Juggernaut does when Wolverine comes storming toward the house? He tosses Wolverine inside. Juggernaut actually helped Wolverine get in the house quicker than he could have on his own and closer to where Jean was at that! This is a major problem with the story. Things that make no sense occur just because someone thought it would look cool.
The story of X3 could actually have still been salvaged despite being overly ambitious with the number of characters it wanted to introduce and all the plotlines it wanted to answer, but the team that made the movie ultimately couldn’t handle it. The 5 problems that I have listed here are the biggest 5 in my mind, but there are several more. As I said at the beginning of my review, this is a review of the movie and not how the movie portrayed a storyline and characters already known to the X-men fanbase. The movie could have disregarded the comic’s storylines like it did and still could be a good movie on it’s own. Unfortunately it was neither. My only hope is that the Wolverine spinoff movie will be much better.
Read the rest of this review below
Review of X3: The Last Stand (Part 2)
What follows next is a critique on the movie, not how well it adapted the comic storyline. I have decided to narrow down what I didn’t like about the movie into the top 5 problems (though I can think of several more).
Problem #1: TIME. This movie enjoys playing with time so much that even Dr. Emmit L Brown would be perplexed. As Magneto is using the Golden Gate Bridge to form a walkway to Alcatraz island, it is late afternoon. As the mutants near the edge, it is sunset in a single shot with the sun still very much above the horizon. Suddenly, when the mutants jump off the bridge, it’s completely night time. It’s not dusk, it’s night time. Where did we lose the time? Did Magneto and company stop for a smoke break? 
Secondly, Angel proves that he’s just as fast as the Blackbird (X-Jet)!. Angel leaves to go to the X-Mansion in upstate New York. When the X-Men leave to fight Magneto on Alcatraz, Angel does not come with. Amazingly, however, Angel is able to fly in and save his father during the final battle! Unless the battle raged on for a number of hours, Angel is nearly as fast as the X-Jet! Give me a break….
Problem #2. TOO MANY CHARACTERS…NOTHING TO DO. At the end of the film I found myself asking what was the point of several characters. What was the real purpose of having Rogue, Angel, Colossus, and countless others in the movie? Sure, each of them had a small role in the movie…but their stories were left ultimately open without proper development or closure. Rogue was used as the jealous girlfriend pawn of a love triangle that didn’t seem to go further than a single moment between Bobby “Iceman” Drake and Kitty Pryde. 
Because she is so upset with her lack of being able to touch another human without killing him or her, she decides to take the cure. This moment would have been extremely poignant if the tension between Bobby, Rogue and Kitty had been given a chance to escalate and flare up. Instead, it feels like an afterthought and it has been robbed of its worth as a truly wonderful cinematic moment. This could have been a huge shock for the movie’s end, instead it’s a so-so..”Oh really…that’s interesting” moment. 
Colossus, sadly, only seems to serve one purpose in this film…to throw Wolverine around. Honestly, what else did he really do? In X3 he’s been promoted to being one of the main X-men team members…but he has seemingly less screen time and certainly less dialogue than in X2. In a matter of speaking, he’s been demoted! 
Angel is the “what was his purpose?” mutant I can list that someone could put up somewhat of a fight about. He was supposed to be one of the most important mutants of the movie according to Brett Ratner. Unfortunately, the only part of the character that actually felt meaningful was the touching opening scene of a young Angel attempting to shave off his wings in an attempt to hide his mutation from his disapproving father. This scene alone had more heart than the rest of the movie. Once again, you could have made an entire movie around the story arc of Angel joining the X-men while struggling to gain acceptance from his father. Once again, cinematic gold cast aside due to an over-zealous story. 
Cyclops is another “WTF” mutant whose purpose in the story is questionable, however at least he has an excuse. James Marsden followed Bryan Singer to Superman Returns, which conflicted with the shooting schedule of the highly-rushed X3. This meant that no matter what, Cyclops would have a much smaller role in X3 than he did in the previous films. I can understand that, except for the fact that he was underused even in the scenes in which he DID appear! I could name a dozen or more mutants that served no true purpose but alas…that would take too long, and Whisky-induced anger is beginning to fade…
See the rest of this review above...
Review of X3: The Last Stand (Part I)
I haven’t posted here in a while (despite the fact that I have been going to the movies). Rather than playing catch up, I’ll just start with the one that forced me to return to the blog in the first place – X3: The Last Stand.
To begin with, let me inform you where I’m coming from when I write this review. I grew up reading the X-men comics religiously and watching the cartoon on Fox, so I know the true elements of the storylines being presented in X3. That said, I am also not naïve enough to think that the Dark Phoenix storyline from the comics complete with Corsair and the StarJammers, Lilandra and theX’iar, as well as the Hellfire Club could realistically fit in the X-men reality that Bryan Singer set up in the first two movies. I am willing to give a lot of lead way in terms of details and plotlines assuming that the soul of the character stays true to the comics.
With the film still months away, and a myriad of directors were leaving the project and bad comments began swirling around Brett Ratner, director of the fairly successful Rush Hour movies. I knew that a storm was coming and either the fans would learn to appreciate the new helmsman of the X-franchise or would eternally castigate him for eternally ruining what some have called “the best Superhero films of all time”. Sadly, it was the latter, and Brett Ratner will never be welcomed amongst the comic book fan community….that is if Ain’t It Cool News had I their way. 
Given the negative press by Harry and Company, I decided to go into this movie expecting to be disappointed but anticipating being knocked out of my seat. Unfortunately, even my low standings coming into the movie could not completely salvage the experience of seeing X3 with me.
Before I go into the negative aspects, let me point out some of my favorite points about X3. First and foremost, no one could play the Beast better than Kelsey Grammer. 
Kelsey’s intellectual tone and gesture truly brought out the soul of the Beast, which acted wonderfully as a foil for exchanges with Wolverine’s iconoclastic views. Despite the weird “fuzzy” arm, which should have resembled the hair on a Wookiee more than an Ewok, Beast was perfectly executed on the screen – especially when he acrobatically swings around a lightpost to take on some renegade mutants. Brillant!
Other character accolades go to Kitty Pryde. Thankfully, Kitty Pryde finally got some real screen time and a nice bit of dialogue. Canadian actress Ellen Page did a good job portraying the young and sensitive mutant from Illinois who has the ability to phase through solid matter by thought alone. While this is not the first X-Men movie to feature Kitty Pryde (she has previously appeared in both X-Men and X2 played by different actresses in cameo shots), it is the first bring her on as part of the team.
There were three especially wonderful scenes in the movie. The very first scene in the film still blows me away with the tremendous job of both acting and visual effects wizardry that brought us a younger Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Eric Lensherr “Magneto” Magnus (Ian McKellen) visiting the home of a young Jean Grey twenty years in the past. First off, the visual effects wizardry that meticulously removed the signs of aging from both McKellen and Stewart was fantastic, but was greatly aided by the acting of both of the movie’s best actors. McKellen and Stewart did a great job of “acting” younger through their comportment/posture. There were two other particularly brilliant scenes in this movie that really touched greatness: the moving scene of a young angel shaving his wings off (more on this later); and the moment when Mystique (once again played by Rebecca Romijn) realizes that she’s no longer a mutant and now case aside by Magneto (punch to the stomach powerful storytelling). 
Unfortunately, this is the extent of my accolades for X3. I so wanted this movie to be so much more than the negative reviews from the AICN staff made it out to be. Sadly…many of those reviews were correct.
See the rest of this Review
Review of X3: The Last Stand (Part I)
I haven’t posted here in a while (despite the fact that I have been going to the movies). Rather than playing catch up, I’ll just start with the one that forced me to return to the blog in the first place – X3: The Last Stand.
To begin with, let me inform you where I’m coming from when I write this review. I grew up reading the X-men comics religiously and watching the cartoon on Fox, so I know the true elements of the storylines being presented in X3. That said, I am also not naïve enough to think that the Dark Phoenix storyline from the comics complete with Corsair and the StarJammers, Lilandra and theX’iar, as well as the Hellfire Club could realistically fit in the X-men reality that Bryan Singer set up in the first two movies. I am willing to give a lot of lead way in terms of details and plotlines assuming that the soul of the character stays true to the comics.
With the film still months away, and a myriad of directors were leaving the project and bad comments began swirling around Brett Ratner, director of the fairly successful Rush Hour movies. I knew that a storm was coming and either the fans would learn to appreciate the new helmsman of the X-franchise or would eternally castigate him for eternally ruining what some have called “the best Superhero films of all time”. Sadly, it was the latter, and Brett Ratner will never be welcomed amongst the comic book fan community….that is if Ain’t It Cool News had I their way.
Given the negative press by Harry and Company, I decided to go into this movie expecting to be disappointed but anticipating being knocked out of my seat. Unfortunately, even my low standings coming into the movie could not completely salvage the experience of seeing X3 with me.
Before I go into the negative aspects, let me point out some of my favorite points about X3. First and foremost, no one could play the Beast better than Kelsey Grammer.
Kelsey’s intellectual tone and gesture truly brought out the soul of the Beast, which acted wonderfully as a foil for exchanges with Wolverine’s iconoclastic views. Despite the weird “fuzzy” arm, which should have resembled the hair on a Wookiee more than an Ewok, Beast was perfectly executed on the screen – especially when he acrobatically swings around a lightpost to take on some renegade mutants. Brillant!
Other character accolades go to Kitty Pryde. Thankfully, Kitty Pryde finally got some real screen time and a nice bit of dialogue. Canadian actress Ellen Page did a good job portraying the young and sensitive mutant from Illinois who has the ability to phase through solid matter by thought alone. While this is not the first X-Men movie to feature Kitty Pryde (she has previously appeared in both X-Men and X2 played by different actresses in cameo shots), it is the first bring her on as part of the team.
There were three especially wonderful scenes in the movie. The very first scene in the film still blows me away with the tremendous job of both acting and visual effects wizardry that brought us a younger Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Eric Lensherr “Magneto” Magnus (Ian McKellen) visiting the home of a young Jean Grey twenty years in the past. First off, the visual effects wizardry that meticulously removed the signs of aging from both McKellen and Stewart was fantastic, but was greatly aided by the acting of both of the movie’s best actors. McKellen and Stewart did a great job of “acting” younger through their comportment/posture. There were two other particularly brilliant scenes in this movie that really touched greatness: the moving scene of a young angel shaving his wings off (more on this later); and the moment when Mystique (once again played by Rebecca Romijn) realizes that she’s no longer a mutant and now case aside by Magneto (punch to the stomach powerful storytelling).
Unfortunately, this is the extent of my accolades for X3. I so wanted this movie to be so much more than the negative reviews from the AICN staff made it out to be. Sadly…many of those reviews were correct.
See the rest of this Review
In response to a Serenity blog
Yesterday, I followed a link that a friend provided to a blogger's commentary on Serenity. For your benefit, here's the link: www.livejournal.com/users/barkingdoc/13745.html
It was an interesting read. I don't agree with anything he wrote, but it was interesting to read. For those of you who don't want to read the whole blog, here is a summary:
- None of the characters are the same as they were on Firefly, thus they are the second version of these characters. One particular example that is mentioned is how Simon's story in the pilot of Firefly is different than what is shown in the first scenes of Serenity.
- Serenity, the ship that transports the crew, plays a key role in Firefly the series as almost the tenth character but in this movie Serenity is hardly plays a role.
-The operative is a lame villain.
Here is my rebuttal (Spoiler alert, if you still haven't seen the movie....what's taking you so long?!?!?!?!?).
First of all, he does acknowledge that in a movie you do have to make things bigger and more grandiose than just being two episodes of the series edited together which is an important distinction to make. However Joss Whedon held very true to his characters in many ways. What this person fails to realize is that Serenity occurs 2-3 years after the final episode of Firefly and that some character dynamics have changed (this is also why Shepard Book is on Haven and not on Serenity when we last left them). The Simon of Serenity has grown used to Captain Mal and is more ready to be vocal - thus the scene where he chews Mal out for taking River out during the train station robbery. 
In the series, Simon seems very timid and wouldn't really be willing to raise his voice to Mal. In the opening scenes of Serenity, Simon impersonates a military official with some medical background checking up on River in a military HOSPITAL in order to break her out. The blogger mentions that Simon couldn't even pertend to be a Mud dealer on Canton (Jaynetowne episode) how could he pull off being a military official. In the episode "Ariel", Simon convinces Mal and the crew to rob a hospital in one of the central Alliance worlds. During the episode, Simon, who is in "disguise" as a hospital doctor, chews out another doctor for nearly killing a patient when Simon could have just as easily just kept on going. Simon is not spineless and if he wants something enough he will go after it with all his might (just ask Kaylee!). The point of this is to show that the true Simon, powered by love of his sister, was willing to risk it all to rescue his sister despite his more introvertive tendencies. I think this shows that Simon's character is just the same, now for the problems in the backstory. 
When Simon mentions to Mal in the pilot of Firefly that he bought his sister out, he wasn't being completely honest but he wasn't completely lying to him either. One thing that is the same is that Simon used his family's fortune to develop the contacts and transports to get River out of the Alliance's hands. In the case of Firely, Simon makes it seem that he paid a bunch of guys who went in, grabbed River, put her in the cryochamber, and gave her to Simon. In Serenity, Simon (who must have spent a lot of money to get an Alliance official's uniform, saves his sister himself, and then gets transported out by a transport ship that Simon probably paid off to rescue them. The stories are basically the same except for who actually did the rescuing. Here's a case where Joss Whedon's terrific writing explains why Simon doesn't tell the whole story upfront. In the pilot when Simon tells his story, Mal has just yelled at Simon for bringing "Alliance" property onto Serenity and is getting visibly angrier by the minute. Simon is in enough trouble as it is for bringing River on board, the last thing he needs to do is make things worse by telling Mal the whole story. Simon tells the story, omitting the detail that HE broke River out of the facility, so that now it only looks like Simon is guilty of paying off Alliance officials. I don't see the Blogger's point about the characters being entirely different in Serenity versus Firefly. 
Serenity is still a very important character in this movie and is treated with the same respect and screen time as most episodes of Firefly. The crew still have their scenes within Serenity, Kaylee still talks affectionately about her, Serenity is shown pulling a cool manuever to escape the Reavers during the escape from the train station. In fact, Serenity is shown a great deal of respect! When Mal wants to disguise his ship from the Reavers and puts the dead bodies scrawled across the hull and attaching the gun, Zoe and Kaylee stand up for Serenity and call it desicration of the ship (which I actually thought was desicration of the dead bodies...silly me!). Serenity is shown just as beautifully and affectionately (with even more grace than in the series especially in the space battle sequences) as any episode of the series. In fact the only point the blogger can make that I can't argue is that more of the inside Serenity was shown in the final episode, "Objects in Space", where Early the bounty hunter hunts for River in Serenity. But that was 1 episode out of 14!!! The rest, Serenity is shown to be just about the same as she is in the movie.
Finally, the Operative is not a lame villain. In fact, he is a more human villain than just about any other sci-fi, fantasy, genre-based work out there! He is also a completely unique villain compared to previous screen villains in that he isn't completely maniacally evil like so many comic book-based psychos but he also isn't the villain who actually thinks he's doing a good thing but is misunderstood. The Operative knows that what he is doing is evil and wrong (as he states, "I am a monster"). However his motivation is that this will help promote the status quo set up by the Alliance. It may not be right, but by killing a few people he protects the Alliance's unitary grasp over the worlds. In many ways, the Operative is very similar to Darth Vader now that Episode 3 has come out. Darth Vader knows what he is doing is evil (He tells Luke that it is too late for him to change) however Vader is allowing the Empire to continue its unitary grasp over the universe. All throughout the Clone Wars threat of fighting and lack of peace kept him away from Padme. During episode 3, he tries to save Padme by joining up with the Emperor. For his efforts, Padme dies but he gets peace throughout the galaxy (for now). Now he's left with only one thing...the peace of the galaxy no longer at war, and by golly that's what he's holding onto. So when the Alliance comes up to threaten that peace, Vader works hard to maintain it by doing evil deeds. The peace of the galaxy was more important to him than the evil deeds he was doing. In a similar manner, this is the way the Operative functions. And for that I commend Joss Whedon for writing a terrific villain (and this blogger, who is a "screen writer" himself, should take lessons from Joss rather than ripping Joss for what he does best - write tremendous characters). 'Nuff Said.
SERENITY RULES!
Last night I was lucky enough to partake in an advance screening of Serenity. Realizing that the film still hasn’t come out yet, I won’t spoil the movie by providing any specific details. Suffice to say, the film is spectacular. It features some of the best parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars and puts them together in one terrific movie. The witty one-liners will keep you laughing throughout the course of the movie while the outstanding visuals dazzle the eyes.
Joss Whedon shows the world why he is one of the best writers in television and film with amazing character development, flawless flowing storytelling, and a penchant for amazing dialogue. Whedon, realizing that not everyone watched Firefly, does an excellent job of bringing the audience up to speed throughout the course of the film. Whether you are a Firefly aficionado or a casual movie fan simply looking for a funny and exciting movie, Serenity answers the call. For those of you who loved Firefly, you will be amazed at the pacing, visuals, and story of the movies. Whedon has gone above and beyond anything that Firefly could muster, truly making the scope that of a feature film rather than a two hour episode of the series (which is what the X-Files movie felt like). The plot of the movie is tightly woven in to the character development so that scenes are consistently moving the story ahead rather than focusing on either plot or character development (as is the norm in movies today). This is one of those movies that is over before you know it and it will leave you wanting more.
In terms of score, the great instrumentation of guitar and traditional orchestra recreates the unique sound of the series while adding great emotional impact to all sequences. While the themes are not entirely memorable the score does it’s job and adds to the experience of the story and doesn’t try to overshadow it. Cinematography is great for the most part, except for one particular pet peeve. Ever since Attack of the Clones, I have noticed a common tactic in CGI battle sequences to take a stable trucking or panning shot and suddenly zoom in on something happening in the background right in the middle of the shot. I’m certain the shot’s intent is to mimic the documentary style war footage such as that during the Vietnam War where the cameraman zooms in mid shot to catch a sudden action. While the effect adds a sense of urgency to a documentary shot, in a feature film it appears like a novice was running the camera. With the exception of that funky camera maneuver, the cinematography was great. There are a lot of key shots that will take your breathe away when you see them (and caused the audience to scream and applaud during our screening). One shot in particular made some people at my screening give a standing ovation. Additionally, there are more than a couple of scenes where the entire scene is played out in a single shot without cutting away. In one amazing scene aboard Serenity, we go from the front of the ship to the back in what seems like one continous shot. While this may be an effects trick like the shot of Jodie Foster running outside from the SETI center in Contact, I couldn’t tell. If this was done practically, they had one heck of a huge set and a group of actors who truly hit their marks!
Before seeing the movie, I was worried that the two trailers gave away all of the jokes in the movie. I can honestly say that you’ve only seen a tenth of the humor (if even that much). Although one of my favorite jokes was already shown in the trailer ( Wash: This is going to get interesting, Malcom: Define interesting, Wash: Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die…). There are PLENTY more to be had. The dialogue is so upbeat and full of humor that you will be surprised when you find a scene that you DON’T laugh at.
Like the Lord of Rings movies, this ensemble of actors truly do an amazing job all around and truly carry this movie. After leaving the theater I couldn’t think of a single actor who gave a less than terrific performance. At no time did you feel like these were actors pretending to be in space. It felt like the action was truly going on and we were lucky enough that a camera was there to film it ( A credit to not only the actors, but to Whedon’s writing as well). Nathan Fillion does a tremendous job as Malcom, but is nearly upstaged by Summer Glau’s outstanding performance as River Tam. While at times, Jayne (Adam Baldwin) seems to be relegated to comedic relief by the end of the movie it becomes an obvious ensemble performance with each actor holding his or her own. Since no one ever recognizes or gives credit to the villain, I would like to say that The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) gives the most outstanding performance of the filmin his portrayal of a cold, heartless hunter.
Granted, I was already a fan of the series before I saw the movie, so the glowing reviews of this movie are expected. However, the true mark of the quality of this film was its ability to take someone who had no real desire to see this movie and by the end call this the greatest movie of the year (I would argue second best, but I’m a Star Wars fan so that is to be expected). Not since the Fellowship of the Ring have I heard of a movie positively changing the mindset of a person after a single viewing. As a fan of Whedon’s, I can only hope this feeling is mutually felt by everyone who goes to see the movie and allows this film to be the blockbuster it deserves to be. Serenity is true an experience that will change your mind about modern science fiction movies. You may enter the movie a normal theater patron, but you’ll leave as a Browncoat!
-Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion
SERENITY RULES!
Last night I was lucky enough to partake in an advance screening of Serenity. Realizing that the film still hasn’t come out yet, I won’t spoil the movie by providing any specific details. Suffice to say, the film is spectacular. It features some of the best parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars and puts them together in one terrific movie. The witty one-liners will keep you laughing throughout the course of the movie while the outstanding visuals dazzle the eyes.
Joss Whedon shows the world why he is one of the best writers in television and film with amazing character development, flawless flowing storytelling, and a penchant for amazing dialogue. Whedon, realizing that not everyone watched Firefly, does an excellent job of bringing the audience up to speed throughout the course of the film. Whether you are a Firefly aficionado or a casual movie fan simply looking for a funny and exciting movie, Serenity answers the call. For those of you who loved Firefly, you will be amazed at the pacing, visuals, and story of the movies. Whedon has gone above and beyond anything that Firefly could muster, truly making the scope that of a feature film rather than a two hour episode of the series (which is what the X-Files movie felt like). The plot of the movie is tightly woven in to the character development so that scenes are consistently moving the story ahead rather than focusing on either plot or character development (as is the norm in movies today). This is one of those movies that is over before you know it and it will leave you wanting more.
In terms of score, the great instrumentation of guitar and traditional orchestra recreates the unique sound of the series while adding great emotional impact to all sequences. While the themes are not entirely memorable the score does it’s job and adds to the experience of the story and doesn’t try to overshadow it. Cinematography is great for the most part, except for one particular pet peeve. Ever since Attack of the Clones, I have noticed a common tactic in CGI battle sequences to take a stable trucking or panning shot and suddenly zoom in on something happening in the background right in the middle of the shot. I’m certain the shot’s intent is to mimic the documentary style war footage such as that during the Vietnam War where the cameraman zooms in mid shot to catch a sudden action. While the effect adds a sense of urgency to a documentary shot, in a feature film it appears like a novice was running the camera. With the exception of that funky camera maneuver, the cinematography was great. There are a lot of key shots that will take your breathe away when you see them (and caused the audience to scream and applaud during our screening). One shot in particular made some people at my screening give a standing ovation. Additionally, there are more than a couple of scenes where the entire scene is played out in a single shot without cutting away. In one amazing scene aboard Serenity, we go from the front of the ship to the back in what seems like one continous shot. While this may be an effects trick like the shot of Jodie Foster running outside from the SETI center in Contact, I couldn’t tell. If this was done practically, they had one heck of a huge set and a group of actors who truly hit their marks!
Before seeing the movie, I was worried that the two trailers gave away all of the jokes in the movie. I can honestly say that you’ve only seen a tenth of the humor (if even that much). Although one of my favorite jokes was already shown in the trailer ( Wash: This is going to get interesting, Malcom: Define interesting, Wash: Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die…). There are PLENTY more to be had. The dialogue is so upbeat and full of humor that you will be surprised when you find a scene that you DON’T laugh at.
Like the Lord of Rings movies, this ensemble of actors truly do an amazing job all around and truly carry this movie. After leaving the theater I couldn’t think of a single actor who gave a less than terrific performance. At no time did you feel like these were actors pretending to be in space. It felt like the action was truly going on and we were lucky enough that a camera was there to film it ( A credit to not only the actors, but to Whedon’s writing as well). Nathan Fillion does a tremendous job as Malcom, but is nearly upstaged by Summer Glau’s outstanding performance as River Tam. While at times, Jayne (Adam Baldwin) seems to be relegated to comedic relief by the end of the movie it becomes an obvious ensemble performance with each actor holding his or her own. Since no one ever recognizes or gives credit to the villain, I would like to say that The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) gives the most outstanding performance of the filmin his portrayal of a cold, heartless hunter.
Granted, I was already a fan of the series before I saw the movie, so the glowing reviews of this movie are expected. However, the true mark of the quality of this film was its ability to take someone who had no real desire to see this movie and by the end call this the greatest movie of the year (I would argue second best, but I’m a Star Wars fan so that is to be expected). Not since the Fellowship of the Ring have I heard of a movie positively changing the mindset of a person after a single viewing. As a fan of Whedon’s, I can only hope this feeling is mutually felt by everyone who goes to see the movie and allows this film to be the blockbuster it deserves to be. Serenity is true an experience that will change your mind about modern science fiction movies. You may enter the movie a normal theater patron, but you’ll leave as a Browncoat!
-Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion