I love reading stuff like this from people who just loooove movies and understand them. Yeah, interesting that Joss is mentioned with Spielberg and Lucas, for daring to go where those guys don't anymore. And yeah, don't read if you haven't seen the movie. =)

jam2 | September 28, 10:41 CET

This is my favourite review to date.

Simon | September 28, 10:43 CET

Yes. Yes. Yes.

bobothebrave | September 28, 11:12 CET

That was pretty cool. I'm not fond of the Firefly put-downs, but then I'm sensitive about that. Buffy and Angel criticisms I can take, because I have a lot of them myself, but Firefly? I don't get the "as flawed as it was" reasoning, or the "Serenity fixes Firefly's mistakes." It certainly kicks things up a notch and gives us an awesome series finale of sorts, and in some ways it's a different animal than the TV series, but I personally can't pick one over the other. Mostly 'cause they're the same goddamn thing. Firefly = Serenity and Serenity = Firefly.

The only bonnet I remember clearly is Mal's. And that was for a worthwhile sight gag more than anything. Come on (I'll agree that, settings-wise, I liked Firefly more when it was set almost entirely on the ship or on a non-dusty planet, which just adds heaps more to my already huge love of "Out of Gas", "Ariel", and "Objects in Space").

He can't really say that Buffy and Angel were Whedon's college years when he obviously hasn't watched all of them (a lot of the stuff he felt for Serenity--especially the risk--he would've found in Buffy). But whatever, whatever--I do love this review.

Kris | September 28, 11:24 CET

Rapture! And THIS from someone who hated Buffy and Angel!? I saw the pre-screening, but this review makes me step back and say, "Hey, this movie does bring something fresh to the current movie landscape." SPOILER AHEAD In movies today, honest-to-god, FELT tragedy is for "serious" films, not pop adventures! And if it's a pop film, those shocking events are supposed to be staged to serve the movie's "moral" or to give a motive to our hero, who of course always come out alright in the end.

[ edited by Ronald_SF on 2005-09-28 09:25 ]

[ edited by Ronald_SF on 2005-09-28 09:26 ]

Ronald_SF | September 28, 11:24 CET

To repeat the reviewer's refrain: this is a balls-out review. I'm happy for the enthusiasm, although frankly I can only give a wee amount of credence to someone who tells me they hated BtVS. And the whole "Joss will piss off half his fanbase" line looks well wide of the mark to me. But, whatever dude.

SoddingNancyTribe | September 28, 11:36 CET

I dunno. Remember the save wash campaign? It may not end up pissing half the fan base off but I think there will be some people leaving the theather with heavy masscara cursing Joss' name.

That was a really good review.

[ edited by eddy on 2005-09-28 10:28 ]

eddy | September 28, 12:26 CET

Yeah, I really liked this review even though I disagree with a lot of what he says. Most of the contentious stuff isn't about Serenity and since we need to get people to see it I can live with some dissing of my favourite things if this review helps make that happen.

Paul_Rocks | September 28, 15:58 CET

The important thing about this review is how put-off the reviewer was to all things Whedon before finally sitting down and watching Firefly & Serenity. I remember reading the snarky comments he included before some of the Serenity preview screenings, as well as more than a few direct insults towards Joss himself. Now that he has finally seen the work that he had been bad-mouthing, he is a total convert. That is good stuff!

Oxyopia | September 28, 17:19 CET

It is interesting to consider that people who never liked Buffy or Angel assumed they would hate FF too. (It IS a reasonable assumption, to be fair.) But I think FF is probably his work that has the wider appeal. Extra ironic considering it was the shortest lived of Joss' shows.

As much as I love the Buffyverse, on a rational level I can understand it's simply not everybody's thing. I do believe there's plenty of people who'd love it anyway if they really say down to watch it and get to know the characters but that's another story. But the subject matter and the setting....the whole genre is just not everyone's cup of tea.

But Serenity...come on, looking at the sheer, drooling crap that has passed for SF, comedies or action movies in the US for the last few years, this should hit everyone who ever loved any of those genres right where they live. Just like the guy in this article.

(And I agree with him about Lucas and Spielberg btw. The 'Greedo shoots first' and 'let's take out all the guns on ET', or 'skip the last sentence of Minorty Report since it's like, so dark' pretty much sum up what kind of safe and predictable creators they've become.)

EdDantes | September 28, 18:53 CET

I never knew anything was cut out of "Minority Report"...wonder how much less hollow the last third of that movie would have felt with it left on, whatever it was.

But while this guy makes what I think I some moderately wrong, wrong, wrong statements (Kurasawa was influenced by John Ford but samurai films are NOT wannabe Westerns!) and his list of great films is pretty damn different from my list, he is dead right on in his main thesis about what's with mainstream Hollywood filmmaking today.

[ edited by bobster on 2005-09-28 17:13 ]

bobster | September 28, 19:13 CET