There's no place that I can be (updated)

I saw Serenity last night at its preview screening in Waukesha. The crowd was a good mix of a not-overwhelming number of previously initiated Whedonites, a lot of regular folk who'd (I'm guessing) won free passes from a radio station, and those of us in the couple of rows reserved for "press and bloggers". (Props to the studio reps at the theatre, who were professional, courteous and friendly, and made sure that seating for the screening ran like a well-oiled machine.)

With deftly paced plot progressions and quick-cut shifts from uproarious one-liners to soul-chilling moments of dread, this movie takes you on a ride that's over much too soon. I can't remember the last time I've been this satisfied by an "action" movie. In most things artistic, I prefer character over plot, but I've missed more Merchant-Ivory type films than I've seen, and some of my favorite movies feature a fair amount of action (er, violence): Die Hard, To Live and Die in L.A., Carlito's Way (and the only TV series I watch live on prime-time is 24). On the other hand, I've seen less than a half-dozen Westerns (though if you don't count The Seven Samurai, and Clint Eastwood's The Beguiled, which I suppose is a "Southern", not a "Western", then it's really only about three Westerns), enjoyed the even-numbered Star Trek movies but would not go out of my way to see any of them again, and was underwhelmed by Star Wars when it first came out and haven't bothered with any of its sequels or prequels. So I have no genre biases for or against something that's called "SF" or a "Western" or an "SF/Western". I'm just looking for a great character illuminated by a great story. In the imaginary words from the imaginary pen of the truly evil (yet imaginary) Chinese philosopher Shan Yu from the "War Stories" episode of Firefly: "live with a man 40 years, share his house, his meals, speak on every subject.  Then tie him up and hold him over the volcano's edge. And on that day you will finally meet the man."

Will you need to have seen Firefly to enjoy Serenity? Nope. The plot's not intricate, and anyone will be able to figure out who to root for in about three minutes. Some moments in the movie will be more resonant and affecting for Firefly fans who became wrapped up in the characters through the series. On the other hand, those who come to Serenity fresh can look forward to being able to get to know all of the characters in more depth by checking out the fourteen episodes of Firefly.

Different folks will get different things out of this film, but for me, it begins and ends with Mal: Captain Malcolm Reynolds, captain of his own ship in every sense of the phrase. He's not a hero writ large, a superhuman fighter or a rogue who can coast on his charm; he's a guy, living hand-to-mouth, who values nothing more than his autonomy, except when that pesky little thing called doing the right thing gets in his way. Then, he's impelled to choose good over freedom (or to live with unresolvable regret when he does not), for which he often pays a heavy price. He owes too many of his narrow escapes to dumb luck for us (and him) not to know that it's only a matter of time before his number is up—and then it will be as though he never was.

I'll have to go back, of course. A midnight showing has been added to the schedule here in town on Friday. I'll try to pick up all the lines I missed (drowned out by laughter, often my own), soak in more of the music score, savor my favorite lines delivered in Mal's choked-up mumble (a little bit Duke, a little bit Elvis), and spend a few obsessed fan moments trying to figure out what the heck was written in katakana on River's "notebook" (misutori - mystery?) and on the Tams' room on the ship (serisu - series?). My Japanese is quite rusty, and it went by too fast the first time.

See the show.

Update (September 30, 2005): Went to the midnight showing this morning. Stadium seats, triple-sized Ultrascreen, full house of Whedon devotees (Joss put the "cult" in "culture"). The katakana went by way too fast (again), but I saw enough to know that my attempted transliterations in the post above are mostly way off. The movie is even better on a second viewing. Whedonesque is collecting an impressively comprehensive list of reviews from all over; the list of Technorati links is not so impressively comprehensive (doesn't even pick up the posts from this blog, sniff) but it's long; it's Serenity all day, all the time (well, this week anyway) at The Flick Filosopher; this review at Blogcritics includes a helpful handful of links to other blogger reviews (many of which in turn include links to other reviews, and so on, and so on); but the best review I've read so far has been Stephanie Zacharek's at Salon. She gets it right: much as we all love the fact that this movie was able to get made (and shut eyes tight, everyone, and whisper "franchise"), we should lament the missed opportunity to sink our teeth into these characters over the full run of a TV series.   

O Captain. My Captain.

Comments

[Julana]

I have to say I'm having a hard time fitting this in with my image of you, from what I've read of your blog to date. I'm going to have to revise my mental picture. :-)

[Sarah]

Hooray, it's good! I've loved Firefly and I'm eagerly awaiting the Friday opening. I've been a little apprehensive because the trailer didn't look as promising as I had hoped. But a glowing review from someone whose mind you've come to admire via her blog means far more than a garbled critique from variety.com.

[Stefanie]

Oh I can hardly wait! My husband is out of town and he made me promise not to see it without him. Why did I promise???

[Chan S.]

Julana - I hope that I'm complicated just enough to be interesting... Cheers!

Sarah - kind words indeed! (Thank you.) Yes--it's good.

Stefanie - I admire your sacrifice for the Bookman! I think you will enjoy it all the more in the company of a loved one.

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