Joss Whedon Is My Master Now

Recently I discovered Firefly, and together with Battlestar Galactica, it’s been reminding me how good Science Fiction can be. It’s hard to appreciate just how badly the genre has been abused until something comes along that doesn’t require a complete suspension of disbelief or rely entirely on special effects. Serenity continues everything Joss Whedon started in the show, but cranks it up to eleven.

When Firefly was first on TV, I watched an episode or two, and decided that it wasn’t any good. As I recall, I thought there were too many characters and it was too overwhelming. Then it got cancelled and I thought nothing of it.

Then for my birthday, Pat got me the DVD box set of the show, after highly recommending it. I watched the first few episodes with Sean and I was hooked. I devoured every episode in the set, watched all the special features, and watched the episodes again with the commentary tracks. I got Annie hooked with me. I loaned the DVDs to Sean, who got my mom hooked. Then Eric borrowed them (though he was unable to convince Jill, who took an immediate dislike to the captain). After that, KT borrowed them to watch with Evan, and Jeff wants to borrow them next.

We watched the trailer over and over again, and it was a blessing that I got into the show so late, since the wait would have been unbearable otherwise. We ordered our tickets ahead of time, and the only reason we didn’t go on opening night is because we’re too poor to afford full-price admissions.

This morning, we caught the 11:30am showing of Serenity at the Eastgate theater with the stadium seating. The movie was perfect.

Now, I tend to be excitable about films, so let me put this in perspective. Without meaning any disrespect, Sean and Jeff are both complainers. They are the kind of guys who see movies, and for the first few hours afterwards, all they can think of is the parts that disappointed, and the things that didn’t live up to their expectations. It’s the bane of the insanely creative, that things rarely live up to their expectations.

Sean and Jeff had nothing bad to say about this movie. They complained about Lord of the Rings. But this movie left them floored. Afterwards, Jill commented that she expected to be bored. But she liked it so much that she’s going to give the TV show another chance.

Unfortunately, as Sean noted in his review, I can’t say much about the movie without giving away any story. Suffice to say that Sean is absolutely right when he says that this isn’t an interlude or filled with fluff material that just resets the show’s status quo at the end. This movie is hardcore, and picks up right where the show left off. This is the endcap for the series, allowing Joss to show us the conclusion to the first epic storyline he had going, before he can move onto new ground. Things blow up. People Die. Conspiracies are unearthed. Witty dialogue is bantered. This movie is 100% Joss Whedon, and whatever you like about the show, you’ll find it in the movie.

What I can say is that this movie serves as a perfect counterpoint to everything that has gone wrong with mainstream science fiction movies since the original Star Wars opened our eyes to the possibilities.

Joss doesn’t buy into the conflict between the Blade Runner/Star Wars-style gritty, lived-in, broken-down future and the wimpy, oversimplified, sterilized Star Trek future. Similar to the new Battlestar Galactica series, Joss shows us a look at a future that could actually grow organically out of our own. There is the rich, clean, hygenic future in the Core Worlds and the Alliance, but there’s also the dirty, duct-tape-and-spit future of the frontier, with people living on the edge of society, who don’t always agree with the grand visions of the government.

Joss has written a future where space travel and laser guns are so commonplace that they don’t merit comment, but where people still watch TV, go to the bathroom, and have trouble finding work.

When you combine that vision of the future with an incredible cast of characters who really feel like friends, you end up with a show that lives up to the promise of both the original Star Wars and the original Star Trek, without being burdened by the failures of both series’ sequels.

As Scott Kurtz from PVP noted, “Serenity reminds you why the 1977 release of Star Wars captured your imagination in the first place and truly cements how stiff and boring the prequel movies truly are.” Scott also created the awesome “Joss Whedon Is My Master Now” t-shirt.

Final note to anyone who didn’t like the overwhelmingly Western feel of the TV series: While I feel that you’re kind of missing the point (that was the premise of the show, after all), you’ll be happy to know that element has been played down a bit in the movie.

Image Credit: The topmost image is a wallpaper version of the Australian movie poster. I’m not sure where they came from, probably some Aussie promo site, but I found it in an IGN gallery. The little black-and-white ads are from a fansite, who gave out hi-res files of these excellent little illustrations for people to download, print, and give out to promote the movie. I actually saw some at a comic shop here in Portland!