Oh, and, by the way....

[filkertom]

I don't believe I love Firefly as much as I love Babylon 5. Certainly not in the same way. However, I love it way the hell more than I ever loved any version of Star Trek.

The movie kicked my ass but good. Can't wait for the DVD. I genuinely had no idea of anything coming up -- scrupulously avoiding all spoilers actually worked this time -- and so the plot took me by surprise, and made perfect, awful sense.

Shepherd Book's death shocked me... but nowhere near as much as Wash's. Now I know why all those people online, including huskiebear, have such hatred for Joss Whedon. Very damn effective, and seeing the dinosaurs on the console after just about broke my heart, in exactly the same way that Dumbledore appearing in a portrait in McGonagall's office near the end of Half Blood Prince did.

And I was really starting to get the vibe that Joss was gonna kill 'em all off. I knew he wouldn't pull any kind of Omega 13 maneuver from Galaxy Quest, which absolutely worked the one time and now never can be used again. But that whole let-the-bodies-hit-the-floor scene just kept getting worse and worse....

A gazillion excellent moments, and surprisingly the witty banter didn't seem as flippant as it does in the show (not that there's anything wrong with that). It was more the gritty, snarly kinda banter people pushed to the edge use to keep from going mad. And damn River was scary beautiful scary. The doors closed, and I thought, gone, gone, gone... and then they showed her fighting the Reavers, and I gaped.

Like The Lord of the Rings, like Galaxy Quest and Home for the Holidays, this is one of those movies that cries out for a Best Ensemble Cast Oscar. The crew, the Operative, the twins, Sarah ("Someone's at the door") Paulson as the woman in the holo, the guard down in the vault... all great.

Thanks for waiting for me, gang. It's all shiny.

Comments

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

"Scary beautiful scary" has got to be the best description of River I've heard. You might have heard, but Summer Glau is actually trained as a ballerina, and good god was that a smart move.

And well done avoiding the spoilers. Of course, watching it the second time, it still hurt to see Wash go, but the effect of seeing it the first time was perfect.

[codevixen.livejournal.com]

I think seeing it the second time, you HAVE to see it in the theatre, because you can TELL who hasn't seen it before. Because they're *laughing* when he starts "I am a leaf on the wind - ", and you think, 'ohh... they haven't seen it yet. Stop laughing, dammit!'

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. I loved that line, that both you and Luke invoke, and they made it down, and Wash starts to say it, and BAM that's it he's gone. My one true regret: I wish I'd been caught up, and could've seen that in a crowded theater, because that must've been one fuck of a rollercoaster moment, with the entire audience going, "Phew AAAAH!"

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel the need to recut the "Grr Argh" from Mutant Enemy with "Phew AUUUGH". When we all staggared out of the theatre, there was a sort of mournful joy going on. Yay movie, grief over Wash. There were numerous wet eyes, but a serious adrenaline thing at the same time.

[codevixen.livejournal.com]

Relief? There was no relief on my part, I was too busy thinking about how they were going to get Serenity back off the ground with only one engine. ;)

But yeah... I saw it five times, and each time most of the audience would laugh when he started, and then you could hear it abruptly cut off. One girl even shrieked. I believe there was a "Serenity in ten minutes" script-thing that summarized that.

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

Do you have the addy for that Serenity in ten minutes thing? I'm curious.

[codevixen.livejournal.com]

Umm... um.... ::power of Google!!::

Ooh, here it is: http://www.swartzer.com/writing/serenity2000.php Harder to find than I thought.

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

I know! Google failed me for a bit. Thanks so much!

[codevixen.livejournal.com]

I eventually had to resort to the one line I remembered verbatim, and - there it was!

("Oh my god, they killed Serenity!" in case you were curious.)

[madladyred.livejournal.com]

thank you so much for the link!

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Serenity in 30 seconds...with bunnies!

[jss]

Yes!

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. The collective gasp was huge.

Well...

[stdharma.livejournal.com]

When I saw it in Evanston while I was visiting Chicago (I saw the TV Show on DVD before I saw the movie. I insisted after watching the first episode on SciFi), it was more like a loud simultaneous *GASP!* when it happened. There were tears shed all around, but all agreed that it was an awesome movie. Better than the current round of Star Wars, better than any Trek series after Deep Space Nine, and (IMHO) slightly below Babylon 5.

Someone should get Joss and JMS to do something together.

Saint Dharma, patron saint of Wash

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

At the sneak preview that tfabris saw, Nathan Fillion was there. He talked about how he felt when *he* first saw the movie, and then how this time he watched the faces in the audience and saw the same reactions there.

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

Have you been told about the wonderful viral marketing campaign?

http://www.session416.com

That's what my icon is from. It's heartbreaking, more brilliant lovely goodness from Summer Glau, and Joss Whedon himself as the researcher.

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

The front page is loading horribly slowly, try here: http://www.session416.com/mirrors.html for the download.

[hiddenkrypt.livejournal.com]

!!!

Thank you!!! I missed that somehow.. probably being away from internet for five days.

[mneme]

I like "Scary Beautiful Scary".

Though the thing about River jumping through the door? -way- saw it coming. Mind, didn't mind it for a moment, nor that I could see it coming, but it didn't catch me by surprise at all. Was beautiful, though -- River needed to come into her own in this movie, and she so did.

Though friends and I were riffing on how River's actually played by Brian, from the Knights of the Dinner Table. Totally power-gamed to the nines, with massive numbers of disadvantages that crippled her throughout the season...but when it came down to the crunch, she hit every one of her disadvantages in time, took the power-up, and the poor GM didn't know what hat hit him.

[kender42.livejournal.com]

I am so glad to hear you enjoyed it. I had a feeling Book would die, but... Wash.. damn. I saw it for the first time back in May at one of the sneaks and I spent the whole drive back from Chicago saying "Why Wash?!".

It really hammered home the fact that these people COULD die, and they were in a place where it was PROBABLE.

Joss once was quoted as saying he wants to make people FEEL and he wants to make movies people LOVE.

He did so admirably here, I feel. One thing I can't wait for on the DVD is the intro Joss recorded for the sneak previews. Brings a tear to the eye, it does.

I know what all my friends are getting for Christmas! :)

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

Is the preview going to be on the DVD? I figured it wouldn't be.

I have the transcript of it available here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/andamaroo/121062.html).

[kender42.livejournal.com]

"Extras will include "Feature commentary with writer/director Joss Whedon", "A director introduction", "Deleted scenes", "Outtakes", "Future History: The Story of Earth That Was featurette", "What's in a Firefly featurette" and "Re-Lighting the Firefly featurette." "

I am assuming that the introduction will be the intro Joss did. I certainly hope so.

[not-the-pope.livejournal.com]

You know it's a good movie/episode/whatever when, 5 seconds after it ends, only one comment breaks the stunned silence:

"DAMN you, Joss Whedon!"

Oh yeah.

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

I was also shocked to see Wash die especially the way it happened so suddenly as it can in real life conflict. Of course that is one of the things that made the movie so memorable to me.
I do need to see it again.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

what irritated kane the most was the senselessness of wash's death. it encapsulates the ongoing tragedy of the entire creation of the reavers into one solid, horrid moment that really brings it home to the viewing audience, and really makes it all the more important that the truth come out about what has happened to bring us to this point, but for the less philisophically-inclined, it all comes down to dammit!
i actually misted up. not at the actual moment of his death, but when kaylee inquires about him and zoe simply says he's not coming with them.
apparently, diring production of the show, the actor had mentioned that perhaps somewhere down the line, after a season or two, wash would be a great sympathetic kill to really tug on the audience. oh how true, how true.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I recall having very sensible storytelling reasons why it made sense for that character to die. He was the one adding to the plot least, things like that. But I can't remember them, because-- WASH!

Book's death annoys me more, because he had so much more of a story to tell.

But really, what made me saddest was that I'd been hoping for a return of the TV show (well, a continuation) and I kept thinking, how can that possibly happen now???

But then again, Joss is a consummate storyteller. He's got something in mind.

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

The thing that makes Book interesting to me is that we don't know his backhistory. I think it was heavily alluded to in the movie that he used to be an operative and underwent a similiar character arc as the operative involved in the movie. That's all I need.

If I knew more he'd lose his mystery and I wouldn't like him anymore.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

It was even more heavily alluded to in the series. Way, way, WAY more heavily. :)

And I'd heard in various interviews that Book's story was one of the ones Joss had intended to tell, so I went, awwwww MAN. :)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

We had Adam Baldwin at our screening last May -- I wish I could have been watching him watch us. :-)

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Now that you've watched the whole thing, here are a bunch of icons from active_apathy for your delectation. :-)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah--

Joss made a wonderful speech which was played at the beginning of all the sneak previews. I wish it had been shown with the regular film, and I dearly hope it ends up on the DVD.

A transcript is available in lots of places, but here's one I found when I googled: http://www.serenitymovie.com/nonflash_site/bio_cr_1.html (scroll down a bit)

It was incredibly moving. I actually teared up when I watched it (and it's where the quote from this icon comes from). You should read it. Anyone who loved the series or the movie should read it.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

(And funny, too, of course. Joss being Joss.) :)

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling that Joss wouldn't kill anyone when I saw the movie in April. Ron Glass was a special guest at our screening, and it was really weird to watch him die on screen when he was sitting two seats in front of me. And when he died, my immediate reaction was, Oh... okay... you want to prove the situation is serious by killing off -somebody-. That makes sense. Book is the easiest one to kill, he's the outsider. GOOD JOB. You made your point.


Then he killed wash and I completely lost it. No other movie has ever had me as emotionally involved or scared for the characters involved than the last 30 minutes of serenity did. I was ready for everyone to die. I was so worried, and that level of drama could only be achieved by axing wash in the manner joss did. That's why it was necessary, and that's why I love it.

And I agree in regards to B5, although it's easier for 14 episodes and a movie to hold up against a 110 B5 episodes and some tele-movies and such. Had firefly gone on longer it may be easier to judge between them.

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

By april I meant June. Not that that actually matters to anyone.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

One of my first truly fangirly moments was watching "War Without End, Part One", when Sheridan becomes "unstuck in time" and vanishes. I swear to God, I shouted "JOHN!" and my hand jumped toward the screen. That was the kind of shock I felt when Wash bought it.

Speculations about Firefly v. B5 are fun. But I do think it's an apples-oranges kinda thing. Firefly, to me, is a much more intimate work, much better suited to the anthology format it's used. Not to say that Joss couldn't impose a Grand Tapestry on it -- heck, he was putting those elements in place -- but I suspect that even a Second Alliance War would've been told much more intimately, battle-by-battle, shot-by-shot, than the space combat and occasional special mission format of B5.

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

Overall I like the firefly characters more (barring Londo) but I like the B5 setting/story a LOT more. Although again, not necessarily a fair comparison judging 14 episodes against over a hundred.

My first huge moment with B5 was during the season one finale. That's when it really struck me that B5 was different. Things changed, stuff that would never happen on tv was happening here, and these were things that couldn't possibly be resolved in the season 2 premiere alone.

My most dramatic B5 watching moment was when we found out morden was on the same ship as anna. I -literally- fell off the sofa.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ohhh yeah. That was a "fuck fuck fuck NO" moment to end 'em all.

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

You keep impressively late hours, sir.

Or more impressively early ones.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

One could say the same about you. ;) Mostly, I'm just an insomniac.

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

I'm in eastern europe at the moment.
It's almost 1 in the afternoon here.

[andamaroo.livejournal.com]

This is a long shot, but you didn't by chance ever hang out #babylon5 on either irc.warnerbros.com or irc.efnet.org, did you?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope. Very little IRC in my life, mostly by way of Eschaton.

[thingunderthest.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the 'verse.

I think part of the disparity between firefly and B5 might be 13 episodes vs. 5 years of story.

That reminds me, 5years came up on the car cd player as I was pulling into home last night and I got a little choked up and had a sudden urge to watch the whole thing again.

[batyatoon]

Oh yay. Oh so much yay. *glees about*

First time I saw the movie, the moment at which I actually cried out was not Wash's death -- it was a few seconds before, when Serenity is skidding in to a crash landing, and one of the side engines strikes something and snaps off.

And then they came to a halt, and Wash turns and smiles and says That Line.

And I'm turning to Alex and opening my mouth to mutter "Any landing you walk away from, right?"

And then.

AUGH.

[foenix.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree with you on Babylon 5 and Firefly. If Firefly had gone on, it could have reached such heights, but it was sadly cut short in its lifespan. There was a lot more good in those first batch of episodes than some of B5's first season. Oh, what it could have been...

And the parallels between what happened to Crusade and Firefly are almost creepy.

[weirdsister.livejournal.com]

I'm a recently hooked Firefly/Serenity junkie too. (The first hit's free, kid...) And I was fixing to hold a grudge against Joss Whedon for killing off Book and Wash; the first viewing of Serenity was pretty brutal for me. I enjoyed the hell out of it the second time through, though. I'd had some time to adjust to what was going to happen, and I caught a lot of little nuances I'd missed the first time. I had to admit, albiet grudgingly, that the plot is brilliant.

[bardicwench.livejournal.com]

The first time I saw Serenity (at the screening in Aug) Wash's death shocked me completely.... and I remember thinking that it looked as if a tree trunk had hit him... that's how big it looked to me at the time.

The second time (opening night) his death didn't hit me as hard... I was concentrating on picking up other stuff in the movie, that I had missed the first time, that I knew he was going to die, so it didn't bother me. But I remember thinking that the "tree trunk" was smaller.

Surprisingly, Wash's death hit me harder the third time than it did the first. I KNEW it was coming. When the audience started laughing at the "Leaf on the wind" comment, I started losing it already.

Kleenex is a good thing.

The third time, I actually wore a silk autumn leaf pinned to my shirt. I was actually wearing it in the Sunday of ConClave, and Matt Arnold asked me about it... my comment to him was, "I'm a leaf on the wind" and he commented back something about "Don't make me cry" or something along the lines of that...

It hit everyone hard, I think.