I saw Serenity finally

[chani]

I’m quite sick (looks like I caught a flu-like virus), I didn’t sleep AT ALL last night (finally I got up at 5 am and marked papers!) and I had a long day of teaching today so bear with me and forgive my bad English.

I hope I’m going to be able to write something clear despite my condition but I need to write my thoughts down before they are gone.

Don't read under the cut if you haven't seen it and want to remain unspoiled!

 Yes Serenity that I saw yesterday made me think, even though I have MIXED feelings about it.

First I won’t lie, I liked it.

It was entertaining with funny lines, good ideas, good action scenes that had no cause to be jealous of  the BIG  films’ ones and there was a great Nathan Fillion whom Joss obviously loved (and so did I!). It was really well done, Joss still knows to write a scenario and he knows to direct too…with sometimes some arty beautiful shots (for instance the hologram of River and Simon’s escape was gorgeous…River’s face and hair called to my mind Botticelli’s Venus and a bit of  the terrible Gorgon too!).

The opening sequence was quite clever. Joss managed to sum up what the viewers who weren’t Firefly fans needed to know about the Serenityverse and the current situation to set the plot and I really loved the way he did it: the first exposition scene gave the basics with the teacher’s lecture within River’s mind and  then we got out of her mind in the Alliance lab for a second exposition this time by the Alliance’s guy revealing the deal about that girl in the scene that showed Simon rescuing his sister. That escape turned into a hologram that allowed a last exposition introducing The Operative which put us in the present and thus led us to Serenity, the ship. We came from past (the scene with young River might have been a memory) to present through close past (Simon/River escaping) and at the same time we came from inside to outside: River’s mind => the Alliance’s cage where she was a prisoner => Serenity crossing the deep space, both representing freedom. It was like Russian dolls. Smart, well orchestrated!

The rest of the movies was pretty elegant and careful. A good job with polished dialogues and humour. So yes it was well done…the way a good paper is (the teacher in me you know…). Joss showed Hollywood what he could do and he was a good at doing it like a good student.

But there wasn’t anything really refreshing and daring in the movie and I couldn’t help thinking that Serenity would be forgotten quite soon because it didn’t give a new insight into Sci-Fi, it didn’t change the world of Sci-Fi the way BTVS changed the world of tv shows IMO. Serenity wasn’t a  Jane Torvil/Christopher Dean’s freestyle dancing, rather a sort of stylish and elegant compulsory figures. Yeah I couldn’t resist an ice skating metaphor (and I’m afraid my age is showing now) but after all this is a Buffy board and it suits Summer’s grace and former career (she was prima ballerina wasn’t she?)! 

What would I thought of it if I hadn’t been a Buffy’s  fan and therefore expecting better from the Joss who once made “Hush” or “Restless”? I’ll never know. But I completely agree with sister_luck  when she said that Joss followed the conventions of Hollywood Sci-Fi instead of doing what he used to do on tv, that is twisting clichés.

Of course a genre has rules, but that doesn’t mean you cannot innovate within its framework, especially in Sci-Fi. As much as I love Joss Whedon, Serenity is definitely not The Matrix and di not blow me away. Besides there were a few bad scenes in which I wanted to scream: Joss you’re better than that! Like the sheperd’s death or the scenes on Miranda, or the Wash/Books/Mr Universe's funerals in the end.

Inara was a mere “oriental vase” (“une potiche” in French!) , standing there and just looking pretty, which I hope was a kind of pun from Joss (if it’s only mine I’m proud of that joke!) and she only served as a foil for Mal. I’ve never cared much about her character, but I don’t think that regular (means non Firefly watchers) viewers could really get what used to be her job on Serenity and what kind of teaching she was doing on her planet! But I can understand that a movie isn’t a tv show and they had to drop minor arcs, and actually I’m kind of glad they didn’t delve into a Mal/Inara ‘ship.

Of course I enjoyed the references to previous films (The Blade Runnerish atmosphere or like when Mal saves Jayne from that Reavers’ ship which calls to mind "The Return of the Jedi" and a blind Han Solo shooting to save a similarly hooked Lando from the cannibal thing in the sands) and of course I laughed at Joss hinting at his own tv work and especially giving winks to  his fans with Mr Universe’s Lovebot  (but of course our beloved Buffybot was much better!).
But at some point those self-references annoyed me and bothered me as if they were there to please us and fill a void, to make up for some missing stuff. It felt like cheating.
I love cinema and a good movie can’t be only about actions scenes, good-looking people walking around and making jokes and hints that only happy few can get. I am not saying it was only that, but the idea crossed my mind some times, and I asked myself : Would Joss be buggering us(Because of “we happy few, we band of…”)?

Besides I kinda missed things that made “Firefly”…different, like the western-like planets and the space cowboy pattern(I love Firefly’s credits with the song and the horses in the end!) that was faint in Serenity.

BUT on the other hand, it was interesting to see a film that came out of a series remaining true to it (the characters were familiar, the style of the dialogues was the same, the background stayed there) while showing a shift in the angle and focusing on a bigger scheme (is that an oxymoron? I think it is, but sorry I digress again…).

Besides knowing Joss’ tastes and being my analytical self, I had to ponder what I had seen, so on my way back home, in the subway, I thought of it like a good little Joss’ fan.

You’re still with me? Please don’t fall asleep…yet.

So I found a way to read the film and this is my way ***inserts Spike’s voice impersonating Gary Oldman playing Sid Vicious*** so you may not agree at all.

I see it as Joss analysing human condition and what civilization means, or rather it means to be civilized as opposed to be a wild person, a barbarian and eventually developing a person/monster dialectics…again. And doing it in a poetical and subtle way.

It’s something that The Operative insisted on when he said he was "a monster" and knew it.

And as usual with Joss, Shakespeare is never far hence Miranda that brings us back to The Tempest.

And in Serenity’s world nothing is black or white which makes a change compared to usual poor Hollywood movies.

The person/monster dialectics works on different levels and for several characters including the heroes. That play on perspective and scales applies to the  Shakespearian undertext that is recurring IMO.

Prospero, Ariel, Caliban, Miranda and Ferdinand are all there, all the time, wearing different faces, sometimes the same. It depends on the perspective. It’s like every character is a pivot changing the Shakespearian role of the other. And even Mal has different sides as Inara pointed out.

The Alliance, that patriarchal system could be seen as Prospero wanting to tame people with the best intentions(Prospero tried to handle the wild beast that was Caliban) to make them quieter, more civilized and thus playing with fire by using the Pax and being to blame about the obvious monsters: Reavers!
Reavers are indeed the obvious Caliban here (Caliban whose name might have come from a mispelled anagram of cannibal and Joss must know it)…who attacked people from planet Miranda (in the play Miranda is Prospero’s daughter and Caliban tried to rape her) and turned against Prosepero!Alliance (Caliban turned against Prospero). The Operative’s confession to Mal echoes Prospero’s good intentions. It’s about making a better world even though by using cruelty (Caliban is a slave, Ariel himself is to be free later, once Prospero will achieve his plan).

And I think that The Operative’s arrogance/overconfidence finally comes out when he uses his nerve-pinching trick on Mal without even thinking that it might not work. It’s funny because at the beginning of the film he blamed the Alliance’s doctor for his pride. It’s kinda a case of the biter being bitten (or in French, “l’arroseur arrosé”)! I gotta love Joss’ subtle humour.

But Mal himself is a Prospero, defeated, exiled on his island which, here, is a ship…Serenity.

And we have actually 3 Mirandas on the movies. The obvious one, the planet but also River herself and when Simon asked her if she was of course there was a joke about some schizophrenia thing seen in many movies including fake one as in Primal Fear, but I think he was right. River is a Miranda, because she’s the little girl here and Prospero!Alliance was supposed to take care of her as a tutor but basically wanted to rule her, to control her thanks to its tricks(magic in Prospero’s case). The last Miranda is Kaylee…she’s Mal’s surrogate daughter and it isn’t surprising if the only real romance of the movie is Kaylee/Simon with Simon playing Ferdinand here. Mal is a true Prospero to Kaylee. This is enhanced in the bar scene when Kaylee mentioned her feelings for Simon,  frustration and her use of a vibrator, saying that Mal tried to keep Simon and her apart. Mal reacted like a father, he doesn’t want to hear about her sexuality, and the beginning of the film keeps showing a Mal/Simon clash and Mal is playing the bad tough guy while we know he is not bad, just like Prospero pretends to be gruff and critical toward Ferdinand. But at the end, Mal accepts Simon. BTW the Simon/River pair evokes so many brother/sister pairs in Shakespeare.

I said that Reavers were obvious Calibans, but there are more Calibans in the film. There’s The Operative who called himself a monster and there’s River to begin with. Once triggered by the Alliance she becomes wild, she’s actually a freak, spreading destruction. She’s the thing they thought they could handle (like Prospero with Caliban) and she’s always hearing voices and sounds (even when inaudible thanks to subliminal messages!)so she could have recited Caliban’s beautiful words “the island is full of noises”, except that she doesn’t want to sleep because her dreams are nightmares! But at the same time, thanks to Summer the gracious dancer, River is the aerial Ariel, looking like an angel : she’s often above their heads, stuck to the ceiling in unlikely splits or  watching Simon/Kaylee’s  frolics from a hole in the ceiling. Like Ariel, River was the one bringing the tempest!
Mal rescued River just as Prospero is supposed to have rescued Ariel from the "foul witch" Sycorax (whom Ariel refused to serve), , mother of Caliban (The Alliance here). And when Mal decides to took her to the bar she’s there to play an Ariel’s role, Mal uses her powers like Prospero uses Ariel. And like River, Ariel often overhears stuff and warns Prospero (the coming of Reavers for instance).

I could go on but I know I’ve been too long already and you’re snoring. The fact is that I’m making myself loving “Serenity” now!

Of course Joss himself is Ariel (to Hollywood, serving its conventions), Caliban (killing 3 characters...oh the monster! ;- )) and the ultimate Prospero of this, on his very own island, using the power of Ariel!Cinema and playing with us.