One of the BEST reviews so far.....
From:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Entertainment/Games/03SceneCULT03092805.htm
'Serenity': Finally I can have my life back
By C. A. BRIDGES
TWENTY-FOUR/SEVEN
Last update: September 28, 2005
At long last Joss Whedon's "Serenity" -- the science-fiction-slash-western
movie based on his canceled TV show "Firefly" -- is premiering nationwide
this week.
It's about time. I'm exhausted.
You could say I'm a fan of this fictional, multicultural universe of
shepherds, gunfights, spaceships and whores. I'm active in the online
forums. There are "Serenity" stickers on my car, action figures on my desk,
and "Serenity" wallpaper on my computer. I curse in Chinese. I've had the
theme song stuck in my head for three years. And I can't seem to stop myself
from turning every conversation, no matter what, into a "Firefly" roundtable
and trivia contest in under ten words.
"Agh, I spilled my ice. Ha! Remember that funny thing River said in 'Out of
Gas' about freezing to death? I'll recite the entire episode from the
beginning, to put it in context."
"Yes sir, I'll have those gorram reports on your desk in an hour, dong ma?"
"Just lie still, ma'am, the ambulance is on its way. Got your ident card
ready? Right? See, the Alliance wasn't going to help save Shepherd Book
after he'd been shot during the gunfight between Mal's clients and the
lawmen while Simon was watching River dance after getting the cows off the
spaceship, right, but when they saw his ident card . . . wake up, ma'am,
this was a great scene."
I'd worry about alienating my family but they're almost as caught up in this
as I am. Oh, and 55,000 or so friends and I have been acting as unpaid
full-time marketing staff for the last nine months to promote the movie. So
I've been keeping busy.
What distinguishes a fan from someone who just likes stuff? Is it when you
start quoting lines over and over until co-workers want to beat you to death
with staplers? Is it when you want to grab every person you meet by the hair
to tell them about it?
Whatever it is, a lot of people crossed that line in 2002 when the new show
by Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel") debuted.
Set 500 years in the future, "Firefly" is the story of nine renegades on a
rustbucket Firefly-class spaceship called Serenity. No galaxy-sweeping
events, no mighty space battles or alien encounters, just ordinary people
making a sometimes-legal living.
The stars were mostly unknowns: Nathan Fillion (Capt. Malcolm Reynolds),
Sean Maher (Simon, ship's doctor), Adam Baldwin (Jayne, mercenary and thug),
Gina Torres (Zoe, second-in-command), Alan Tudyk (Wash, pilot and Zoe's
husband), Jewel Staite (Kaylee, sweet-as-pie mechanic), Morena Baccarin
(Inara, respected courtesan), Summer Glau (River, Simon's sister and escaped
fugitive) and Ron Glass (Shepherd Book, religious leader and mystery).
"Firefly" was smart and funny and dark and emotional and no one was on a
Council or in a Federation and actions always had consequences, so naturally
it was stomped on before that kind of thing could spread. FOX aired
"Firefly" out of order, without much advertising, pre-empted it repeatedly,
and finally canceled it after 11 episodes.
But it was too late. We felt cheated, and we wanted more. We mobilized.
We made Web sites and held shindigs. We demanded DVDs and bought them and
watched them incessantly and gave them away and bought them again, and we
made more fans.
Universal was already interested in a movie when the DVD sales went
ballistic, largely because Whedon was the biggest fan of them all and he was
determined to get the story told. The studio was also smart enough to
realize that when you have a great movie without big-name stars or a
one-line plot, the best thing to do would be to show it to people who will
love it, give them unheard of access and support, and let word of mouth take
over.
When hints of the advance screenings for fans arose we crawled over Fandango
like maddened fire ants, hunting for the theaters before the official
announcements were made and buying them out in hours -- sometimes minutes --
all three times. And then we went out and walked the land.
We spread the word. We wrote to magazines and entertainment sites. We made
our own merchandise. We wrote songs, drew pictures, made costumes, and
committed fan fiction. We congregated on forums and swapped stories and
trivia and news and sightings and photos. We posted reviews wherever we
could. We bought the comics and the books and the role-playing game and the
action figures and the soundtracks as soon as they were available to prove
that we wanted more now, please. (What's the opposite of a boycott? A
girlcott?)
Ultimately we just wanted to make sure that this time people knew this thing
we love is out there.
And now all of our hard work has paid off (also, I think Whedon and the cast
and crew probably did something, too), and our time is here. All of our big
damn heroes are back, better and funnier and more heart-breaking than ever,
and now I can go see "Serenity" thirty or forty times and sing along with
the other people in line and then relax and take down the posters and maybe
even stop checking the movie Web site every twenty minutes. Finally I can
start to obsess on something else.
Except . . .
There might be a sequel.
Hmm.
I think I'll leave the posters up for now.
On the Web:
Official Serenity movie site: www.serenitymovie.com
***@news-jrnl.com