Mark Twain - IN SPACE!

I was led to believe that if I didn’t go see Serenity that my geek-cred would be in serious jeopardy. So, today after the whole readin’ & ritin’ (no ‘rithmatic, I’m afraid) thing fell apart, I checked up on Rotten Tomatoes and found out that there was a screening of it right across the street from my café in just a handful of your earth-minutes. The laptop and research gear veritably hopped into the backpack, I literally hopped on the bike, and away we all went. You, as readers of such a geeky blog, get to read my review, which is right down there. Go ahead, you can stop reading this. Just start reading the review, I’ll meet you on the other side.

Serenity

Firstly, I should say that I like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as much as the next guy, and I’m a mite pleased that’n those that’d filmed up this here pi’cher wanted ta write thems actors sumptin’ of a funny-talking script, but I think they went a touch too far. Honestly, there are some lines in there where the dialect really does take away from the story.

Now for those of you hip to the geek-side of these internets of ours will know that some folks (including the director, it seems) have been comparing this movie with the original Star Wars series, and I think the comparison’s apt in all the good and bad ways that follow along. First, the acting isn’t the greatest, in fact, some of it’s bad. Those of who remember Mark Hammil in Star Wars will agree with me about that being a common point.

The script, aside from occasionally going Twain-ish, is good for what it should be. The movie has a nice hold of the banter that worked well in the early Star Wars films (but that evaporated altogether in the later ones). The script generally handles the love interests well – only a couple parts seemed awkward.

Obviously, Serenity is all about gallivanting heroically across the galaxy and saving the world. Errr… worlds. Anyway, that’s something that they do quite well. As a welcome surprise, they don’t dwell on the mechanics of interstellar combat. It’s there to be sure, but you’re not going to be subjected to it so much that you forget about the story, which is a nice change of pace. Our heroes are, par for the course, tragic and haunted, but again, they really only dwell on the one character whose haunting is crucial to the story.

I liked the movie quite a bit, really. Someone online somewhere mentioned that it was a kind of Flash Gordon for today, and frankly I think I’ll agree. It ain’t art, but it’s a movie of that mold that is much much better than most. (Full disclosure: I liked Flash Gordon a lot too.)

Serenity – 8/10

See, I told you I’d be back. Last notes – they made a movie out of Doom. The video game. They showed the trailer. Part of the trailer showed the camera following the main killing machine dude (the Rock - now called "Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson") from the point of view of the video game. I almost cried with joy. It may very well be the worst looking movie I’ve seen in a long long time. And remember, I watched the Fantastic Four.

Edited to add links and correct a silly typo