Despite being aparently unwelcome at IMC, I did get to see Serenity this weekend. I hadn’t been this excited to see a movie since The Fellowship of the Ring, and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a movie this much since then either. Given the opportunity I would’ve stayed in my seat and watched it again.
Buffy fans will already know how great Joss Whedon is (as will Firefly fans, obviously) but what can everyone else expect from the movie? For a start, characters that you care about almost from the outset; explosions; a universe with more depth than most othere SF movies (Whedon plans stories years in advance so he had enough detail for at least two seasons of Firefly); humour, but not comedy; more explosions; fancy martial arts; and a hot chick with super powers.
Apparently Jonathon Ross said Serenity was better than all three Star Wars prequels combined. Frankly I think it’s comfortably better than all six Star Wars. It’s certainly far more likely to find its way into my DVD collection.
I plan to do a Top 5 films of 2005 list at the end of the year. If King Kong manages to steal the number one spot from Serenity I will be very impressed (not to mention pleased). Not everyone will like it as much as I did, but I can’t see anyone not enjoying this movie.
If you want a taste, ifilm has the first nine minutes of the movie available as a free streaming video.