Trailer critique at moviepoopshoot.com by reginaroadie

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Trailer critique at moviepoopshoot.com

POSTED BY: REGINAROADIE
UPDATED: Sunday, May 22, 2005 13:12
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Sunday, May 22, 2005 12:08 PM

One site I frequent a lot is www.moviepoopshoot.com, which is an offbeat entertainment site that Kevin Smith and Co. set up. And one of the weekly columns they have there is this things called Trailer Park, where a guy takes a look at the new previews that are out and critiques them. And it's only now that he's taken a look at SERENITY. Here are his thoughts.

Prognosis: Positive. I’ve never watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I wouldn’t be caught so much as flipping past Angel on my way to watch a Cubs game on a Sunday afternoon.

I’ve never watched, or had an interest, in checking out Firefly.

But if you got a movie with that dude from MY BODYGUARD (man, the way he bitch slapped Matt Dillion is the true stuff of movie magic…) and D.C. CAB (the touchstone of my youth that taught me that Mr. T deserved more acting roles and that it is possible to get a fire going in one’s home with a flamethrower) I am all in. It’s been forever since I’ve seen Adam Baldwin and he looks really engaged with this material. It’d be hard not to be as the one thing I do consume of Joss’ is his take on the X-Men franchise. God bless that man for that and it allows me to understand what this guy is doing with the script.

Now, keeping in mind I’d rather click over to C-Span if an Andromeda or an X-Files episode comes on, I am pretty engaged with this trailer from the very first moment. The spaceship that is carrying our mixed crew in the opening sequence (is it the same one from the series?) looks like one of those Ertl model jobbies I used to find at KB Toys as a little kid; you know, those bulbous white shoebox looking thingies that had various antennae sticking up and seemed awfully ill-designed for space travel but were sold as space ships.

It’s alright, though, as it somehow piques my interest in what’s happening off-screen as we get the captain’s subdued, but still bombastic, in that captain sort of way, speech about how everyone’s come aboard for different reasons but now’s the time to, well, just suffice to say that he’s getting everyone ready for a fight of intergalactic, interplanetary, Beastie Boy, proportions. Cheesy as it may be I am sure someone gets all goosey when they hear him say that.

The effects are what really get me. They’re really well done. Even though there’s no air in space and you can’t really hear explosions, and that anything that blows up would implode, I’m fine with putting that aside for some good space battling.

The lines here are also pretty heavy handed. “I’m taking your sister under my protection,” and the way our captain inflects that line, makes me laugh and roll my eyes, but the subsequent crash landing effect using a very real shot of some rural American location more than makes up for it. The juxtaposition is welcomed.

“Whoa,” I yell, and I do yell “whoa,” as a crispy looking zombie pops up for a wee second on the screen, our captain with a pistol at his side does an Indiana Jones hip shot and takes it out.

We get a Wesley Snipes/Blade guy with a sword that seems to be in pursuit of the previously mentioned girl because there is something obviously up with her. This is just made more apparent during the sound stage kung-fu demo she gives us as she moves and gives carefully blocked martial arts ass kickings. Again, it looks choreographed by Bob Fosse but whatever.

What I do have a problem with, though, is the written fellatio heaped upon Whedon’s work on this movie and past endeavors. Yeah, he’s great as a writer, no doubt about it, even not having ever seen a Buffy or Firefly episode, the man is demand I get that but, slow the pole smoking a little.

You get my positive vote but turn that volume down a notch.

So while he's not even a Whedn fan let alone a Browncoat, it's nice to hear that it gets his seal of approval.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And wow! Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like ... ow ... ound ... round ... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?

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Sunday, May 22, 2005 1:12 PM

ZOID

reginaroadie:

I, myself, have had to stop referring to JW as 'the guy who created BtVS and Angel'. All the eye-rolling and then having to backpedal, "But Firefly was totally adult and seriously dramatic, and..." It was proving too counterproductive a conversion technique in my circle of friends and acquaintances. Now, I just show 'em the DVDs and tell 'em that Joss used to write for Roseanne, which informs the realism of Zoe & Wash's marriage, and people of my demographic group (late thirties to early fifties, professional) can accept this reference without prejudice.

So while I don't think it's necessarily "pole smoking" (has that reviewer perhaps watched Smith's "Clerks" a few thousand times too many?) on the part of the studio, I myself have doubts about the efficacy of informing the unknowing public that the movie is in some way related to Buffy/Angel. Serenity is about neither cheerleaders nor latex-headed vampires with very leaky continuity to vampires of historical legend (incontinuity?). Firefly/Serenity stands on its own merit, and is in an entirely different vein than Buffy (pun intended). More from the heart, than to it.

As you may be able to tell, I too am deeply disinterested in BtVS/Angel. I love Firefly heart and soul, though...

Respectfully,

zoid

P.S.
The actual epithet from "Clerks", uttered by Jay, is "cock smokers". If the reviewer's gonna rank on Joss -- and engage in a little Smith-sycophantic fellation of his own in the process -- couldn't he at least have the balls to mouth the right words, rather than some dubiously concocted, 'cleaned-up' version?
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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