there’s been much debate recently, that i’m reluctantly agreeing with, which posits that serenity wasn’t the firefly movie whedon should have made. while we browncoats were incredibly pleased with getting a resolution and some key character moments and some amazing action that blew away the series in scope, and joss did his best to make it approachable to non-firefly fans, ultimately the movie boiled down to a condensed version of the final four episodes of the show that he’d half-written.
which is great, if you already like firefly. and science fiction. and westerns. and are paying attention to a complex script, and understanding the subtleties of the dialogue and performances. there’s more than enough in there to get a handle on what’s going on, but not if you don’t pay attention. to the average moviegoer seeking mindless popcorn entertainment, it didn’t fly. they didn’t want to have to work for their rewards.
what he should have done, and would have probably seen more success, is a largely tangential adventure set in the six months or so between ‘objects in space’ and the movie we got. something big and bombastic and movie-worthy, but not so big as to distract from the real goal of that film: introducing new fans to this incredibly realized cast of 9 characters, this deeply interesting world, and everything else. hint at the past storyline and the future resolution, but don’t depend too heavily on what has come before. let people jump into the middle without realizing it. maybe even leave out shepard and inara, they’re gone and mentioned but not seen until the sequel.
then, once he’s gained popular support, make serenity as it was.
grant morrison points this out in his manifesto for new x-men. the goal should not be to please longtime xmen fans, because they’ll read the book regardless, and one half or the other will complain whatever you do. the goal, instead, is to bring in new people who don’t read x-men, and make them fans.
You make an interesting point, however, I think Joss was looking at it from the standpoint of “If I can only tell one story, which is more important to me?”
There was a very real level of concern that the movie would flop no matter what the material was, and I think Joss decided that it was more important to finish the first storyline.
Hindsight is 20/20, and it’s easy for us to look back and say that if the plot had been more newcomer-friendly, that the numbers would have bumped up enough to get a sequel - but from the outset, Joss didn’t have those numbers, and he was rightly concerned that if he didn’t finish his story, he would never get to - and as irritated as people are now, the browncoats would never have forgiven him if he made a more friendly version that flopped. We would all have been compainging for him to come back and make the “real” movie.
I’m not saying that I’m happy with the decision, just that I understand it.
In a perfect world, he’ll make enough from the DVD sales to make another movie anyway.
February 1st, 2006 at 10:18 am