PG-13 mostly for a bunch of slightly gory jump scares. There are some sexual references and jokes, but the actual on-screen nonsense is pretty darned mild. The biggest problem with family friendliness is the Reavers, who are cannibals who rape their victims before they eat them alive. That's a pretty hard sell for family movie night. Also, the characters are technically bad guys who resort to violence and killing fairly easily. Still, it doesn't really seem all that bad. Except for the fact that Joss Whedon made it.
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon I know! Writing about Serenity in the middle of Oscar season? Why am I actively trying to overwhelm myself? Honestly, there's a lot here to talk about. I was part of the tribe. To a certain extent, I can't deny that part of me is still in the tribe. I often think about if I ran into Nathan Fillion on the street, I know that I would be prepped to nod and simply say "Cap'n". That's the code, guys. That's the code. I was obsessed with Joss Whedon in college. Could not get enough of the guy. But then he went and lived a terrible life that still confuses me to this day. Between Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman, I don't think that the world has good people in it. It didn't help that the article that was meant to be an apology was the biggest non-apology that I ever read. I just Googled what he's up to today and I haven't seen anything since 2021. So there's that. The weird thing is that I really want my daughter to get into Firefly. I think that she would absolutely dig it. There was a time that I could quote Serenity front-to-back. I was actually surprised how many of the lines I had at the ready while watching it. Serenity is an incredible film that exists beyond any sense of reason. Honestly, this movie is a miracle. Maybe, in 2025, could I see a film, big-budget closer to a one season show appear on a niche streaming service. After all, I just watched Section 31, and that's an attempt to do what Serenity did right. But man alive, I do have a difficult time distancing the art from the artist. Every time I giggled at something in this movie, I couldn't stop thinking about the accusations against Whedon. My daughter could get into Firefly, but I also don't want her to have a false notion of who made the thing that I love so much. (On a similar note, I've been constantly Googling Hudson Thames in hopes that he issues an apology for his "stupid woke" comments so I can watch Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.) But in the times that I wasn't thinking about Whedon, I forgot how good of a rebellion movie that Serenity really is. I wasn't political last time that I watched these movies. Since then, I've been aggressively political. It's not like I've been hiding it on this blog. I have been vocal about this stupid regime for a while. Being frustrated with the current administration is emotionally debilitating. But I'll tell you. A good rebellion movie? A movie where a scrappy ragtag group sticks it to the man? That is something I desperately needed it. There's a Firefly quote that I used as a meme at the results of the election. Mal is saying something along the lines of "May have been on the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one." That's the entire foundation of this movie and it is great. Sure, Mal and his group are morally dubious. There's a scene early on in the film when a job their on goes south when a ship of Reavers attacks the town. The guy who risked his life for the bank tries getting a ride on the mule when Mal shoots him. He justifies it as a mercy, knowing that the Reavers would put him through hell. But Zoe calls him out on that moment, stating that he was doing it to keep his money. Mal isn't exactly the moral exemplar when it is a normal day. But what is interesting about the morality of Malcolm Reynolds is not only does he have a code, but that code is actually running the show in a lot of the things he does. Again, not the best morally from day-to-day. But even Mal would acknowledge that. He is an incredibly guarded man. When he was an idealist, fighting against the Republic during the Alliance / Independents War, he was vulnerable. Every choice he made was based in morality. But instead, we watch a good man try to stay closed off from compliance, which has slowly pushed him into a place that he never thought he would be in. Mal, as much as he labels himself a brigand (heh), walks a tightrope that he never meant. He claims that he is just trying to survive, but he's the ultimate member of Antifa. He knows that living by the Alliance's code implies complicity in what they are doing. The only way to still fight the battle that the Browncoats fought, he has to take less-than-moral jobs. And the way that he executes this rebellion demonstrates that he, at his core, is moral. Yes, he acts callous, often cracking wise about things that people feel quite deeply. But he's hesitant to let innocent people, regardless of politics, feel pain. Yeah, he'll shoot The Operative after he admits to being unarmed. But that's because The Operative is a fascist who could kill him given another opportunity. But look at the bank guard. The bank guard, Mal acknowledges, is just a guy doing a job. He talks through the many ways that he can harm the guard in a way that lets him keep his position at the bank. Similarly, when the Reavers attack the town, his first concern isn't to get his money and run. He wants to get everyone down into the vault and ensure their safety to the best of his ability. Yes, it's wrong that he shoots the guy. But he's also the guy who is balancing so many different lives that he is often put in a place where he has to make the wrong choice. I don't deny that Serenity is a primarily a plot driven movie. I don't think that Whedon (ick. Every time that I write his name...) is a guy who is going to let an aspect of his storytelling suffer to something else, but it is a plot movie. It is wrapping up the threads that the television show couldn't get to. I don't deny that. But the character drive of the movie is Mal having to come to grips with the persona he adopts --Malcolm Reynolds, clever outlaw --with the persona that is his firmware --Mal, the man who cares for the underdog. When River goes all wonky when she sees the Oaty Bar commercial (I used to have a shirt with the Fruity Oaty Bar!), in his heart he knows that River is the victim of a totalitarian regime. Every beat, he's reminded of the fact that he fought for all of this to be avoided. He lost people because he knew that if these people were given a modicum of power, that it would lead to deaths. (Note: On a completely unrelated note, 10,000 refugees were sent home despite being vetted by the United States because Donald Trump doesn't like anyone who isn't white. There is a very good chance that many to most of them might be dead now.) The brigand cares only for his crew and keeping his boat flying. But Mal the ally sees this girl who had her life stripped away from her and knows that no one else will care for her if he doesn't. It's weird that Whedon was such a staunch atheist. It's something that I'm always unpacking because he made his thoughts on God very clear. He often spoke about how absurd faith was, yet the goal that Mal is constantly chasing is belief. I do love what Shepherd Book tells him in this one. "When I speak of belief, why do you think I'm talking about God?" It is something that Mal used to be a devout man of faith. As much as Book says that Mal needs to embrace something larger than himself, I can't divorce the notion that God is part of that. After all, if Mal --since the Battle of Serenity Valley --has been running from God; it feels only right that he somehow returns to God, even if that God looks somewhat different. This is the movie that introduced me to Chiwetel Ejiofor. His villain might be the perfect villain. Listen, in no way am I objective when it comes to this movie. I simply adore it. This was a lovely time and I could watch this movie over and over without really losing anything. But Ejiofor made a villain here that, while following an archetype that we've seen before, is something that is truly scary. If I have to be critical, it's absurd that Mal can hold himself on his own in the final act with this guy. The first time that he confronts The Operative, Mal can't land a hit on him. The second time, while Mal gets wrecked, he does get some pretty good blows in there. I mean, sure, Mal wins because he embraces that Han Soloness that I've learned to love in Firefly. Mal wins because he doesn't quite play by the rules ever and we're supposed to applaud that. (I absolutely do. Oh man, Mal breaking the rules of the fight is the best.) But the class and sophistication that The Operative plays his part is so good. And the fact that Whedon ties The Operative's faith to Mal is perfect. Yeah, with The Operative as juxtaposition to Mal, Whedon's frustration with religion is present. The Operative is perhaps the most self-aware villain ever. He knows that his faith is problematic, but necessary. He calls himself a monster, but a crucial monster so that society can continue the way it does. He's so screwy that, oddly enough, it makes sense that The Operative and Mal have a very different relationship after the signal is sent out. Mal still hates The Operative at the end, but he understand that The Operative's code doesn't need Mal dead. The Operative is so wired to a belief system that he doesn't allow for random violence. It's just a heck of a character to unpack. He's the zealot who comes across almost as the Opus Dei bad guy from The Da Vinci Code, only not terrible. But the biggest thing, for me, is that I can't introduce anyone to Serenity. This is not a post-Joss Whedon thing either. I feel like I could sit down and introduce someone to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. They might not like it because it's probably dated and I have a hard time selling people on Star Trek that aren't my older kids. But you could watch Wrath of Khan without having seen The Original Series. While Whedon throws a lot of exposition in the first few minutes of the movie, I feel like I would have to explain so much to a newcomer to the movie that it would only make the movie more annoying. I want everyone to watch this movie because I simply adore it. But I also know that it is going to be something lost to such a small time in history. It is an amazing rebellion movie, but who am I going to sell it to? |
Film is great. It can challenge us. It can entertain us. It can puzzle us. It can awaken us.
AuthorMr. H has watched an upsetting amount of movies. They bring him a level of joy that few things have achieved. Archives
February 2025
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