Link blog: films, money, counterfeiting, props
- The Business of Fake Hollywood Money
- When your prop money is too realistic, the authorities get interested. Via Mefi.
(tags: money counterfeiting films props)
I went to see Serenity the other day. Here’s a spoilerific review, in which I won’t tell you exactly what happens, but I will mention stuff which people who’d like to see it totally fresh probably don’t want to know. It’s cut for those on LJ, and there’s a bit of spoiler space for my literally 1’s of readers using RSS.
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I liked it. I liked Firefly, as I’ve mentioned before. In some ways I liked Firefly better than Buffy, as I somehow found it a more convincing world.
According to the couple of members of our party who hadn’t seen the series, Serenity does stand up well on its own, but I suspect a lot of the geekier viewers will be going because they’ve seen Firefly and want more. As a continuation of Firefly, it’s satisfying: we finally find out what exactly it is about River that makes the Alliance want her so badly (hint: it’s not that she’s made of chocolate), and the backstory of the Reavers is revealed as well.
The film is darker than most of the episodes (with the possible exception of the pilot, also entitled Serenity). Mal’s ruthless and more obviously damaged by the war. Major characters die without much warning. The villain is a total sociopath. Luckily, there is still the by-play between the characters which made the series funny, but it’s much more graveyard humour than it was before.
The special effects work well without being intrusive. Whedon finally gets his huge space battle, which is worth seeing on the big screen. Serenity (the ship) has lost some of her friendly lighting in favour of cooler blues, in keeping with a more high tech, less Old West feel to the film as a whole: you can see it in the costumes too.
My only complaint about the film is that it’s rushed (actually, that’s not my only complaint: the crew’s inability to get the Super Secret Info off the ship using a marvelous technology we call radio was slightly grating, but necessary for the plot, I suppose). We get what in TV land would be at least a season’s worth of exposition about River, and the resolution of the Alliance’s hunt for her, in a couple of hours. There’s not a lot of time for anything else. Characters other than Mal and River don’t see much development; and River herself magically transforms from Bipolar Girl into Buffy (that silhouetted shot with the axe, eh?) with barely a pause for breath.
That said, I write as someone who’d seen the original series. Totally satisfying the existing fans might have meant making an over-long film which would be of no interest to people who didn’t already care about these characters. I think Whedon’s done the best he could with the constraints that the evil Fox TV executives handed him, curse them.
In summary, it’s a good action adventure for people who’ve not seen the series, and it’s finally some more Firefly for people who have.
By the way, anyone who wants to be throughly spoiled might enjoy Serenity in 2000 Words or Less.
It’s been a geeky evening, where I’ve watched both the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film, and the latest Doctor Who.
<lj-cut text=”HHGTG – contains spoilers”> I thought the film was entertaining, but I can see why some of the fans are annoyed. First, the bad things.
There were good things.
Overall, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an enjoyable adaption. While I still liked the other incarnations more, and can think of ways it could have been better, it is certainly not deserving of the OMG! sacrilege! stuff which was coming from some of the fans. It’s worth seeing.
<lj-cut text=”Doctor Who – likewise contains spoilers”> So to Doctor Who. This week’s episode was the first one where I’ve felt that the programme was being made for grown-ups. The Doctor, who we now know is probably the last surviving Time Lord, encounters the last surviving Dalek. Both are refugees from a cataclysmic battle which destroyed their races. The story played with the the idea that we become like our enemies, with the Dalek starting to show compassion, and the Doctor determined to exterminate it.
There’s still room for some humour. Line of the show: “It’s downloaded the Internet. It knows everything.” Haw!
Further to my last posting, Penny Arcade has Serenity spoilers (or rather, not).
Squeee!
Thank you. That will be all.
Watched 28 Days later with Lise on Saturday. Despite some irritating plot holes, it was worth seeing. One thing that always annoys me about horror films is how stupid the people in them are, on occasion. Attention, people in horror films:
Don’t go alone into dark places where nasties might be (one can be forgiven for this at the start of the film when one doesn’t know the nasties are around, but after that, it’s your own problem).
When you think you’ve won, you still need to pay attention to your surroundings rather than engaging in a tearful group hug (or, in the case of J. Lo in Enough, phoning a friend. Chicks, eh?). Inevitably, one of the nasties isn’t as dead as you’d like (a classic horror or drama staple, that one), or it has a friend around.
Right, glad that’s sorted out.
Also found that The Editing Room has now has a script for The Matrix Reloaded which skewers it mercilessly. At least Austin Powers had the right idea in calling the “M” character Basil Exposition.
Slept late on Sunday, went into town and bought a white shirt so as to appear more like Agent Smith for the Matrix themed bop that evening. Ran out of things to do and entered the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. (Aside: the phrase originates as a parody of St John of the Cross’s “Long Dark Night of the Soul”, an idea also taken up by Jung, who seems to crop up a lot in my LJ of late, thus proving the Fundamental Interconnectedness of All Things).
The Matrix themed bop turned out not to be very Matrix themed. Suspect this was down to them telling other MCRs it was, and neglecting to tell the college’s own members. Music started badly, briefly got better and then dissolved into soft rock hell. Still, bopped a bit and enjoyed myself. And so to bed.
Spoilers for The Matrix Reloaded.
<lj-cut> So, who spotted the paraphrase from the Book of Daniel when the Nebuchadnezzar blew up? Morpheus’s line “I had a dream, and that dream has gone from me.” See, CICCU did me proud after all. Not sure whether that’s particularly significant to the plot, but it’s probably one of those hidden reference thingies (Nebuchadnezzar is one of the kings in Daniel).
The Drogon Arch-Wizards’ Idling Club discussed a page about that mysterious bit with the Architect, which goes some way to explaining what was going on, and argues reasonably convincingly that Zion is not in a second Matrix. That page links to a Salon.com article about it, which explains a few more things, mostly about how the machines seem to need human choice. Both of these pages are speculation, of course, but interesting speculation at that.
Someone also pointed out a short story by Neil Gaiman on the official Matrix site, which I rather liked.
Of course, no Matrix discussion would be complete without mentioning this.
It’s nearly midnight and I’ve not watched the next Alias tape yet. The lovely Syd will have to wait til the weekend now, by the looks of things. (If terriem is allowed to be gooey over French bloke, I can do the same over Sydney, I reckon. Turnabout is fair play, and all that).