So I watched the series with a friend recently. And once I realized that it was not the greatest thing to ever hit the networks, I enjoyed it. It was fun, and I was sad to see it go. I wish I could say the same for the movie.
The film is not a conclusion to the series. Oh, it kills a few characters and destabilizes the political climate, but it doesn't really tie up any of the character arcs or metaplot threads the series sometimes toyed with either. Mal still has his UST with Inara, Book's mysterious past remains a mystery, etc. Part of the problem is that the plot doesn't really have anything to do with the main characters. There are plenty of reasons why the crew of the Serenity might run afoul of the Alliance for a grand finale, but the film uses none of them. Even River's plot sort of gets lost, as it turns out the villains are after her, not because she is a flawed super soldier prototype on the run, as implied in the series, but because they think she might have overheard information about a completely unrelated cover-up. She was always the McGuffin, and now she's not even that.
Speaking of villains: the Alliance clutches the Villain Ballhard, engaging in mass murder for flimsy reasons, to cover up an incident which is equal parts horrific and Narm (and provides some unnecessary Arc Welding for the Reavers, to boot. Sensible world building was never Firefly's strong suit, and the MST3K Mantra can only go so far when the entire plot hinges on it). The villain's extremeness feels like an artificial way to hit the Godzilla Threshold, making all the protagonists' (well, mostly Mal, who I have always suspected the writers find more sympathetic than I do) questionable ethics and suicidal tendencies the only possible recourse. Honestly, it got so bad that after the first few deaths, I started a betting pool in my head on how many characters would make it out alive (to the writer's credit, I severely underestimated the number).
So to summarize: the lovable characters are pushed to the side in favor of a plot that makes little sense and involves them only in the sense that it happens to them, and the villains are cartoonishly evil, seemingly to make the distinctly anti-heroic Mal seem good in comparison.
Even watching Firefly first, skip this one unless you think Whedon can do no wrong.
So I watched the series with a friend recently. And once I realized that it was not the greatest thing to ever hit the networks, I enjoyed it. It was fun, and I was sad to see it go. I wish I could say the same for the movie.
The film is not a conclusion to the series. Oh, it kills a few characters and destabilizes the political climate, but it doesn't really tie up any of the character arcs or metaplot threads the series sometimes toyed with either. Mal still has his UST with Inara, Book's mysterious past remains a mystery, etc. Part of the problem is that the plot doesn't really have anything to do with the main characters. There are plenty of reasons why the crew of the Serenity might run afoul of the Alliance for a grand finale, but the film uses none of them. Even River's plot sort of gets lost, as it turns out the villains are after her, not because she is a flawed super soldier prototype on the run, as implied in the series, but because they think she might have overheard information about a completely unrelated cover-up. She was always the McGuffin, and now she's not even that.
Speaking of villains: the Alliance clutches the Villain Ball hard, engaging in mass murder for flimsy reasons, to cover up an incident which is equal parts horrific and Narm (and provides some unnecessary Arc Welding for the Reavers, to boot. Sensible world building was never Firefly's strong suit, and the MST3K Mantra can only go so far when the entire plot hinges on it). The villain's extremeness feels like an artificial way to hit the Godzilla Threshold, making all the protagonists' (well, mostly Mal, who I have always suspected the writers find more sympathetic than I do) questionable ethics and suicidal tendencies the only possible recourse. Honestly, it got so bad that after the first few deaths, I started a betting pool in my head on how many characters would make it out alive (to the writer's credit, I severely underestimated the number).
So to summarize: the lovable characters are pushed to the side in favor of a plot that makes little sense and involves them only in the sense that it happens to them, and the villains are cartoonishly evil, seemingly to make the distinctly anti-heroic Mal seem good in comparison.