Let’s talk about Joss Whedon—well, well, where to begin.
Whedon’s star began most visibly with Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the nineties—I never really got into the show, but it was one of those that etched out its fandom quickly, especially online. For the time, the whole slightly irreverent and snarky tone was something new, and well-poised to catch the Gen-X zeitgeist of the decade. At the same time, there was talk of its whole female empowerment side that struck far—sure, many young het dudes no doubt crushed on star Sarah Michelle Geller, but I have seen a share of ladies of sapphic persuasion talk about their own crush on Alyson Lee Hannigan as Willow. Back then, that was also a standout LGBT portrayal—but with all this there came a darker and more hypocritical side, as we’ll get to.
Whedon of course ended up shunting himself into the initial Marvel cinematic wave, but for me at least his schtick was wearing thin by the second Avengers movie, where it felt like ‘constant sarcastic quipping’ was just the default mode of every single character therein. And eventually his star fell when allegations broke through of abusive behaviour, coercions, and more. But before all that, how did he still manage to leverage himself into a position of postmodern king of the geeks, and how does that impact looking back on our topic for today?
In the early 2000s, he also helmed Firefly—a scifi western concerning a group of antihero ne’er do wells in a roughshod future solar system, getting into scraps, spouting butchered Mandarin, and transporting a mysterious young girl psychic played by Summer Glau. It’s a bit harder to appreciate 25 years later when all manner of things have done similar premises, but on TV, it was a genuinely new and refreshing style after much more sterile scifi shows—and, of course, the fanbase only more intense when the show got cancelled after one season. I personally found the show fun enough if maybe feeling that the martyr effect boosted the hype up a few notches—and that takes us to the feature film that was made to bring about some sort of conclusion, with Serenity.
Watching the show isn’t necessarily vital to the film—it does explain the setup decently well, but let’s just say that to really feel the impact of most of the characters it’ll help. Said characters include Nathan Fillion as outlaw captain Mal, Gina Torres as his lieutenant Zoe, Alan Tudyk as his pilot Wash, Adam Baldwin as muscle Jayne, and Sean Maher as brother to the aforementioned Summer Glau’s River Tam. There’s of course a lot of bickering involved, but the plot moves along at a brisk enough pace that it can be overlooked—with it mostly being driven by the most memorable part, Chiwetel Ejiofor as a government Operative bent on tracking River down.
Compared to other characters here, Ejiofor is played pretty nicely straight, soft-spoken, polite, sincere in his goals, yet also ruthless. It’s an interesting contrast to the far less authority-deferential Mal, with both believing in where they go—and indeed, most of the story arc is about Mal. I think we start to run into some noticeable things here that for all River plays a part in moving the plot, that’s ultimately all she really does—sure, she’s meant to be mentally damaged by experiments and conditioning, but compared to the other characters, she might kick ass in a fight but doesn’t really grow herself.
That still leaves Serenity entertaining enough as its own movie, with some neatly memorable moments, though ultimately as its own thing it’s a fairly straightforward scifi flick that gave a modicum of closure to fans of the TV show. I suppose, as always, that leaves the debate of how to relate a creator to creation—Firefly still gets fond nods to this day, much like Buffy, and while you can spot Whedon’s flaws as writer and person maybe here and there, you can argue that it’s divorced enough from all that. Ultimately, as with all things, it comes down to the individual—I suppose if there’s one thing to take from spirit of show and movie, it’s all about choosing your beliefs and sticking with them.
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