You Can't Take the Sky

That was a hell of a ride.

It's taken me a few days to think about this post, because, as happened last time, the rollercoaster experience that is Serenity takes some time to get over.

I was completely wired by the time I got to the cinema and met up with Nixy and her girls. I had made a whole bunch o' tshirts for some of the other Browncoats, but wasn't very happy with them. I had used a different transfer paper, and it hadn't worked out very well. M'eh. I'll just make some more. Gave Kaz and Smiley their tshirts and comics and ticket.

So I had a bag of tshirts, badges, pens, prizes, comics, trivia questions and tickets, and a stomach full of butterflies. Mim and the other guys from Browncoats Downunder rocked up from dinner, and Mim negotiated getting the banner set up. I found people and gave them their tshirts and comics, all the while shaky and overexcited.

Unfortunately, my friend who was flying back in from London couldn't make it in to the cinema due to his flight being delayed, so I gave his and his girlfriend's tickets to the UIP guy to give out to anyone who turned up asking for tickets. I don't think that they got given away, though, which is a shame.

Mim and I managed to convince the management that running trivia was a good idea, and so we ran up and down the line (which had started forming an hour before the movie started), shouting questions at bemused punters and flinging badges and prize packs at them that answered correctly. Sometimes with extra hints.

We got the trivia done, and started handing out lyric sheets to the punters as they filed into the cinema. I lost my ticket, and panicked about being able to get in, but the UIP guy accompanied me and got me through. I then found my ticket hiding in my bag. D'oh!

Mim and I led the crowd in singing the Firefly theme - twice, due to a lacklustre performance the first time around. I sat with the Browncoats, whilst my friends found each other and sat up the back. I felt better sitting with people who had already seen the movie, and plus...Browncoats are family, you know? There's a certain level of comfort to be had from sitting with fans who are as insane as you are!

The UIP guy read out a message from Joss, and Mim and I, after a little debate, got the crowd to do a third round of the Firefly theme, threw ourselves back into our seats, and then...here comes Serenity.

I had thought that I didn't remember anything from the first time I had seen Serenity, but as soon as the movie started, I remembered everything. Every. Damn. Thing. Which should have meant that I was bored, or detached, or something, but no. I was on the edge of my seat, hands clasped to my mouth, for pretty much all of the movie.

There were new scenes and better colour and gorram I want to see this movie again now! I was completely engrossed in the movie, but part of me was analysing the crowd's reaction, because I knew that there were new Browncoats and non Browncoats in the audience. There were belly laughs, gasps of surprise, and absorbed silence in between. Excellent.

The movie was a lot tighter than it had been, with a better examination of the "minor" characters than had been evident in the first cut I saw. The special effects were almost complete, and awfully shiny. There had been some tweaks which lifted some of the action scenes above and beyond what I thought they could be, and the last third of the movie rocketed past. Last time, this had been a little disorienting, but it's been tightened up so that you don't feel like you miss anything, but you do feel like you are on a rollercoaster and you have no idea when or how you're going to get off. In a good way.

After the movie, and reintegrating myself back into the real world, there were hugs and sniffles and more hugs. Mim asked her non Browncoat friend what she thought, and the answer was "Can I borrow the series?" Another recruit there, methinks.

My non Browncoat friend seemed to dig the film - he really enjoyed the humour, and was very keen to see the series. My new Browncoat friends were a little shellshocked, but talking to them, Mighty Ogbo especially, confirmed what I had realised - I loved the series, but the movie took that love out into the stratosphere. Made me into a flan, a Browncoat. Made me look at the series in a whole new way.

Mighty Ogbo and I got home and sat up until almost 1am talking about the film. He really wants to see it again, and, like me, hasn't been so impressed by a film as he was by Serenity in a really really long time. For me, the last time I felt like this about anything was after the first time I saw Fellowship of the Rings. There's so much love there, so much dedication. So much pretty. Such good storytelling. I don't delude myself that Serenity could ever be as big as LotR, but I do hope that it makes a big enough impression that we get another two movies.

Or even better, a new series.