![]() Special attention must be paid to The Operative, a one-of-a-kind antagonist and perhaps Whedon's finest villain yet (though I'll forever have a soft spot for Buffy 's hidey-ho chipper Mayor). That symmetry is seen throughout, and the most stunning, story-centric use of that technique is in the character of The Operative. "They didn't fall.they just lay down," echoes Inara much later in the film, after they uncover the Alliance's monstrous secret. "They never lie down," River mutters cryptically after the gang shoots down a rabid Reaver. Mal's first and final lines, "What was that?!" The synchronicity of the Reavers and the horror story behind their inception. There are also moments of subtle mirroring that carry through the script. The direction is on point from the beautiful one-er that introduces the Serenity and her crew in a single sweeping shot, to the way Whedon uses the camera to frame emotion (I'll always be a fan of the shot in which Zoe's quiet rage comes into crystal clear focus). It must have been a monstrous motherfucker of a script to write, but the payoff is abundant. On top of that, Whedon needed to service a large ensemble of characters. And while it retains enough of the series' idiosyncratic jargon to please fans, it's never enough to isolate or confuse newcomers. The dialogue is endlessly quotable, defined by Whedon's characteristic knack for blending quips with moments of searing humanity. Serenity ’s narrative is tight, ratcheting up the stakes with each new scene to the point that the final battle sees nearly every single team member dead or on the brink of death, and because you love them so much, because each is a complete human, that threat becomes devastating. With each new world, Whedon devises an ominous authority well-met to the needs of the story. The Alliance is not Wolfram Hart, nor is it the mysterious corporation sending teens to their death in Cabin in the Woods. And yet, his nefarious structures of control are never repetitive. We see Whedon’s signature distrust of centralized power - a motif that runs through all his finest works. And yet, in the scene that follows, that tidiness becomes sanitary, and we learn the dark side of the Alliance. We learn about The Alliance and their conquest of the planets, we see through the all-to-clean ethereal quality of River’s school their vision for a beautiful, peaceful world. But this isn’t just an exercise in stylistic flourish, it’s a storytelling opportunity that establishes the unique world of Serenity in a mere matter of moments. The universal logo dissolves into “Earth That Was”, which opens up to reveal River's childhood history class, which turns out to be a dream she's having in captivity, which in turn is a hologram of her escape. Watching Serenity now, it's impossible not to marvel (no pun intended) at the level of craftsmanship on display. ![]() Whedon's first feature film, Serenity, demonstrated all those skills, and then some. ![]() Marvel needed the right person to lead the charge on their revolutionary approach to cinematic storytelling, and that required a vast and varied skill set – a gift for ensemble, an eye for action, an ear for dialogue, but most importantly, the ability to take all the worlds that were built in the preceding films, combine them, and in the process build a new shared universe in which they could all thrive. This isn't about what he achieved with Marvel it's about the road he traveled to get there, and why it's the right time for him to step off the massive MCU helicarrier and plant his feet firmly back in original content.Ĭertainly, Whedon's passion for comic books and his ties to that industry landed him the gig as a major architect of the Avengers franchise, but Marvel doesn't just hand out the keys to their mighty castle because someone is super smart and likes the subject a whole lot. I could sing the praises of how well Whedon accomplished that insurmountable feat for pages, but that is a different piece all together.
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