A friend let me re-borrow her Serenity/Firefly DVDs and I'm re-watching the series. Joss Whedon gets what George Lucas has forgotten-- it's all about the small details.
The TV show Firefly didn't have a great budget, but they worked well within it. The small details, like the constant wash of the engines when in atmosphere, the grunge and gunk of the ships and the worlds, and the attention to the clothing, weaponry, and the accents/languages used all make the world seem more believable. But, even if not believable per se, it makes the audience more forgiving of the larger details that maybe don't work as well; when a computer graphic doesn't quite look right, or something else doesn't seem to fit.
That was the primary problem with Lucas' Star Wars prequels. Lucas was never a great storyteller, but in the original series he made a better attempt at making the world believable and we were willing to buy into his vision because of the believability. The prequels were too shiny, too fake, too computer graphic intensive to be believable. They were too massive, which led to the story becoming too large and unwieldy.
On the other hand, Firefly and Serenity stayed relatively small. Whedon used few sets and ensured they looked completely believable. When he made the jump to the big screen, although he had a large budget, he kept the sets relatively small and the story focused-- which led to it being more believable.
Recently, Christopher Nolan did essentially the same thing with his large-budget productions of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He used real effects and real stuntmen in every instance where he could, built real sets or used location shots, and made sure the world looked gritty and grimy, as it should. In this way, we buy into his vision and are, once more, forgiving when some things don't quite work as well. Compare this to Joel Schumacher's vision for the same character in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, and you immediately see a huge difference in the believability and realism of the world; and this leads to a huge impact on the respect with which we view that world and our willingness to buy into the vision, or not, as the case may be.
I have high-hopes that JJ Abrams has learned something from Joss Whedon, and learned what not to do from Lucas' recent efforts, and his vision for a rebooted Star Trek will be believable, small, and story-driven. In this way, he can get a franchise that deserves it back on track and back to the honored placed in our hearts it once held.
I also hope that other, up and coming writers and directors are learning from these hits and misses. Here's hoping there is a new Firefly by some promising talent who "gets it" in the works right now.
The TV show Firefly didn't have a great budget, but they worked well within it. The small details, like the constant wash of the engines when in atmosphere, the grunge and gunk of the ships and the worlds, and the attention to the clothing, weaponry, and the accents/languages used all make the world seem more believable. But, even if not believable per se, it makes the audience more forgiving of the larger details that maybe don't work as well; when a computer graphic doesn't quite look right, or something else doesn't seem to fit.
That was the primary problem with Lucas' Star Wars prequels. Lucas was never a great storyteller, but in the original series he made a better attempt at making the world believable and we were willing to buy into his vision because of the believability. The prequels were too shiny, too fake, too computer graphic intensive to be believable. They were too massive, which led to the story becoming too large and unwieldy.
On the other hand, Firefly and Serenity stayed relatively small. Whedon used few sets and ensured they looked completely believable. When he made the jump to the big screen, although he had a large budget, he kept the sets relatively small and the story focused-- which led to it being more believable.
Recently, Christopher Nolan did essentially the same thing with his large-budget productions of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He used real effects and real stuntmen in every instance where he could, built real sets or used location shots, and made sure the world looked gritty and grimy, as it should. In this way, we buy into his vision and are, once more, forgiving when some things don't quite work as well. Compare this to Joel Schumacher's vision for the same character in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, and you immediately see a huge difference in the believability and realism of the world; and this leads to a huge impact on the respect with which we view that world and our willingness to buy into the vision, or not, as the case may be.
I have high-hopes that JJ Abrams has learned something from Joss Whedon, and learned what not to do from Lucas' recent efforts, and his vision for a rebooted Star Trek will be believable, small, and story-driven. In this way, he can get a franchise that deserves it back on track and back to the honored placed in our hearts it once held.
I also hope that other, up and coming writers and directors are learning from these hits and misses. Here's hoping there is a new Firefly by some promising talent who "gets it" in the works right now.
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