Allegiant...In a Nutshell

There was something irony about today.

This time last year, my friend and I planned to go see Insurgent in the theatre on the Thursday before opening night.  Tuesday afternoon, however, my co-worker came up to me and asked if I could cover for him Thursday morning...even though I was already working an 8-hour shift that afternoon.

For whatever reason, I said yes...

...thus, I ended up working 11.5 hours straight, followed by a 2+ hour movie with my friend.

This experience is documented in my blog post: Insurgent_Count_Down

(I realize I promised to post my review within a few days of the showing but never did, and for that I apologize.)

This March, I planned to go see Allegiant at the dine-in theatre near campus as a treat for surviving Finals.  I bought my ticket for the 11:30am showing two days in advance, as this was the only showing that would get out before my 3pm shift at work (also on campus).  This morning (Thursday), I received a desperate message from my boss saying that the my co-worker had called in sick and she needed someone to cover at least for a little bit this morning (Finals Weeks isn't quite over yet).  And since the theatre was right next to school and I had to be out there at 11:30 anyway, I said I would come in from 9:30 to 11-ish, and hopefully after that my other co-worker would be able to come in a little early.

The irony in it all is that I was covering a Thursday morning shift for the same co-worker I'd covered for a year earlier, AND I was going to see a Divergent movie afterward.




Allegiant

Don't mind us.
We're just climbing a wall in style.

Where to begin?

Overall, I liked it.  I absolutely loved John Trapanese's original score from Insurgent, and I loved Allegiant's soundtrack just as much.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about Insurgent (other than all of the deviations from the book) is how bad the dialogue sounds.  And I'll admit, a good portion of it is a little clunky like whoever wrote it (Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman, Mark Bomback) just didn't know how to write believable dialogue.  Either that, or the actors weren't given very good direction from Robert Schwentke.  Or a combination thereof.

Whatever was going on in Insurgent seems to have been remedied in this latest installment, because the dialogue didn't seem quite as awkward to me.  Actually, it sounded pretty good.  Everyone seemed much more comfortable with their roles, so overall the performances were great.

Costume design was interesting as well.  I thought they utilized the costuming well to further separate Tris, who is considered pure, from the others, who are considered unpure, by dressing Tris in really bright whites to contrast blacks and the dark grays worn by everybody else.  Fantastically well-thought-out stuff!

Most of all, I loved the lighting!  I absolutely LOVED it!  It was a happy combination of softer high-key lighting (very light shadows) and the darker, heavier borderline chiaroscuro lighting I love so much.

So, overall, I enjoyed the movie...


Defiant 
(or why Allegiant should be excomminucated from the Divergent family)

Tris is sad because of how
inaccurate the movie was.

...but not as a member of the Divergent family.

A lot of liberties were taken with the storyline, especially after the first, like, half an hour or so.  Elements of the story remain the same --  Tori still dies during their escape, Tris finds out here mother used to work at the science facility, and David still tries to release a memory serum on the city of Chicago while the people are at war with each other.

I liked Allegiant as its own little stand-alone movie about a girl and her friends who seek to discover the trust about what lies beyond the wall that both protects and imprisons their dystopian city.

As its own little blob of movie, Allegiant is fantastic!

As a member of the Divergent family...it leaves something to be desired.




Arrogant 
(or how Tris is still alive and why I have a problem with that)

I should be dead.  What happened?

Now don't get me wrong, I actually like Shailene Woodley as an actress.  But the fact that Tris made it through this movies relatively unscathed just made me angry.

It's not that I want her to die.  Nobody truly wants one of their favorite characters to die at the end of a movie or a book (that's what makes their deaths so sad to us).  But, I understand that in order for the Divergent series to reach its full and complete end, Tris must die.  As a writer, I get that.  Sometimes you have to knock off your main character to solve the problem.  Sometimes your main character has to go down in order to take the antagonist down as well.  I get that.

I also [kinda] get why they split the movie into 2 parts: Allegiant being Part 1 and Ascendant being Part 2 (due next year).  On the one hand, it keeps the franchise going, and the longer the franchise lasts the more many media moguls in Hollywood can make.  See, the film industry is all about money and less about art in America, which is why movies like Son of Saul stand out to us so much (as the Hungarians are a bit more focused on the artful aspect of filmmaking than we are).  This is why I get really excited when I do see really artfully crafted movies or movie trailers.

Regardless, I have no problem with splitting a book into 2 movies, but only if it's done right.

Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2 were done correctly in my opinion.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Breaking Dawn Part 2 were done correctly in my opinion.

Allegiant Part 1 was not done correctly in my opinion.

I defy them to make Allegiant Part 2 correctly at this point.

Splitting Allegiant into 2 movies wouldn't be a problem if the material was being equally distributed (or close to equally).  As it stands, the Allegiant movie covered so much of the book that they really should have just killed Tris off, ended the series, and called it good.

What makes me even more upset is that they set it up to kill Tris at least once during the climax, and yet she is still with us, and they're moving forward with Ascendant (which is technically Allegiant Part 2).  And I was prepared to forgive them for the rest of the inaccuracies if they just did this one little thing right and let Tris die at the end of the movie.  But no, it was not to be.

Considering how much of the book was covered by Allegiant, I defy them to make a full 2+ hour movie out of what's left of the book.  I defy them to do it!


Detergent
(or why I think Ascendant should be renamed Detergent and labeled as fanfiction)

The Final Chapter or the First Crossover?

I'm not saying they shouldn't make Ascendant.

I'm just saying that they should have ended Allegiant in one happy 2-hour, 20-minute movie, then make Ascendant something else entirely.  Disconnected from the Divergent series altogether.

How, you ask?

First, it's time for us to face the reality that Hollywood has been talking about making a Divergent/Hunger Games crossover.  And while some of us may have been hoping and praying to avoid this detriment to great literature, I think it's time for us to face the fact we may be seeing these crossover movies sooner than we'd like to admit.

Second, considering how they ended the existing Allegiant movie, it is possible that they will just run off and take Ascendant down a whole different path that is completely different from the remaining portion of the Allegiant book it's supposed to be based on.  On top of the fact are rumors that Ascendant will contain "all new material".  How, exactly, can a movie based on a book contain "all new material"?  And how does Hollywood expect fans to be excited about this "all new material" when it means the defiling of a wonderful piece of dystopian literature?

Tris and Katniss: Partners in Crime?

So, will Ascendant be the first Divergent/Hunger Games crossover?  Will we be seeing Katniss or any other TGH references scattered throughout the last installment of the Divergent series?  Will President Snow rise to power and turn the experimental cities like Chicago into the 13 districts?  Will a five-year-old Mags make an appearance?  Will Tris end up leading the rebellion that leads to the destruction of District 13?

Truthfully, I have no idea.

I wish I could use my psychic mojo to read the minds of the Ascendant production team so I could tell you what they have in store for the movie...but sadly, I don't have any psychic mojo (which is probably a good thing in the long run).

My fangirl would love to get Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley in a movie together, maybe not as Katniss and Tris, but definitely with playing similar characters in some sort of dystopian future with a totalitarian government.

But, as an author and a fan of the books, I'm horribly offended by the idea of merging the Divergent and Hunger Games universes into a gigantic dystopian blob.  I think that would only serve to destroy the hopes and dreams and childhoods of so many fans.  Filmmakers should show authors more respect when adapting their works into movies.

We really need a washing
machine, Four!

If they must make a crossover movie, they should call it Detergent and make it about how the oppressed Districts of Panem join forces with the people of Chicago to overthrow the totalitarian government who has denied them the right to use washing machines to do their laundry.  They can make weapons out of empty detergent bottles and break into the BGW to steal their heavily protected and highly coveted washing machines.  Tris is killed while breaking into the washing machine vault and Katniss helps restore order to the whole country by smuggling the stolen washing machines to the impoverished Districts and experimental cities.  Because, you see, the world would just be a better place if everyone could just do their laundry in washing machines.

And yes, Hollywood, you may use that idea if you'd like.

An Exploration of Insurgent Production Design

As life would have it, I ended up taking a Production Design class and a Film Theory class in the same quarter.

I found this coincidence to be interesting and helpful as the two subjects are surprisingly interrelated.

A film's production design can tell us a lot about what the filmmakers are trying to communicate (which is film theory), and those same concepts can have a great amount of influence on a production team's production design decisions.

These two classes (and a few others) have ruined my ability to watch movies without paying attention to stuff like the production design.  Thus it was that I rewatched Insurgent.

I did this for two reasons:

1. So that I could see if it was as bad as I remembered it
2. So that I could watch it alone in order to form my own opinions

Having grown up with a rather controlling mother, I find it hard these days to express my opinions if they don't reflect the opinions of everyone else in the room.  Thus I have never told my teacher or my classmates exactly how much I disliked Nightcrawler, A Most Violent Year, Dope, or Foxcatcher.

The same is true of Insurgent.  When I first saw it on pre-opening night (see http://lynzmediathoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/insurgent-count-down.html), I was with my Divergent fan who ended up not liking the movie.  Before passing judgment, however, I wanted to see the again without an outside influence.

So it was that I ran to Redbox one beautiful summer day and used my "rent one, get one free" coupon to grab a copy of Insurgent.  And while I'm still not entirely happy with the plot deviations and some of the dialogue drove me up the wall, I found that Insurgent really wasn't all that bad.

I turned from a story about a hopeless, depressed girl rediscovering a reason to live into a story about a hopeless, depressed girl who learns to forgive herself.

It's a powerful message, and one that mainstream media doesn't touch on very often.

But that wasn't the only thing I noticed during my second viewing.  I noticed a few things about the production design that stuck out to me.


It All Started with the Erudite Sequence...

Spoiler Alert: Tris ends up as a prisoner in the Erudite compound.

Well, okay, she hands herself in for "research" in order to stop Jeanine from killing innocent people.



Regardless, Tris spends a good half of the movie between a holding cell and a science lab in the Erudite compound, always under guard.  She's a prisoner.  A voluntary one, but a prisoner none the less.

In the book, her reasons for doing this are made quite clear.  Overcome by guilt over the deaths of her parents, Will, and a handful of others who have been killed by the Erudite in their efforts to round up Tris and the Divergents once and for all, Tris decides she doesn't want to live anymore.  She also convinces herself that Four, and Caleb, and everyone else she loves will be safer if she dies.  So instead of throwing herself off a bridge or jumping in front of a moving train or shooting herself, Tris hands herself over to the Erudite, knowing they will probably have her executed at the end of whatever experiments they wish to run on her.  This also serves the dual purpose of giving the Erudite a Divergent to study so they'll stop killing innocent people.

The movie makes a point of saying that the Erudite are specifically demanding someone to hand Tris over because she somehow the most divergent Divergent person in Chicago, and therefore is the perfect test subject for their experiment (aka opening that strange box that was hidden in the Prior home back in Abegnation).  Overwhelmed by guilt over the deaths of the innocent people are the Erudite are killing to "motivate" everyone to hand Tris over to them, Tris takes the situation into her own hands and turns herself in.  Problem solved...kinda.

Upon the first viewing, I remember thinking, "Oh, this is different, but at least the plot is mostly the same."

But upon the second viewing, I began to notice something interesting...

...like enough to make me search Google to demonstrate my theory interesting.

The lab where Tris is hooked up to the device that's supposed to open that mysterious box everyone's been going on about for half the movie is a square.  Tris has to stand on a circular disc in the center of the room in order to be hooked up to the device.  And she separated from Jeanine and the other Erudite scientists by a large glass viewing window

At first, I thought nothing of this.  The Erudite are, after all, intelligent and also seeking to further their understanding of things.  It seems natural for Tris to find herself in this type of enclosure as a test subject.

Then they moved her to a prison cell so she could recoup for another day of experiments, and I noticed something interesting...

Her cell is a square with a square-shaped window.


But...

...the hallway outside is circular.

And...

...oh hey, look!  The cell doors are large panels of glass.

Large panels of glass that look a lot like viewing windows.

This poor girl gets, like, no privacy.

Which makes sense.  I mean, after all, the Erudite are the intelligent ones who are always seeking to expand their knowledge.  Therefore, it makes perfect sense that even their prison would feel like a lab where innocent subjects can be observed and tested without discretion.  I'm not a huge fan of animal testing...

But the cherry on the top of the cake comes in the form of the shower scene.  Don't let that scare you.  It's not that kind of shower scene.  It's all of five seconds long, and only shows Tris's head and shoulders as water pours over her.  That's all.

This honestly one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie.  Tris is alone in this dark room.  She's just come from a long day of intense simulations.  She is exhausted.  Hopeless.  Alone for the first time since her ordeal began.  Simply standing there as cold water cascades over her.  I like to imagine it's cold water.

There's something beautiful about the whole scene.

And, of course, I can't find a picture of it anywhere.

But, one needs only rent a copy of the DVD or [legally] download it from the Amazon Instant Video to find it.

And the reason you should go look it up is not because it's my favorite scene and I told you to, but because if you did go watch the scene I've just described to you, you would notice something interesting about the design of the shower.

It's a square with light coming from little round objects on the walls.  Or are those windows?

Square, circle, viewing window.

Maybe this is all just a coincidence (in which case the production design team should scold themselves for not thinking of that earlier).  But just in case it wasn't a went on a serach to find more square-circle-window patterns.  And I found....

Circular Building

Square Windows

...at the Amity Compound.

Am I going crazy?

I think not.

At least, I hope not.

...and Evolved into Film Theory

So, as I sit here at work typing up all this stuff about squares and circles and windows, I began to wonder why the filmmakers chose to use this theme throughout the movie.  

If this is just a happy coincidence, then the production designer should pat himself on the back after he slaps himself for not thinking of it sooner.

If my suspicions are correct, however, and this whole square, circle, window theme was planned (which I sincerely hope it was), then one must go further and ask, "What does this mean?"  What concept are they communicating to us through their choices in set design?

While I can't say for certain what these guys had in mind when they designed the sets and all, I have formed a possible theory.

A common theme in Divergent is reflection.  Tris sees her reflection in mirrors, windows, puddles of water, anything with a reflective surface.  I think this is to personify Tris' search for herself.

Does that make sense?

The first book/movie is primarily about Tris trying to figure out who she is.  

In the Divergent universe, a person is defined by their Faction.  Are they brave, selfless, honest, intelligent, or kind?  Your Faction defines you.

Problem is Tris tests positive for three Factions, Dauntless, Erudite, and Abnegation.  She does not fit into any one category.  She's Divergent.

She spends a good portion of the beginning of the story trying to figure out where she fits into their society, and it takes her the rest of the movie to figure out that she doesn't have to necessarily be confined to one trait.  It's perfectly okay to be divergent, other than the fact that Erudite is trying to kill you because you can't be controlled by traditional means.  

My theory regarding Insurgent is that the production design is meant to represent exposure.  Tris spends the majority of the movie trying to hide who she really is and what she's done (namely killing Will while he was under the attack simulation in Divergent) from everyone around her.  First of all, being divergent is dangerous, in and of itself, because the Divergents are being hunted by the Erudite and are generally frowned upon by everyone else.  Second, Tris fears that revealing the truth about Will's death to her friends and remaining family will make them hate her.  On top of all that, Tris is hiding with a bunch of Abegnation and Dauntless fugitives who have taken refuge in the Amity headquarters, so they're trying to blend in as much as possible.  

Contrast Tris' closely guarded personal life with the openness of the Amity compound.  Everything is open and exposed.  The buildings are only half built and have trees growing right in the middle of them, and most everyone hangs out in public places, which usually have wide windows to let in the most light.  The Amity are at peace because they do not fear exposure.  Tris, on the other hand, is not peaceful because she is constantly having to watch her steps and look back over her shoulder to make sure nobody catches a glimpse of her secrets.  She is, in fact, so wound up by the guilt of her actions and grief over the loss of her parents and trying so hard not to draw attention to herself that she has probably developed one of the shortest fuses in literary history and will try to kill people for looking at her the wrong way.

Flash forward to Candor.  The Candor are honest, even to the point of being impolite.  The Candor building is a gigantic glass structure, lined with huge windows and bright lights.  Everything is out in the open again.  Everything is exposed.  There are not secrets in Candor.  This is best demonstrated by their Truth Serum, which makes a person prone to share their deepest secrets to achieve true honesty.  This is why Tris is so against taking the Truth Serum when they are arrested by Amity for the murder of the Abegnation (back in Divergent).  The exposure of her secrets is the last thing she wants, and why she tries to resist the serum once she's been injected with it.  Being exposed like that in front of all of Candor and half of Dauntless must have been one of the most traumatic experiences of her short life.  

The Erudite compound is the epitome of Tris' exposure crisis.  Practically every room she's kept in is a lab -- a box with a window and nowhere to hide.  She is a lab rat in the purest sense of the word.

But she doesn't really have anything left to hide, if you think about it.  Her divergence and the fact that she killed Will have already been exposed while under the Truth Serum.  The only thing that is still hidden is what makes her so special.  What is it about Tris that makes her Divergent, anyway?  In the book, Tris makes sure to negotiate the terms of her captivity so that Jeanine and her cronies can study her all they want as long as they share their findings with her.  Not so much in the movie, but in the book she figures, "They're going to kill me when this is over anyway.  What harm could be done by telling me what they learn from studying me?"  She's been laid open like a book back at the Candor headquarters.  I don't think she's still trying to hide her secrets anymore.  I think she's trying to reveal more about herself, trying to learn whatever she can about her divergence in hopes of finding out who she really is.

In short, my Insurgent production design theory is this:

The filmmakers have constructed a world where Tris is completely exposed.  They place her in a series of sets where nearly every wall is a window and every move she makes can be seen by those outside.  They have put her on display in a glass cage for all to see.  She has nowhere to hide.

I think is this a reflection of Tris' inner fear of exposing her secrets, and it was very well devised on the part of the production designers.


So...

Five months ago I would have said, "No, don't see this movie!  It's terrible!" for the simple reason that my Divergent fan friend said she didn't like it.  However, coming back to it on my own, I think I can now say, "Well, it's not the book, and some of the dialogue is a bit stiff (no pun intended), but I liked it."

I thought the soundtrack was fantabulous, most of the acting was good, and the special effects of pretty cool!

So, should you see it?

I think it's worth a viewing or two, if you liked the first movie, are over 16, and are not one of those people who find Shailene Woodley's voice to be irritating (I don't have a problem with her voice, but that's just one film student's opinion).

Be advised, though, there is a kinda sex scene in the middle.  When I say "kinda", I mean the characters take off their shirts and make out rather passionately, but it's all filmed very carefully so that nothing too inappropriate is shown, and we (thankfully) don't see the actual act of sex on screen.  It's all kinda implied by the aforementioned passionate kissing and Shailene Woodley's bare back.

Aside from that, there's the usual amount of violence.  People get shot, stabbed, fall down stairs, fall off buildings...you get the picture.  There's a bit of language, most of which are four letter words with one possible muffled use of the f-bomb (it's hard to tell because the character says it so quietly).

Kids definitely shouldn't see this movie until they're much older.  Older teens and adults, I think, will be fine, but I'll leave that decision up to you and/or your legal guardians (depending on how old you are).

Anyway, I didn't think it was half-bad, and I'd happily watch it again.

The Divergent Mockingjay - Hollywood's Affair with Fan Fiction

So,  it's 8:38am on a surprisingly cold Saturday morning,  and I'm sitting behind the front counter at work.   As usually happens,  I'm one of 33 people who are likely to show up today -- the security guard, a teacher with a class of 20-30 students,  and me.  So to pass the slow hours between now and the end of my shift,  I decided to go see if there was a newer,  more detailed Mockingjay Part Two trailer. 

These Hunger Games have been getting progressively better with each new film. Hunger Games was terrible.  To this day, I don't remember anything from that movie except that they left out most of my favorite parts and that the shaky cam made me nauseated.   In fact,  the shaky cam was so bad that I found it hard to follow the story (even though I was already familiar with the books).

Catching Fire was great compared to its predecessor.   New director Francis Lawrence actually knew what a tripod was and how to use it,  which made Catching Fire not only much easier to watch but also a lot more engaging.  It was just a better quality movie overall thanks to those tripods.

Mockingjay Part 1 was AMAZING!   It was so good that I watched it twice in the same evening.  I have never been so excited about a Hunger Games movie ever in the history of my relationship with dystopian literature.   I've heard that some people weren't too crazy about it because it focused more on politics and strategy as the Mockingjay Rebellion really starts to take wing (pun fully intended).  I, however,  thought the movie was great even if things weren't blowing up every 5 seconds.  I happen to like political strategy movies.

Therefore, I'm now super excited for Mockingjay Part 2 in November.  Hence my early morning Google search for the trailer.

What met my weary eyes was both surprising and alarming.

Apparently Hollywood,  in anticipation for the end of the Hunger Games franchise and it's myriad fans,  is trying to create a THG sequel that will also be a Divergent prequel.   So basically,  Panem becomes the Divergent universe.

Is it just me,  or is Hollywood officially running out of ideas?

On the other hand,  the thought is appalling.   As a writer having my work changed in order to accommodate a sequel that will magically attach itself to someone else's work is a bit offensive.   What was wrong with my original story that you feel the need to change it in order to tie it in to someone else's story?  It would,  in my opinion,  be like not killing off Thorin for the sake of using Pain Bearer (by lilithiumwords) as an intermedium between The Hobbit and LOTR.  It just shouldn't be done because it would destroy the fabric of the author's original masterpiece.   It's a slap in the face to any writer.

The biggest crime in consideration where the Divergent Games are concerned is the idea of having Prim be the main character.  This can only mean that Prim survives Mockingjay Part 2.  But Prim's death is the main reason Katniss loses it at the end,  kills Coin, and tells Gale she never wants to see him again.   So if Prim doesn't die, can Mockingjay end the same?   Possibly.   But not likely.   Katniss has been holding herself together for her family and friends -- for Prim.  When Prim dies, it takes the last bit of Katniss's sanity.  Prim's death causes the end result of Mockingjay.   One could argue that Katniss's cracking was inevitable,  but Prim's death will always be a contributing factor.  As much as we love her, it would be a crime not to kill her off.

Let's face it.   The main reason Hollywood I'd probably even considering it is that there's a presold audience for both franchises.   Combining them would mean a combined presold audience.  Which means more money.

On the other hand, a crossover isn't such a bad idea.  Especially if they worked it out so Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley could be in it together!  In the event that something like this were to get made, I would go see it.  In fact,  I would be honored to write the screenplay for them if they'd like.

The idea of a Divergent Games crossover isn't entirely new.  FanFiction.net is littered with crossovers,  some where Tris is reaped, some where Katniss is her cousin,  and one speculating that District 13 is really Tris's Chicago and the world beyond the fence is really Panem.  So far this looks like the most intersection and plausible one I've seen.

But even so,  I have a better idea.

Hollywood,  I hope you're paying attention!  

LynZ's Official Divergent Games Crossover
By LynZ Media Thoughts

Prim dies, Katniss goes crazy.   When she gets better,  she and Peeta get married and have two children. 

So far this sounds like what Suzanne Collins already wrote,  but bear with me.

Katniss's daughter's name is Amanda, and when she grows up Katniss and Peeta tell her about how they helped make Panem a better place.  Motivated by her parents' heroic deeds, Amanda joins a fledgling group of scientists who are trying to come up with a way to prevent another dictator from rising again.   They experiment on people and accidentally create the Genetically Damaged, who then wreak havoc on the country.   So city experiments are set up to contain them.  Amanda believes they can be healed, as does fellow scientist Daniel Prior (see where I'm going with this yet?).  The two fall in love over the course of their research and eventually get married.

Do you see it yet?

There's a scientist who doesn't want the Genetically Damaged people to be healed,  and instead wants to turn them into a type of slave race.  Amanda and Daniel protest this, and Daniel gets murdered by thugs who work for the bad scientist.  Amanda creates a message explaining how the Divergent will help save the world,  and moves into the Chicago experiment to escape the bad scientist. 

Do you see it now?

Katniss and Peeta's daughter is Amanda Prior.   So Katniss is Tris's great-great-great-greatish-grandmother! 

So later in Allegiant when Tris and company arrive at the O'Hare science facility and they say Amanda lied in the video, the science people are really the ones who are lying.   Maybe not intentionally,  because they've been led to believe that the Genetically Damaged people can't be healed and are therefore an underling species of human. 

Thus the justification for periodically erasing their memories and resetting them as if they were computers or lab rats.

Thus the rebellion led by Nita that Four joins.

Thus Tris getting shot when she goes in to unleash the memory serum the the scientists.

Thus Tris's death.

The End.

Roll Credits.

General Readers: So, what did you think?  

Hollywood: Feel free to use my ideas listed above.   But please credit LynZ Media Thoughts for story collaboration.  And as I said earlier,  I'd be happy to write the screenplay for you.

So at the end of the day,  I would be in favor of a crossover movie if it were handled properly and the writers/filmmakers really devoted themselves to respecting the integrity of both stories.  No letting Prim live.  No horribly distorted storylines to make it work (I'm thinking of the fall of Voyage of the Dawn Treader as I say this).  As long as the author's original work remains intact, I would go see the crossover.

But if they end up killing THG and Divergent in the process,  I can always tear them to shreds on this blog.  

Either way,  you will probably hear more from me on this subject in the future.

Be brave,  and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Insurgent Count Down

9 Hours, 10 Minutes

So, I'm excited for Insurgent!   It technically doesn't come out until Friday,  but my friend and I found a pre-showing on Thursday night which works great I work close to the theater until shortly before the 8pm showtime. 

The only problem was that I got called in to cover for my coworker Thursday morning ( today as it turns out ),  so I will be working a grand total of 12 hours!   The sad part is that my boss just now realized that I'd be here all day.  

But at least we still get to see Insurgent tonight!  

So, to pass the time until 8pm, I've started this count down,  during which I will chronicle the hours leading up to showtime, and my thoughts and predictions about the movie.

I've already been here for 3.5 hours, so only 9.5 more to go! 

8 Hours, 53 Minutes

Longest 30 minutes ever!  I'm so hungry!   But I should probably wait until noon to eat lunch since I won't be able to eat again until after work.   Someone put on order on hold, but there is next to no information on it so I have no idea who it belongs to or when/if they'll pick it up.   Lovely.

At least things haven't been too busy here at work this morning,  and my boss [temporarily] doesn't seem to mind if I listen to music while I work.  On top of that, the Insurgent soundtrack is already available on iTunes!  Naturally I downloaded some tracks and have been listening to them all morning.   If the soundtrack is any indication, Insurgent is going to be AMAZING!

Usually when a production brings on a new composer to do the soundtrack in the middle of a series ( Divergent's was done by Junkie XL,  and Insurgent's was done by Joseph Trapanese ), I get a little nervous about it.   After all, the last I remember this happening in recent history was in the Narnia movies,  and Voyager of the Dawn Treader's soundtrack did nothing to bandage what could have been a great film. Arguably, Harry Gregson-Williams' scores for the previous two Narnia movies was MUCH better.

However, listening to Divergent and Insurgent back to back,  it's actually hard to tell the difference between these two scores.   Okay,  there's a distinct difference between them, but they compliment each other quite nicely.

Divergent's is definitely meant to be more airy and light-hearted while at the same time heavy and dramatic to mirror Tris's innocence at the beginning of the movie,  and all of the struggles she endures to grow into the fierce, determined Divergent she becomes at the end.  

Insurgent's, on the other hand,  I think is meant to be more heavy and conspiratorial.  Gone is innocent and hopeful Beatrice Prior who defected to Dauntless.  Now she's Tris, the fearless warrior chick who has fought the dictatorial Erudite and saved Abegnation from extinction.   And Tris has been through all kinds of crap at this point.   She had to kill her friend, watch both of her parents die, and was almost killed herself...multiple times.  Now she and her little band of followers and frienemies are on the run from Erudite and their leader Jeanine.  Trapanese uses an artful mix of cellos, violas, and violins to give the music an overall feeling of urgency and secrecy perfect for the story.

7 Hours,  55 Minutes

Lunch time!   Finally!  

I contacted my friend,  and we agreed it would be best to get our tickets ahead of time.   I'm SOOO excited!  

The people at Einstein's Bagels made my sandwich on a cinnamon raisin bagel this time.   That's unusual, since it's either on a sesame seed or everything bagel.

But enough about me and my precious bagel lunch.

This morning, my Dad left me an article from the local paper about the movie.  The reviewer said it was terrible.   Frankly,  that's one reviewer's opinion...an opinion I happen not to share.

6 Hours, 23 Minutes

Whew!  Been busy for the last couple hours.   Had a surge of customers, then my boss gave me a massive project,  which was interrupted by another surge of customers.   The janitor is cleaning the office right now,  so I have a few minutes to relax and write a bit. 

Still very excited for Insurgent tonight!  I think it's going to be so beautiful!   The preview looks visually gorgeous, so my natural assumption is that the movie will be as well.   The special effects are going to be AMAZING!   And the performances will be spectacular!  They have a nice mix of newer famous people (Shailene Woodley,  Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller) and older famous people (Kate Winslet,  Naomi Watts,  Theo James).  You would never have imagined all of these talents in one film (I'm still having a hard time believing Naomi Watts is in it), but here they are.  Like Divergent before it, Insurgent is bursting with talent!  How can it not be good?

5 Hours,  43 Minutes

Is it seriously only 2pm?  Seriously?   Wow!  

4 Hours,  9 Minutes

Afternoons here at work are always busy, but the good news is that time flew during the busyness!   Now that things have slowed down a bit, I'm back to this project my boss gave me earlier.   Hopefully I can get it all finished on time.   I don't want to be late to Insurgent tonight. 

One thing I will be very interested to see is how they portray Tris's "execution" (bwah hah hah, spoilers!).  The scene was so beautiful in the book.  I really hope they do it right in the movie.   But if there's one thing I learned from Hunger Games and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it's never to expect anything in the movie adaption.

So, I got some friends together a few weeks ago,  and took some pictures of how I would portray the scene (what was even better was that I got to use it for a class assignment recently!).  I'll have to share it with you all someday,  but I can't put it up now because I don't have a copy of it on my phone.

Anyway,  shortly after taking the picture,  a new Insurgent trailer came out.   And this new trailer seems to suggest that the scene will be included in the movie,  but they changed it to meet their cinematic needs (another thing I've come to expect from film adaptions).

It will be very interesting to see the whole sequence in the context of the movie, and to compare it to my photo.   I think mine is more accurate to the book,  but I have a feeling theirs will be good too.  We shall see tonight!

3 Hours,  13 Minutes

I have officially been awake for twelve (12) hours! 

They say you should only be awake for 15 hours, but I will have been up a lovely total of 18 hours and 30 - something minutes by the time the movie's over.

It's only supposed to be 2 hours long,  but I learned a while ago to factor in at least 20 minutes for trailers.  So next time you're running late to a movie,  take a deep breath and remember it doesn't actually start until 20 minutes after the listed showtime.

I must be getting tired because I'm rambling about movie times.  Maybe I can shut my eyes for a bit before the movie starts?  I hope I don't fall asleep during it.  Not out of disrespect, but just because I've been up since 4:37am.  Hopefully I will stay awake.  I don't want to miss anything!

2 Hours,  14 Minutes

It's so nice to see the time ticking away.   I close up here in about 15 minutes,  then a little paper work,  and I'm FREE!  

I've got my ticket all printed out and I'm dressed rather Dauntlessly.  All I need now is something for dinner and I'll be all set.

I'm so excited!  I think I've said that, like,  a million times already,  but it's still true.  

1 Hour, 15 Minutes

Wow!  Seriously?   One hour to showtime?  

Anyway,  I'm finally done at work,  and just grabbing some yummy goodness for dinner.  Soup and a Ceasar salad hit the spot after a long day! 

I wonder how it will begin?  How close to the book it will be?   Will the end leave me screaming?   I guess I'll find out in an hour!

18 Minutes

Here we are, in our seats, waiting for the movie to start!   I will probably have a lot to say afterwords, so check back tomorrow or the next day!   Have a great evening!

Burning Panem

Recently, I realized that I've officially supported Christian movies, watched a Disney sing-along, and got caught up on my post-apocalyptic movies in a period of, like, 29 days.

March 27, 2014 - God's Not Dead

March 28, 2014 - Noah

April 11, 2014 - Divergent

April 19, 2014 - Heaven is for Real

April 20, 2014 - X-Files: Fight the Future

April 23, 2014 - Frozen

April 24, 2014 - Catching Fire


As a Christian, I feel it is important to support Christian movies (God's Not Dead, Heaven is for Real).

I was so sick and tired of hearing people gripe about Noah before it had actually opened that I went to see it to find out for myself if it was really all that bad.  (Read all about my Noah thoughts at: http://lynzmediathoughts.blogspot.com/2014/03/noah-splash-of-apocalypse.html).

So many people have harassed me about not seeing Frozen, that I finally caved in and watched it.  To one dear friend who was giving me a hard time, I said, "You haven't seen Desolation of Smaug.  I haven't seen Frozen.  We're equal."

Okay, my friend (you know who you are), I saw Frozen.  Now, it's your turn.

And I'm officially ready for X-Files: I Want to Believe, Insurgent, and Mockingjay Part 1!  Woo hoo!! 

I bet you're all wondering what I thought of all of the above movies, but I'm just going to focus on one of them for now.


Back in April 2012, a friend loaned me one of her two copies of The Hunger Games after learning (much to her distress) that I hadn't read the books up to that point.

I finished it in twelve days.

This was an unfathomable amount of time for avid readers who can finish an entire monster book in two or three sittings.

However, considering that I have always been a slow reader due to a lazy eye and an audio/visual processing difficulty, twelve days was a record for me (19 days being my previous record).

As it turned out, The Hunger Games was required reading for my college level creative writing class that Fall.  Funny how things work out sometimes.

So, when the movie-edition of the second book was released in October of 2013, I ordered it from Amazon ($7.50-something!).  As I'd learned when The Hunger Games and The Host came out, trying to rent a book of a popular new-release movie from the library is like having a tea party with Sasquatch.  You wait at the end of a five hundred person waiting list for three years, and by the time you finally get your hands on it, the third movie has already come out.  So, as I did with The Host, I bought the thing for myself.  And, as was my logic back then, "If I'm gonna buy the thing, I might as well get the copy with Jennifer Lawrence's face on it."

I made it to Chapter Eight before Ender's Game opened in theaters, and my other friend loaned me her copy of the book.  To date, I still haven't finished Catching Fire.


The Fire Starter

The Girl on Fire and the Boy with the Bread
Could it possibly be love?

In August 2012, I found myself among the masses madly seeking one renegade copy of The Hunger Games with Jennifer Lawrence (who I still believe must be distantly related to Anna Popplewell of Narnia fame).  I was competing with all the die-hard THGians and avowed Josh Hutcherson fangirls, so it took me almost two hours to obtain my coveted Blockbuster overnight rental copy of the movie.

Let it be known, my Dad HATES sad, violent movies (he doesn't understand why I like reading/watching sad or Holocaust related stories for this reason).  When I left to obtain my THG dvd, I explained that THG wasn't the sort of thing he'd like (kids killing kids isn't my idea of a fun family movie).  He said he understand.

When I returned after my "Hunger Quest", tired and footsore, he said, "Okay, let's start watching the movie while you eat dinner!"

He lasted all of twenty minutes.

They hadn't even left for the Capital, and he was like, "I'm done."

It's kinda sad to say that my reaction was, "But, they haven't even started killing each other yet!"

To date, I still haven't seen the end of The Hunger Games.  And not because my Dad stopped watching twenty minutes in.  I made it all the way to the end of the Games before my nausea became unbearable.  For most people, the unnecessarily shaky camera work that makes up the vast majority of the movie was just kind of distracting and annoying.  It made me motion sick.

Besides that, I was very disappointed by what I saw.

The soundtrack could have had a much more active role in the overall film.  Stephanie Meyers and her works may receive a large portion of criticism and pounding from my fellow Whovians, but at least The Host had an AMAZING soundtrack that really complimented the talents of Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, and Diane Kruger.

Meanwhile in Panem, everyone gathers for the Reaping, Prim's name gets called, Katniss volunteers, and Peeta gets selected...before the music finally decides to kick in.

And someone please explain the significance of that random scene where Katniss is playing with the habitat mode of the wallpaper in her Capital room?

And why, oh why, was the bread tossing scene in the rain so incredibly short?  Plus, it just kind of randomly shows up in the middle of a dinner scene, there's no dialogue, and I know for a fact that people who hadn't actually read the books had no idea what was going on.  I have a friend who's little sister was (or maybe still is) a Hutcherson fangirl.  Thus, my friend ended up seeing the movie when her when it came out back in March 2012.  After I told her about what was supposed to be happening in that scene, she said, "I didn't realize that scene was so important.  I thought [Katniss] was just sick or something."

Sick, sitting out under a tree in someone else's backyard, in the rain.  Makes perfect sense to throw some bread at her, right?  Yeah...no.

My two biggest complaints were the soundtrack and the shaky camera.

The cast was really good.  The sets and CGI were amazing.  If that stupid camera had held still for more that 2.7 consecutive seconds, I might have been able to enjoy it a little more.


Panem Catches [on] Fire (and burns...slowly)

The Mockingjay Revealed

Catching Fire really wasn't all that bad.

Note the fact that I know next to nothing about the story, as I got to chapter eight before giving up.

The things I do know about that I noticed have been changed were done so in a way that flows very well with the overall story.  None of it seems forced or jarring.  And the filmmakers actually used a tripod this time!  Therefore, I was finally able to enjoy a Hunger Games movie without almost getting sick to my stomach!  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Maybe it's the new director?  Maybe it's the better, more active soundtrack?  Who knows.

One thing that really stood out to me throughout the film was how Jennifer Lawrence did a spectacular job of consistently portraying Katniss as emotionally disturbed by what she's experienced in the last Games.  She imagines that she's shooting at people when she's hunting.  She jumps and draws an arrow at every sound she hears.

There's a scene in particular that I'm watching right now when Peeta whacks a force field and "dies", but Finnick revives him.  The entire time, Katniss is crying and freaking out, to the point that once he's revived, she kisses him and hugs him (willingly, not just to make President Snow happy).  And she's shaking the entire time.  Which I thought was really realistic...until I remembered that it was really Jennifer Lawrence in a wetsuit in front of a camera with a very much alive Josh Hutcherson lying at her feet.  And then I was like, "Wow!  This lady is good!  How did I not notice this before now?"  Maybe because I couldn't make anything out through the shaky camera in the first movie?  Maybe because I haven't taken the time to watch Winter's Bone or X-Men: First Class yet?  Who knows.

The other thing I realized was the lack of bad language content.  I only remember two uses of objectionable language in the entire film (well, ok, maybe three).

1. Johanna, notably the most out of control character in the arena, shouts the F-word at the crowds during her pre-Games interview.  Mercifully, this is muted out so we don't actually hear her say it, but it's still pretty obvious what she's saying.

2. A mentally/emotionally strained Katniss freaks out at Haymitch after learning that one of her friends has been captured by the Capital.  During this epic Katniss freak-out scene, she slaps him and calls him, "You son of b----!"

3. There were, perhaps, a handful of "Oh God" and "Oh my God" uses splattered about in the film.

And while we're on the subject of Joahnna Mason, viewers should be warned of her "strip" scene.  Basically, she strips down in an elevator with Haymitch, Peeta, and Katniss present.  It's all filmed very carefully so that nothing more than a bare back and shoulders are shown, but it's still pretty obvious what's going on.  So, I guess that would be four moments of objectionable content that bothered me.

On a more positive note, did I already mention that Catching Fire and Desolation of Smaug have something in common?  Katniss and Bilbo both have "Tree Scenes", where they climb up trees to get a better view of something.

Katniss in a Tree Nov. 2013

Bilbo in a Tree, Dec. 2013

Either Katniss is pulling a Bilbo, or Bilbo is pulling Katniss.  I'm gonna say that Katniss is copying Bilbo, though, because The Hobbit (1937) was published WAY before Catching Fire (2009).  Sorry, Katniss. 


The Fire Hazard

Yes, my friends, Katniss Everdeen is a fire hazard.

And I don't mean in the way you think; that she's a danger to the Capital and the governmental [dictatorship] structure of Panem.

She's a fire hazard to herself.

She's a ticking time-bomb of insanity.  The only thing left to figure out is when.  Avid Hunger Games fans probably know.

Jennifer Lawrence, as mentioned before, did a phenomenal job of portraying Katniss' slow decline into insanity.  After all, how is a sixteen year old girl going to cope with the traumatic memories of the Games?

There's an icy silence between her and Peeta after the Games.  Gale isn't available very much anymore because he's now 19 and old enough to work in the coal mines for which District Twelve is "famous".  Her sister and mother certainly have no idea what she's going through, or how to help her. The only other victor is a drunk.  She could hunt, but every time she draws an arrow to shoot, she images she's killing someone again.

She's a combustible firebomb waiting for a spark.

On top of this, she's now a "beacon of hope" to the other districts.  On the one hand, people look to her with dreams of hope and freedom from the Capital...and especially from the Games.  On the other hand, she's got President Snow threatening her life and the lives of everyone she holds dear if she doesn't make the Districts believe she's just another victor like all the rest - and instrument of the Capital.

Of course, if this plan had gone accordingly, there wouldn't be a story here.

However, the plan does backfire, and soon all of the other Districts are in turmoil.  The Rebellion as started, and she is to be their Mockingjay.

I don't care what anybody says, but the weight of the world is too much for a sixteen or seventeen year old to handle.  Especially an emotionally distressed one such as our friend Katniss.

Admittedly, this is weight she never asked for.  She just wanted to go back home and forget about everything that happened.  But, the Capital, and even the Districts, won't let her go that easily.  The Capital wants her to bash the District's hopes, and the District's want her to bash in President Snow's face.

And thus the firebomb is lit.

But, there's a long trail of gunpowder between the spark and the firebomb.  So long, in fact, that it will take another entire book for the firebomb to eventually explode.

Katniss will lead the Rebellion as their Mockingjay.  More or less, she will win the Rebellion.  But, she will lose her sanity, even if it's only temporary.  Sorry to spoil it, guys.

The events that seals the fate of Panem is the death of a loved one during the Rebellion.  After that, one thing leads to another, and Katniss,herself, eventually ends up on trial for murder.  She's only saved by a plea of temporary insanity, which I actually thing is quite literally her exact situation.

But it all starts here, in Catching Fire, as Katniss Everdeen begins her spiraling descent into insanity.


The Fire Storm (is coming)

Remember how I've been saying I know next to nothing about Catching Fire and Mockingjay?  Well, I lied.

I know the general plot lines or both books, and the manner of death for some of the major characters.

THGians know what I'm talking about.

Everyone else is probably completely lost.

Taking what little knowledge I have into consideration, I think I can safely project as to how the third movie will end.

Remember, those wonderful guys over in Hollywood split the third book into two movies.

Which really shouldn't be surprising after Peter Jackson and Company managed to squeeze three movies out of one book.

I'll try to be very good and not drop too many spoilers for those who found themselves in the "completely lost" category.

There is a certain character who dies a tragic death in the third book.  This person's death, along with a bunch of other events and other deaths, cause Katniss to really lose her sanity (which then capitulates at the climax of the third book).

I have a theory.

I think the third movie will either end with or shortly after this character's death.

There will be an explosion.  Katniss and Company will search the wreckage, and there will be the body of said character.  Katniss will freak out and rush to lifeless body.  She will gather body in her arms and wail and cry, and the audience will either be in complete shock and crying as well.

Camera will cut into a close up of Katniss's tear streaked face.  She will look up at the camera with that same expression she gave us at the end of the second movie, and in that moment we will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Katniss is tipped over the edge of sanity.

Cut to black.

Oh, misty eye of the mountain below...

Jennifer Lawrence

Keep careful watch of my brothers' souls...

Josh Hutcherson

And should the sky be filled with fire and smoke...

Liam Hemsworth

Keep watching over Durin's son...

You've been watching The Hunger Games: Mockingjay...part one

Tune in next year for the conclusion of the story.

Roll Credits

Other than the Hobbit references, I See Fire by Ed Sheeran would be perfect!  If for no other reasons than the fire references.

But, seriously, other than the music, I really think this is how the third THG movie is going to end.  I guess we'll find out in November.

Serenity

I'm back!  The semester ended about two days ago now, so I celebrated my new-found freedom from academia  by watching a movie that really wasn't my first choice; Serenity.  I really wish I'd gone to see Desolation of Smaug again (Hobbit 2 post on its way in the near future).

Serenity is the movie that was made to kind of tie up all the loose ends from the TV show Firefly, which - some would say sadly - met a premature end after only one season.

But, since shows usually only go offair once their viewership decreases to a certain point, why weren't more seasons of Firefly made if it is so popular?

Only Joss Whedon, Firefly and Serenity's creator and writer, would know at this point.

Regardless, I wouldn't even be watching Serenity now (yes, I'm about an hour and 37 minutes into the movie as I write) if I hadn't been graciously included in a movie night where the first two episodes of Firefly were streamed from Netflix.  Later, having run out of fresh Dr. Who episodes, and floating somewhere between the first and second Hobbit movies, I decided to revisit the remaining 12 episodes of the show (another tragedy for die-hard fans; only 14 episodes of the original Firefly series were made).  I found them all to be rather vulgar and gruesome The fact that the movie was too gruesome for me is saying a lot, coming from the kid who's favorite movie is Passion of the Christ, and who was the only person in a group of six who actually enjoyed the Spider battle scene from Desolation of Smaug.  The Uruk Hai don't bother me.  The Reavers do.  Always have.  Always will.

Which brings me to an interesting point I will mention in a bit.

In Firefly, we met the crew of Serenity, a Firefly class spaceship in the future.  It would probably be important to note at this point that Earth was getting to the point were it could no longer sustain Human life, so "we" (being the people of futuristic planet Earth) set out and found what Captain Kirk would describe as a cluster of Class M planets to inhabit.  Well, okay, these new planets were terraformed to create atmospheres suitable for Human life.

Then, some of the planet leaders (as futuristic planet leaders usually do) got together and said, "Hey, let's form an alliance between all of these new planets, and we'll run things like a big old dictatorship!"  Which is pretty much what they set out to do.  Some people don't like that idea very much, and a big war ensues.  Ultimately, the Resistance (the guys who don't like the whole alliance idea) lose the battle and disperse, while the Alliance takes control.

The End.

Well, not quite.

Two of those Resistance people were Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds and Zoe Washburn.  After the battle, Mal buys a Firefly spaceship, and he and Zoe set off to make an undercover, if not slightly illegal, living for themselves.  They are joined by Hoban "Wash" Washburn (who later marries Zoe), Jayne Cobb (the source of the majority of the show's crass humor), Kaylee Frye (who happens to be the same chick who got kidnapped by Carl Wade back in the X-Files episode "Oubliette"), and Inara Serra (their sponsor/resident prostitute).

Since Firefly, and its descendent Serenity, are what you might call "steampunk", there's a lot of western lingo and an all around cowboy feeling to both the show and the movie.

Anywho, at the beginning of the one and only season of Firefly, Mal and Company land on a planet to try to pick up some work (that is, smuggling, theft, you name it).  They pick up two noteworthy passengers, Shepherd Book (a pastor) and Simon Tam (a doctor who seems to be hiding something).  Turns out Simon is on the run from the Alliance with his little sister, River, who he has managed to smuggle out of Alliance territory and onto Mal's Firefly by having her body frozen in a cryogenics tank and brought on board with his luggage.

We learn as we make our way through the series that River is being hunted by the Alliance because she was a key instrument in weird and bazaar science experiments.  They've cut into her brain and turned her into a maniac killing machine with mental problems and an ability to read minds.

However, we don't learn about the killing machine part of the picture until Serenity.

Is it possible that River Tam is related to River Song?  No idea.  But, they're both very handy with weapons.

Anyway, whereas Firefly was mostly about Mal and Co.'s various jobs and adventures evading the watchful eyes of the Alliance, Serenity seems more focused on River and her problems.  More specifically, about the things she learned when she was accidentally exposed to people with super secret information that no one was supposed to know about.  At the time, no one thought it would hurt to have these super cool people with their super secret information observe River during her tests.  Later, it is pointed out that she was probably able to read their minds.  The images of what she learned from reading the minds of the guys with the super secret information haunts her in her dreams, and torments her.  This partially explains her out of control behavior.  But, only partially.

At about Serenity's half way point, she convinces Mal and Company to investigate a planet she remembers only from this super secret information she learned from reading the guy's mind back when she was a lab rat (if you think this is complicated, go watch Dr. Who).  On that planet, they make the slightly stereotypical discovery that the government (in this case, the Alliance) has been hiding things from the general public.

What's their secret?

Back to the Reavers from earlier.

I still don't like them.  They're disgusting, gruesome, horrible creatures that make the Orcs of Mordor seem well-mannered.  Interestingly enough, we never actually see the Reavers themselves until Serenity.  During the Firefly series, we hear about them, we see their ships chasing other spaceships, and we catch rather grisly glimpses of their destructive natures when Mal and Company board a dead ship and discover its crew dismembered and hanging from the ceiling in a big nasty chandelier of clumped body parts.  Yuck.  See why I hate these guys?  We also meet a guy who someone survived a Reaver attack (a feat in and of itself), but was driven so insane by the incident that he mutilated himself and started acting like one.  Yeah, I forgot to mention, the Reavers are known for mutilating their own bodies.  No one knows why.

Anywho, on the super secret planet that River Tam leads everyone to, they find a bunch of decaying skeletons lying around.  They find out from a 12 year old holograph recording that the Alliance had been pumping a few chemical into their atmosphere to relieve stress and tension.  But, instead of just causing everyone to stop worrying and hating each other, they stopped doing everything else too.  And so, they all just let themselves die.  Quite literally.

Except a few.

There were a few people who were effected differently by the new drug in the air.  Instead of calming them, it made them more aggressive, to the point of insanity.  They ceased to speak normal English or Chinese (the people of the Serenity/Firefly world are heavily influenced by Chinese culture).  They began to mutilate themselves, and started cannibalizing the few remaining people who didn't let themselves die and who weren't driven insane (how were these people not effected if they were all breathing the same infected air?).

In essence, the Alliance's experiment with the calming air drug created the Reavers.  But, they really don't want everyone to know about that.

Mal is determined to expose this truth to the world.  But, first they have to fight off an assassin who's on a mission to find River and take her back to the Alliance lab.  Second, in order to get to and/or from the super secret planet where all of this super secret stuff took place, they have to pass through Reaver territory, which makes sense considering that the Reavers originated on that planet.

A battle ensues.  Reavers attack.  Mal's still on a mission to expose the Alliance, and his crew is waging a suicide mission against the attacking Reavers to buy him some time.

Oh joy.

So, does Serenity have anything going for it?

Well, I did notice the special effects are better on the film than were those in the original Firefly television series.  The fighting sequences were more intense (mostly due to the advanced special effects).

But, I can also so that watching Serenity in the theatre would have made me sick.  During one battle sequence, there was a lot of spinning action as a spaceship spun out of control before finally coming to a rather jerky crash landing.

River's karate is pretty cool, though.  Yes, she spends her first couple of fight scenes fighting innocent people she's been psycho-induced to believe are bad guys.  But, when up against hundreds of Reaver's, her killing machine skills are invaluable.  Oh, and it is also important to note that she risks her own life to ensure the safety of her brother and the remaining Serenity crew members during their "final stand" against the Reavers.

Another positive, I guess, is Mal's overall character.  He complains about it, "Why did I have to rescue so and such?"  Someone points out to him that its not in his character to not help people.  Even after several falling-outs with Simon regarding River, Mal still takes them both back onto the ship for protection.  When Inara is potentially in danger, he doesn't hesitate to rush to her aid, even at the risk of his own life.  In the end, he's bleeding and probably on his way out, and still refusing to kill his would-be murderer, instead trapping the guy in a position where he is forced to watch the broadcasting of the 12 year old super secret recording, thus forcing him to face the truth about the guys he works for (the Alliance).

But, at the end of the day, (or the beginning of the day, as it is now about 1:15am as I write this), I'd have to say I'll still take The Hobbit and Passion over Serenity and Firefly any day.  For me, there's just too much overly inappropriate content in both the film and series to justify multiple viewings.  The story may sound cool, and the whole thing about the Alliance conspiracies and cover-ups is (as always) quite interesting.  It's one of those deep, complex story-lines where you don't see anything coming, but once you know what's going on, it's fun to go back and find all the evidence inconspicuously located throughout film and TV series.  But, it's just not worth your time or energy (unless you like swearing and crass humor, albeit a lot of the swearing is done in Chinese).

For me, it's just not worth it.  The inappropriate content in general (language and sexual) as well as the disgustingly disturbing Reavers out weight any reasons I could give for watching Serenity again.

There are much better, cleaner sci fi conspiracy movies out there.

For more details about the overall content of Serenity, visit;

http://www.pluggedin.com/videos/2005/q4/serenity.aspx

and/or

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg

PS - If you're sitting there wondering, "If you think this is such a waste of time, why did you watch it in the first place?", that's a valid question.  And frankly, I don't really know.  While I am honestly interested in Simon and River's story, I guess I was mainly curious to see how the story ended.  The last episode of Firefly was hardly a satisfactory one, so I was hoping for a better ending to the story.  Although the end of Serenity wasn't nearly as dumb as the end of Firefly episode 14, it still left the story more or less open ended, a sort of baby cliff hanger that could potentially lead to another movie.  But, it's been about eight years since Serenity, and no one's made any attempts at a sequel yet.