Joss Whedon

Ok, first things first. Saw a little movie last night. "Serenity". You may have heard of it. Joss Whedon. Captain Tighpants. Spunky Engineer. Space meets Wild West thing. Based on a short-lived TV series.

Since I’ll be faced with a few more emails about my verdict between now and dusk - I’ll just respond right here. It’s good. Actually, it’s great. It starts out a little leisurely, but really kicks in mid-way through, and the third act is pedal-to-the-metal action.

My review won’t be up for a few moons yet, but here’s a quick summary of it :

"Serenity" feels like a two-hour season ender for the series. But that’s good. That’s what fans want. Who wants to revisit the beloved characters only to discover that they’re changed, or that the story’s drifted away from the one we were tuning in week-after-week for? It’s for ’the fans’ though - can’t see it wetting the Spidey-undies of any non watcher.

This is definitely an A-grade experience. The writing is impeccable, the chemistry among the cast is fantastic, the performances are great, and the action is non-stop. The film’s skirmishes really kick in towards the tail end of the movie, and it’s everyone’s party then.

Summer Glau is inevitably the film’s standout as the puzzling Escapee River giving a multi-faceted performance and predominantly, kicking some royal bootie in action stakes.

There are some slow spots - exposition does need to be slotted somewhere, I guess? - and it’s disappointing to see a couple of the show’s most popular characters sitting on the bench, but all-in-all, "Firefly" fans are going to be extremely happy with the feature-length treat Sir Whedon has rewarded them with here.

You can check the full review out when us onliners get the all-clear to unleash, but just wanted to tease you with some comforting words. It’s a rockin’ movie. Look forward to shakin’ your hand Joss - as well as giving Ms Staite a peck on the cheek.

A plug for the official Australia site too which just went up this week : It’s at Serenitymovie.com.au. I know the studio would appreciate your feedback on the portal, so feel free to comment.

In other Whedon-related news, the original "Wonder Woman", buxom Lynda Carter tells Sci Fi Wire that she’s keen to cameo in the forthcoming film version.

"There is actually this thing on the Internet, like a sign-up campaign, that says, ’We want Lynda in Wonder Woman,’" Carter says. "It’s very cute, very sweet. I think it would be great. I’d love to do it."

Still, she doesn’t want to have a silly part.

"It would depend on the role. I don’t think I would be interested in doing something gratuitous, just to do it, just to say, ’Oh there’s Lynda Carter.’ But if there was a role in which I could kind of tie up loose ends, that would be cool."

Carter said she’d be keen to play Wonder Woman’s mum in the movie.

"I just hope that the concept is one that’s really about the characters themselves. And I hope they cast [Diana/Wonder Woman] as someone who’s got a real heart. If they can do the movie with a heart, no matter what they do, they’ll be OK."

Now for some big news. Hold onto your briefs buffs.

According to Alyson Hannigan, a direct-to-DVD "Spike" movie may be [finally] on the cards.

"I hear there might be a Spike movie," she tells E Online, "which I think would be the logical character to start with, but I think there’s more opportunity for the Angel crew, not the Buffy crew. Joss has talked about different things, and I think the last thing I heard him say was a straight-to-DVD-type movie." FOX is giving the atypical "Nothing Going On" retort - but we’ll see.

Finally, a plug for the re-airing of "Firefly" in - slap me silly - prime time.

Starting tonight at 7, the Sci Fi Channel is showing all 13 episodes of "Firefly" — in the correct order. "Fox never got the show," Whedon says. "It was a bad match." After premiering the series late after a World Series game and running 11 episodes out of order, Fox dropped it. "I told the cast the day the show was canceled that I would not rest until I found another home," Whedon says. "I felt like I had let them down."