Rating: ***
The fan film is a delicate thing; you don’t have the budget to give the story its due, and the fan enthusiasm for original work can sometimes overwhelm the creation of quality drama. Then there’s the other thing: promotion. Anybody with enough money and technical skill can make a fan film, but it takes a special skill to beat the odds and make a name for yourself. Or an angle.
In the case of BROWNCOATS: REDEMPTION, the angle is charity. Any profits from the film are going to charity, and in return the film has been given unprecedented support, including an acting reprise from a couple of well-known faces from the FIREFLY universe. But to the credit of the filmmakers, they don’t rely on cache alone. There is some atypical skill in the making of REDEMPTION, but still, you may be entering fan only territory when you put it into the DVD player.
The timeline of the film follows SERENITY. The Alliance, bruised from the revelations of the film, is out to quash any and all resistance to the galactic parliament. The first target is the Scarab-class freighter Redemption, which, like a certain other bug-themed vessel, is staffed by a crew of antiestablishment types trying to irk out a living on the frontier. Lieutenant Colonel Thadeus Stevens is a duty bound operative of the Alliance, and he is the one assigned to rein in all Browncoats ready to rebel again.
The production standards on the film are surprisingly solid. The spaceship sets were pretty convincing, and were built pretty close to the original production design of the Serenity spaceship in FIREFLY. The planet side settings were another story though. I’m not sure where those scenes were shot, but there are a lot of small towns around Southwestern Ontario that could have easily been subbed in. The Maryland countryside is also very different from the Old West backlots of Hollywood, but the filmmakers make do.
The script is where the film shows true inventiveness and allows it to stand apart from your typical fan film. Sometimes director/screenwriter Michael C. Dougherty tries too hard to emulate Joss Whedon’s syntax and phrasing, but when the script relaxes and lets the story play out it becomes less self-conscious and more able to stand on its own. There are some twists and some interesting characters, but I think at times the film is a little overstuffed.
On the other hand, the film has fun with some genuine FIREFLY/SERENITY cameos from Michael Fairman (Niska) and Yan and Rafael Feldman (Fanty and Mingo). Additionally, series’ star Adam Baldwin is seen briefly as Lt. Col. Stevens secretary, where he makes the famous John Casey grunt from CHUCK, and thus prompting two different sets of sci-fi fans to punch the air. It’s nice that these actors feel such kinship for the material that they appeared in a fan production. It adds that little extra feeling of authenticity.
For a first time effort by a filmmaker, BROWNCOATS: REDEMPTION offers superior return on investment, but it’s one of those films that makes you feel like you’re grading on a curve. True, this is better than it has a right to be, but are we judging it based on those criteria? I hope not. But for fans of the franchise, this movie is a pretty solid way to satiate your jones for fresh FIREFLY material. And it’s Whedon approved to boot.
