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Was asked by mods that rather than post a new thread for my Buffy rewatch to just add them to exisiting threads so here goes
Lets start off where it really started with Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry back in 1992.
The Buffy Movie
The Good
Kristy is lovely, perhaps even more so than SMG, especially in her nightie. Love the scene where she rides the motorbike and some of the valleytalk. Principal Murray is also funny as is the 'What time is it?' gag. Love the idea that 'PMS is our secret weapon'
Paul Ruebens is good especially his death scene. And that's pretty much it
The Bad
Personally I think both Merrick and Lothos are way over the top. The Buffy/Pike relationship lacks credibility although it's interesting to think about Buffy/Oz? Angel is sorely missed. Kristy's lovely but nowhere near as good an actress as SMG. The finale is also not up to much. It's an OK film but it lacks verve
The Other
Quite a cast, double Oscar winner Hilary Swank, Ben Affleck, Ricky Lake etc. Reputedly Seth Green has a small role but I've never spotted him. You can certainly see the beginnings of the Buffy characters here;
Pike=Oz
Jennifer=Cordy
Kimberly=Harmony
Andy=Xander
Cassandra=Willow (although she dies!)
Murray=Flutie
No Ford from 'Lie to Me' though. The only characters to cross from the movie to the series are Buffy, Joyce, Hank and Merrick (in flashback in Becoming pt2). Joyce's 'What time?' line to Buffy is also repeated there but in a very different context. Joyce remarks to Buffy in 'Fear Itself' that she's not the social butterfly she used to be and also in WTTH that she's read parenting books.
I saw Luke Perry in 'When Harry Met Sally' with AH and he was very good (and certainly still a hit with the girls). A shame we never see Pike again in the series although he does return in the comics. I don't really think the romance between him and Buffy works, we sorely miss Angel/Spike. If you look at the video cover it has both him and Kristy, by the time it comes out on DVD it's just her.
Buffy later describes her pre-Slayer personality as Cordelia-like and she is. Ironically Merrick quotes Corinthians about putting away childish things but it's by clinging to her non-slayer life that Buffy is the most successful Slayer ever. She does recall the memories of past Slayers just as Dana does in Damaged so this is presumably something shared by all Slayers
Buffy says she aims to graduate, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater and die. By the end of Angel she's done 3 out of 4 (wouldn't it have been cool if they got the Immortal to be played by Christian Slater?)
Now of course if Normal Again is real then Buffy's delusion starts at the point she 'meets' Merrick and ends at the final scene of Chosen (the Buffy comics her dreams and/or perhaps she writes them for a living?). On the plus side although none of her Sunnydale characters exist it means that folks like Cassandra she based them on are still alive so she still has her Scooby-Gang and both parents when she gets out of the asylum. And she can always find a new Faith and Angel/Spike and name her daughter Dawn.
Lots of continuity changes. Vamps don't dust and can fly. Buffy doesn't miss the heart first time out as she later claims. It's much more overtly christian with the Slayer clearly god's instrument. Buffy has a built in vamp-detector which is alluded to in the series but not so strongly.
More cruelty to cats!
Good soundtrack from the Divinyls, they also did 'I touch myself' which Buffy recalls listening to in 'Lie to Me'
Questions;
Merrick says he is reincarnated but is that just him or all Watchers?
Do Faith and co all have the birthmark Buffy had removed?
I'll give it 7 out of 10 just for the sake of nostalgia
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