The movie "Serenity"

why's he a bastard?

hey, you never know, some other network may pick up the 'firefly' series if the movie does well. stranger things have happened. i think it ended after, what, about eleven episodes?

heard somewhere where the big thing this coming television season will be science fiction.

fans of 'head cases' are pretty much screwed, though: it got the axe after two episodes. way to develop a series, fox, really letting people have a big chance there.

Personally, I do look forward to seeing Serenity. Love to know what you thought of it.

The original 'Firefly' lasted 13 episodes.

Aspiring writers should look to Firefly as a template for writing dialogue and developing characters. Whedon did a magnificient job in that regard with this series, IMHO, particularly when you watch the episodes in the order they were meant to be seen (Fox not only pulled the plug too fast, they went against Whedon's designs and did not show the 'first' episode first.

I've never seen the series firefly, but I saw Serenity last night and it was awesome. Plot, characterization, special effects, humor--everything was fantastic. Definately a well-spent $7 at the over-priced movie theaters.

I'm reviewing Serenity for my column, I thought it was great fun. Watch for a space battle to rival anything in a Star Wars movie.

[/hijack]

Leanan-Sidhe said:

Definately a well-spent $7 at the over-priced movie theaters.

Click to expand...

I haven't seen a $7 movie ticket in these parts in ages. Full-price around here is $8.50. I know our friends in NYC pay quite a bit more than that.

I saw it this afternoon and really enjoyed it. I liked the show Firefly too, all three episodes I was able to catch.

Has anyone else noticed that Fox does its "shuffle the showtimes, cancel the show" act constantly, with any genre? I really loathe that station. The only Fox program I bother to watch anymore is The Simpsons--the only show they daren't touch.

preyer said:

why's he a bastard?

hey, you never know, some other network may pick up the 'firefly' series if the movie does well. stranger things have happened. i think it ended after, what, about eleven episodes?

heard somewhere where the big thing this coming television season will be science fiction.

fans of 'head cases' are pretty much screwed, though: it got the axe after two episodes. way to develop a series, fox, really letting people have a big chance there.

Click to expand...

Those first episodes run every Friday on the scifi Channel. I thought the show was decent, watchable, but not great in any way. I think I'm just really tired of seeing the powers in charge be the bad guy, and some rinky-dink rebels being the good guys. Still, it was watchable, and I wouldn't mind seeing it make a comeback.

'firefly' would have been a great syndicated show.

are the networks the bad guys? yes and no. it's great to give a show like this a chance, but it's utterly unsane to move it around and create viewing chaos with it.

Rabe said:

Happens for a variety of reasons:

1> It's not fun watching Goliath constantly squashing David.

2> In 'Firefly' the Alliance isn't so much the 'bad guy' as they are the nemesis of the Independant loving Malcom and Zoe - plus the rest of the crew. It's made pretty clear that the crew of Serenity are crooks, thieves, criminals and all around ne'erdowells. Except, maybe, for Shephard Book. But then again, they hinted at some pretting interesting past history for him as well.

3> It wasn't the whole of the Alliance that became their enemies, just those who were messing and trying to retrieve River and Simon Tam.

4> Governments seem to be so easy to corrupt with the powermad. Look at our own world for the greatest enemy of our country is. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the entire government. Just some who are housed in the white.

Rabe...

Click to expand...

No, those in the White House are not the bad guys in any sense of the word. And The entire government in Firefly was bad, it's just that the only reason Serenity was worth messing with was because of Rover and Simon Tan. Had it not been for them, Serenity and it's crew would have been a bunch of minor thieves not worth worrying about.

Goliath and David have nothing to do with it. There's no rule that says the government has to be huge and all-powerful, or that it's enemies must be small and weak.

Just once, I'd like to see the good guys actually be good guys. No matter what the government in Firefly was like as a whole, the crew of Serenity would still be the bad guys.

For me, Firefly remains old hat, tired cliches, and highly unrealistic.

James, if that's what you want to see or read, then you should write it.


Rabe, I know what you mean about Joss Whedon being a bastard. I saw Serenity on opening day. After it was over, it took the person I went to see the movie with and I at least a good half-day to pick our jaws up off the ground and stop saying.... Well, I can't say what we were saying. But, yes. It was great and horrible at the same time.

Like anything else, some people get Firefly/Serenity, some people don't. James don't.

When Firefly first aired, I was prepared to be unimpressed by it, simply because combining western themes with space opera seemed old and tiresome...not to mention a way of cutting production costs.

However, it didn't take me long to realize that Joss Whedon had accomplished something very special.

Not only did he manage to evoke the atmosphere of the old pulp western/space opera form (reminiscent of Leigh Brackett's Eric John Stark, Catherine Moore's Northwest Smith and Edmond Hamilton's Starwolf), he did it in a way that came off as very believable within context.

But he also knew to overcome the shortcomings of weekly TV production, the characters would have to carry the series.

The Firefly/Serenity cast of characters are multi-layered, eccentric and certainly not presented as paragons of virtue...however, they also have senses of humor about themselves, which seperates them from the grim-as-death delivery and bare-tooth grimacing of the new Battlestar Galactica cast.

Not to mention the way space scenes were shot in Firefly was "borrowed" for BSG.

I have a little experience in crafting and maintaining an ongoing series and so maybe I'm able to recognize some of the more subtle elements Whedon worked in that kept the stories from falling into formula.

The driving force of the characters and therefore the series itself was not survival, or revenge or adventure. It was love...Simon's love for River, Mal's love for his ship and crew and their love for him.

In my opinion, Whedon pulled off what he was trying accomplish...otherwise, there wouldn't have been a Serenity.

I've never seen the show (Firefly), but I enjoyed the movie. It got a little disorienting in the beginning because I wasn't familiar with the show -- so the war, and everything seems a little murky for me. But I like the characters and the humor. The action and special effects are not bad either. Not entirely my cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I find the "futuristic" Asian references (including the title "Serenity") interesting. Apparently, there's a nice cult following.

But as far as space operas go, I still prefer the new Battlestar Galactica.

ChunkyC said:

I'm reviewing Serenity for my column, I thought it was great fun. Watch for a space battle to rival anything in a Star Wars movie.

Click to expand...

Charlie, I'd be interested in seeing your review of the movie.

saw it yesterday, didn't care much for it.

jmo, of course, but it seems that Whedon goes in for the cheap shock value where he can - oh, look at what's happening to HIM or HER!!! without any resolution afterwards - no spoilers, but I felt rather robbed of seeing anyone's reaction to anything. The characters aren't anything like the series and I missed that a whole lot as we got dazzled by special effects and illogical plot twists.

not a bad DVD rental, but I think it's almost a cheap ripoff of Firefly, to be brutally honest.

I think there will either be a second Serenity movie or else it will be picked up as a series again on another network.

I saw the series and the movie. I thought they were both excellent. I liked it better than Star Wars. Eh Star Wars was so unrealistic to me. I mean in Star Wars the bad guys can shoot 30,000 times and not hit anyone. When the good guys fire one shot 3 bad guys die. I don't think I'm exxagerating at all. So how realistic is that.

I really loved the characters and how when they were outside in space there was no sound like it was supposed to be. I have yet to see another space movie that does this. I think the point of the movie was to see the interaction of the characters on the ship and less of the David/Goliath rebel/bad government scenario. I'm going to be buying both the series and movie. And yay I finally have a DVD player.

So call me a follower everything still shiny to me.

I saw the film, and have seen some of the episodes.

Joss Whedon has a very "TV" aesthetic. The movie felt like one season of a TV show slammed into a couple hours. (Heck, reminds me of this one Escaflowne movie I had rented once.) However, I always applaud visionary leadership of large artistic projects. This one could have been utterly awful. Instead, he kept all the actors, did his own writing and directing, and did a fine job of tightening down a series into a couple hours.

I often feel, when I am reading the latest graduate of an MFA-program's book, and when I am watching mainstream cinema, that I am witnessing an art made by a committee. It's not that such art can't be very good. It can. However, it doesn't taste the same in your mind as art guided and directed by one strong personality.

Joss has a distinctive style, and the strength-of-personality to push it across the field of suits. I look forward to his future projects. He's only getting better as he goes.

The fact that I like really hot women beating the stuffing out of bad guys has nothing to do with it... I swear!

badducky said:

I saw the film, and have seen some of the episodes.

Joss Whedon has a very "TV" aesthetic. The movie felt like one season of a TV show slammed into a couple hours.

Click to expand...

THat's because it was. THe show was very pre-maturely cancelled so with the film he took it to the point the show would have been after TWO (2) Seasons.

You all probably know exactly when I turned to my SO and said "That's not what Kirk would have said to Spock, now is it?"

I loved the movie (saw it today) and I love how Joss keeps his characters real. The humor isn't forced, it's the way some people actually respond to pressure.

I never saw Firefox on TV (although I try, now, to catch the repeats). I wish there was more good SF on TV.