Serenity Review ( Spoiler free )

[a|A]

I am a leaf on the wind.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/tomgupper2/serenity.jpg

Well it finally happened. I got my chance to see the movie of the year, Joss Whedon's Serenity. For those that dont know, Serenity is the movie adaptation of the "Firefly" TV series ( A short lived sci-fi western created by "Buffy the Vampire slayer"'s Joss Whedon ). The movie is a general continuation from where the series left off, however you dont HAVE To have seen the series before seeing the movie ( although it helps ).

It was a lovely thursday night out in the middle of nowhere ( stafford city ... weird ), There was a REALLY long line coming out of the cinema ( thank god I had some friends who got there early :D ), I pick up my tickets and complimentary "serenity" booklet and start waiting! ... Glancing through the line I see many people who have dressed for the occasion - Lots of "Jayne Hats" ( those who've seen the series will know what Im talking about ). Eventually we're alowd in, All Cameras, Phones with Cameras and any and all recording devices are taken by the happy security man at the door ( who then sits at the front of the screen and watches us for the WHOLE film ). And finally, we're inside.

After a few trailers, Joss Himself appears on the screen and thanks all his "browncoats" and non-fans for supporting the film and the series, and then announces that we're seeing a 100% complete version of the movie ( unlike other screenings around the world that missed most of the music / cg ). And then it began.
And believe me, it begins with a BANG.

The movie itself is a rollercoaster ride of action, drama, and comedy. There are the occasional "okay, Im over this scene" moments. But only one or two. And lots of typical "End of season" Joss Moments. The kind that make you want to scream out "NOOO!! SCREW YOU JOSS!!"

The acting is fantastic, with all the regulars performing as per - and the new characters such as "The Operative" Who's Cold manner really adds an icyness to the whole feeling of the show.

The music is absolutely brilliant - David Newman really has captured the essence of the series amazing cross genre / culture compositions - and has created a beautiful sound scape that really adds alot to the film.

And the CG ?
Well the CG is breathtaking. But it was in the series as well.

For those wondering if they've kept up the whole "No sound in space" part - For the most part they have. They dont show it off as much, and you might not notice it if you're not looking fori t. They also Bend the rules towards the end - but you'll see what I mean.

In the end - The movie is great for fans and non-fans alike. It's just a fantastic space-opera.
For those who say "oh, it's just Star wars. Rebels on the run from the federation with a girl in the middle somewhere" You're oh so completely wrong. I cant say anything without spoiling it - but this is no mere Star Wars ripoff. It's something new, something different - and its a movie that actually challenges and inspires you.

I want to see it again :D
September 29th cant come soon enough!

( for those who want to know : Saw it at Stafford City on the 1st of September. Afro88 ( who is NOT a firefly fan ) came with me. He seemed to enjoy it :D ).

All in all -
GO AND SEE THIS FILM!

[Bifrost]

Have done and I'm with you on all counts.

Just out of interest (and not to spoil anything really) - did you find the early chase scene on that mule thing just a little obviously slow-speed? That was really my only gripe.

[a|A]

It did seem rather slow to begin with
picked up pace as it went on though
Culminated By Rivers' Line when they got back on the ship :D

[SOC]

I can't fucking wait for this - I idolise Joss (and may get the chance to actually meet him in the US next year) ... sadly, there currently appear to be no advance screenings scheduled in London.

[a|A]

Oh
for all those melbournites out there
there's a Q&A with Joss coming VERY soon.
But I think it's sold out.

[Afro88]

Afro88 ( who is NOT a firefly fan ) came with me. He seemed to enjoy it :D ).

Indeed, I've never seen Firefly (except once when I was drinking with some friends at a|A's place and we paid no attention to it), and I've never been a fan of Buffy or Angel and I thought the movie was quite good. At times it felt a bit TVish, but on the whole it was an enjoyable movie. I particularly liked the humour throughout - it made a very geeky film not so difficult to watch for the first time, and the CG was excellent. The plot wasn't too bad, but could have been a little stronger, but again I haven't seen the TV series so I probably missed alot of the subtleties.

The only thing that pissed me off was the mechanic chick - she doesn't DO anything! All she does is lust after the doctor guy. Everytime she was on screen I thought to myself "here we go again... go on, say something annoying and whiney and give the doctor guy a longing stare.... there you go"

But besides that, cool film, I'm definitely gonna see it again when it officially comes out. Until then, I'm gonna try and borrow a|A's Firefly dvd's and see how that goes ;)

[a|A]

hah, its true.
They did underuse some of the characters.
but when you've got 9 main leads, it's a little hard to have lots of plots going on. So unforunately Kaylee, Book Wash and and even Zoe in some ways seemed to suffer.

[fuelman]

i saw this a few months ago when they were holding test screenings. love it then, and am going to see it for the second time on monday, for the q&a with joss. will be taking this (http://users.tpg.com.au/klforde/angel%20pupppet%20walk.JPG) to get signed

[a|A]

UK Screenings : http://www.cantstopthesignal.co.uk/screenings/index.html

[annie]

I just went and saw Serenity today.

It was very good, i've never seen firefly but I really enjoyed this! Just the right amount of humor into it as well.
The only thing that annoyed me was the sound, but that's not the movies fault, that's just dodgy cinema :(

All in all, excellent film, worth watching again.

[Zan]

I've been wanting to get my hands on the series for a while now. Should I watch it before I see the film?

--

Oh, and..

annie, are you ok?
are you ok?
are you ok, annie?

[deevil]

Going to see it with my wife and my parents (whom we got hooked on the show when we brought over our DVDs) on Saturday (your Sunday). Can't wait :D

[Directed]

I am so seeing this movie ASAP. Me and my buddies are seeing it this coming Sunday afternoon. Until then, I am looking at no more Serenity threads as I don't want one single spoiler in my head. I wish more movies like this would come out.

+rep to the whole lot of you.

[Up_All_Night]

saw it yesterday, was awesome

[Sutter]

Saw yesterday. Jefah came out of his viewing at 8.15 odd, called me to make me get down to the cinema, and we watched the 9:00 one. Gee he's keen :D
Pretty damn good. I saw and liked the TV series, but thought it wouldn't work on the big screen. Well, definatly does, was great. I want to watch it again to catch all the dialouge :)

[annie]

I've been wanting to get my hands on the series for a while now. Should I watch it before I see the film?

--

Oh, and..

annie, are you ok?
are you ok?
are you ok, annie?


I don't think you need to see the series before you see the movie. I havn't seen Firefly yet, and i still thoroughly enjoyed the film, although i suppose if you saw the series you would be able to get a lot more out of it.

Oh, and bah to you. The amount of times you and everyone else sung that song to me... *stabbity*

[locust]

I would recommend seeing the series first, just because I think you'll get more out of the series if you haven't seen the movie yet.

[deevil]

Movie was excellent! Thumbs up!

[Thyrd]

I saw the trailer for this when my brother and I went to see Cinderella Man. Looks pretty cool. It has Steve the Pirate :D

[Marshall77]

Just saw it with Afta Image. It was not really what I had expected but saying that it was erally great. Its a shame that the TV series only went for a season.

[ewe2]

I've seen it twice now. It's definitely a busy movie, very fast-cut and oddly, i think it'll be as good in dvd format as much as it worked on a big screen. Going to watch my dvd's again :)

[Directed]

I absolutely LOVED the movie. There were plenty of unexpected things mixed with what people who have watched the movie love about Firefly. I give it my whole-hearted endorsement. What's funny is this movie is low budget. And you don't see low-budget shlockiness anywhere in the movie. I was totally impressed. I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!

[Up_All_Night]

I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!
I want a sequel, and I want it NOW!

:)

[Blue Midget]

You *could* have just said 'ditto'.

I was going to, anyway.

http://www.satt.org/grafiken/poke-ditto.gif

[d3kst3r]

This is easily the best movie in the cinemas right now but for some fucked up reason that other movie Flightplan is making more money.

[Blue Midget]

To be fair, I'm keen on seeing Flightplan myself. It sounds psychological and fun.

But I'm going to wait for the DVD, because I have to. Spent too much money in Serenity as it is. :P

[wOnko]

Having been a fan of the TV series, staying up late (some asshole decided to screen it laaate, fekking typical) and loving the character-driven sci-fi with an original edge, I was surprised and annoyed by the screening balls-up followed by the cancellation of the show. "Wagon trains to the Stars" was sort of what was going on here (tip of the hat to Roddenberry) but the whole "frontier spirit" coupled with dodgy flying jalopies and "western" characters really did work (even when everything told me it shouldn't).

Movie - magic, must see it again to catch the detail (so rich for a fan). I thought the comedy, pacing and overall production was excellent and was easily the most satisfying sci-fi movie I have seen in a while. Sequel I am hoping does not degenerate into space-cowboys versus the martians which I think is what FOX wanted int he first place.

See it, see it now.

[ewe2]

Fox clearly has too many executives with nothing to do. I am amused at some complaints about the series having too many one-liners, which was per instruction by Fox execs as was the disastrous pilot rewrite of Trainjob. More surprising was their dislike of the balance between men and women in the series (ie strong women), although the mixed marriage "issue" was an obvious problem for the weenies.

The movie is better seen twice, and maybe even three times :)

[jambo]

Absolutely loved it.

[jammin]

fan-bloody-tastic!

[StudMuffin]

saw it with jambo and jammin and yeah - what they said

[Zan]

I finally had the opportunity to watch Serenity yesterday. I'm glad I watched some of the series before I went to see it, or I might have missed out for the first part, trying to work out who the characters were and what they were doing.

I really enjoyed the film, and I do like the Firefly universe. Touches such as Chinese & English being the two predominant languages is much more interesting to me than a galaxy everyone speaks English. That said, I don't see the reason in making a sequel, and I would have preferred the closing shot not to have that last one-liner in it.

[babarfloyd]

I saw it last week. Great fucking movie!

I saw it with 2 huge Star Wars fans and on the way to our car one of them said "I hate to admit it but it was better than the last 3 Star Wars movies." The other, an even bigger Star Wars fan, said "sigh....yeah, it was. Way better."

Like most people here, I can't wait to see it again.

[ewe2]

shiny!

[Sutter]

20 years in the future-

A story of a young boy whos just wants to be happy, a growing evil and a talking frog thing:





I can't wait!!

[BlueBoy]

If anyone's interested you can pick up the Firefly boxset for $38 from JB HiFi now.

Also, am I the only one who picked up on the reference to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?

[Yogi]

To me its just Cowboy Bebop Americansed. Cept the 2nd time I saw it I thought was crap but the first time I really dug it. The operative is really cool thou.

Who's the biggest fanboy on here? My friend saw it like 6 times in one day, the nutta.

[a|A]

Im a pretty big fanboy.
Seen it about 7 or 8 times now
I've lost count.

and nah
Albatross and shooting it down ;) I got the reference too.

[jambo]

To me its just Cowboy Bebop Americansed.

But itn't Firefly loosely based on the crew in Alien Resurrection (which came out before Cowboy Bebop)?

[a|A]

But itn't Firefly loosely based on the crew in Alien Resurrection (which came out before Cowboy Bebop)?

I think personally it's actually based on The old british Sci Fi series " Blakes 7 ". Same criminal Crew, Similar situation, even the same lines in some situations

Mal : Nice Shot
Drugged Jayne : I was aiming for his head

---

Blake (or is it tarrant? ) : Nice Shot
Drugged or Woosy Avon : I was aiming for his head

Weirrrrrrd

;)

Hell, there's even a telepath!

[d3kst3r]

No matter how good Serenity is, it was a box office flop. In America it didnt even make back production costs and has already been nerfed from all major cinemas.

[Up_All_Night]

yeah its a shame, but it'll probably recoup costs incluidng international. Then it'll sell well on DVD. So it'll make money. Got to remember alot of movies, especially ones such as this make more money on DVD sales than boxoffice.

[d3kst3r]

Failed series, failed at the box office, I hate to say it but I think it might be the end of the franchise.

[BlueBoy]

Failed series, failed at the box office, I hate to say it but I think it might be the end of the franchise.
US$40million to make. Scored US$20million in the US market alone.
I don't have the International figures, but I'm going to assume that the rest of the world could easily equal the takings of one country.

[jambo]

I think personally it's actually based on The old british Sci Fi series " Blakes 7 ". Same criminal Crew, Similar situation, even the same lines in some situations

Mal : Nice Shot
Drugged Jayne : I was aiming for his head

---

Blake (or is it tarrant? ) : Nice Shot
Drugged or Woosy Avon : I was aiming for his head

Weirrrrrrd

;)

Hell, there's even a telepath!

Sounds like an influence. It's just that Joss wrote Alien Resurrection.

[ewe2]

Actually the B7 influence is a good call a|A, particularly on the dialogue line and the whole question of morality. B7 is about baddies with an ostensible grievance against the central govt, but who end up being just opportunistic criminals. However, the B7 universe is embarrassingly replete with goodies like incredibly advanced technology that our heroes just happen to have, and there is not the kind of scarcity of the firefly worlds. But it is true that the B7 government perfected mind-control drugs....

For the naysayers, check the earnings breakdown (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=serenity.htm) and take note that half of europe hasn't yet seen it at the box office. And at this point they've done almost $30 million worldwide. The DVD's are going to sell like crazy. Keep in mind that firefly fans have anything up to 4 copies of the series DVD's to evangelize with, so I'd expect a similar tactic with DVD's. We browncoats are a tenacious cult :)

[d3kst3r]

US$40million to make. Scored US$20million in the US market alone.
I don't have the International figures, but I'm going to assume that the rest of the world could easily equal the takings of one country.

Usually films that don't make back its production budget domestically within 3 weeks are considered flops. The studio always look towards the domestic US profits because international profits take months to get back to the studio. Overall this movie will make them money in the long term however the studio will still consider it a flop.

[Up_All_Night]

i cant find it, but i read an interview with wedon and he gave the anmounts the studio said they'd need to make to make a sequel, it was something like 60mil worldwide

[ewe2]

According to signal.serenityfirefly.com it's something more like $80 million, but I think that's just a general number bandied around, it's not hard and fast, and that has both Universal and Whedon's authority. My understanding is that if they can make their costs back, the DVD's will be almost pure profit and there won't be a problem making a sequel.

[d3kst3r]

Well its been in the cinemas for 22 days and made a total worldwide amount of 30 mil. If the target is 80 mil I don't think DVD sales are going to help much.

[Up_All_Night]

films often make boxoffice take if not more on DVD. Firefly fans I'd say would be very likely to buy the dvd. If they make sequels to things like the Punisher, Underworld, good chance for serenity. And hey TV mini series, movies and stuff would all be possible. Can be done well on smaller budget.

[gyro]

God dam it

If I dont read news of a sequal or new series soon I am going to go crazy and declare war the people holding up production of the greatest movie franchise ever. (who ever that may be).

When I become ruler of the the world (and that will be soon)
I will pour huge amounts of tax that I charge the people of the plant, to create the greatest Serenity epic ever and a whole lot of sequals of equal greatness.

I might even make Joss Ruler of my moon for compleation of his greatest work.

[Cpt Jellybean]

Finally saw this little picture and did enjoy it. It wasn't amazing but I wasn't expecting it to be.

I thought it moved on well from the series and was fun and I really enjoyed seeing real things chasing things as opposed to CGI all over the place. It was kind of like watching the original Star Wars, it felt real. If that makes any sense.

I have no idea if they'll make a sequel but if they do, I think everyone who saw this will go see the next one.

Also you can always count of Joss to not be afraid of killing off a main player. Good on him.

[Up_All_Night]

too bad that the film just, i dunno isnt attracting people to go see it. whether it be the marketing or what. Everyone seems to think its good. Its crap that the general population doesnt have the desire to see it.

[jambo]

God dam it

If I dont read news of a sequal or new series soon I am going to go crazy and declare war the people holding up production of the greatest movie franchise ever. (who ever that may be).

When I become ruler of the the world (and that will be soon)
I will pour huge amounts of tax that I charge the people of the plant, to create the greatest Serenity epic ever and a whole lot of sequals of equal greatness.

I might even make Joss Ruler of my moon for compleation of his greatest work.

What about moon Hitler?

[ewe2]

Latest news is that they've dropped the rest of the theatre run to go directly to DVD, which is a shame for the many countries which missed it. Time to buy in bulk and make a sequel possible!

[dozer]

im not sure what the hype was all about. it was ok but followed the typical formula to the letter eg matrix/starwarz band of rebels fighting against the odds for liberty and freedom and suprise suprise they come out on top. add some whedon 'girl kicks ass' and thats pretty much it. the fight scenes were nothing new and i could guess the outcome. ive never been a fan of buffy or much of his work so maybe it was lost on me.

[Up_All_Night]

films often make boxoffice take if not more on DVD. Firefly fans I'd say would be very likely to buy the dvd. If they make sequels to things like the Punisher, Underworld, good chance for serenity. And hey TV mini series, movies and stuff would all be possible. Can be done well on smaller budget.


i knew i was right, there was a chance for life as tv movies or mini series

Serenity 2 going straight to TV? (http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/673/673102p1.html)

Sources said that, given the strong sales of the TV series Firefly on DVD, Universal is planning a sequel film to Serenity that will be produced with and to broadcast premiere on the Sci Fi Channel, which is part of the NBC Universal family.


still just a rumor, but it makes sense and should be good. The tv show was awesome, the writings the most important part and of Joss is involved should be good, production probably would be somewhere between the series and the movie level, so yeah, fingers crossed!

[banga]

i saw the movie first and liked it , i then got the series from a mate and loved it, i liked the blend of humour/violence/sci-fi and all the rest that made it fun to watch im spewing they arent making any more

[ewe2]

Well on the 20th the serenity DVD comes out on region 1 and region 4 comes out early February. Time to rack up those DVD sales!