The Serenity movie thread

[SuperJerk 0]

"Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die."

 

Best movie I've seen this year.

 

 

But will people who are not Joss Weldon fans like the movie?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Okay, got it all figured out, I'm seeing it Sunday, and maybe again sometime later in October

[the pinjockey 0]

Fuck all y'all who saw this movie during the preview screenings while I had to wait it out.

 

First things first........DINOSAURS~! If the dinosaurs weren't sitting around I was going to be pissed. Well not really, but it was still awesome.

 

I'll echo Anya's thoughts in regards to:

As much as I love Book, he is kind of dead weight in the movie verse. With a maximum of 6 hours of screen time, it really isn't worth going into his history for little payoff. What would be his purpose if we knew his history? To flash his ident card around and let the crew do whatever they wanted? Kind of defeats the point. Still would have been cool to at least find out before he died though.

 

Also, I loved the scene where:

Jayne was going to shoot River. It is too easy, especially those who only see the movie, to see Jayne as just a curmudgeon who will bitch and moan, but wouldn't really do anything bad. It is good to make people realize he actually is a bad man who looks after himself at any cost. Jokes about being willing to kill people (scene with Kaylee) only go so far.

 

The only thing I was dissapointed in was

how they did not have the same family atmosphere as the series. Obviously they couldn't since it would have gone back and forth between family and then immediately into the Simon/Mal tension in the first 15 minutes. I just liked seeing the happy family dinner scenes, but if that was the biggest loss from the series I am happy

 

Also, this movie was all about Summer Glau. Anyone who does not think she has star quality after seeing her (even moreso than Nathan) carry this is nuts.

 

Obviously I loved the movie. both times (had to see it a second time).

 

Side note: I also learned that if you tell a bunch of adolescent punks in a firm tone to shut the fuck up, they pretty much wet themselves in a hurry. Do not screw around with my Serenity movie going experience.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

I actually liked it much better now than I did in the May pre-screenings (although obviously the surprises werent as striking this 2nd time around).

 

It was a hell of a time.

 

The best way to describe Serenity is:

 

Star Wars if Han Solo was the main character.

 

It had the same kind of crackerjack space fun with appropriate serious that the ORIGINAL star wars trilogy had. Remember how many funny, quotable, and memorable banter lines there were in ANH and Empire? That's the kind of thing that serenity has in SPADES. The kind of film those borish prequels (at least 1 and 2) should have been.

 

Great dialogue. As far as strictly lines go, it was one of the best scripts of the year. My favorite was

the 'leaf on the wind' bit, as well as the grenades running joke.

 

My only crit is that the exposition in the beginning is rather clunky, and I waswn't all that impressed with the villian.

[Ravenbomb 0]

argh! Spoilers!

[Guest JMA]

I'll be seeing this next weekend. It sounds great.

[Anya 0]

I like how they handled book.

How now that he's dead we'll never know the true story. If they weren't going to use him much this was the best way to go about it. He'll just be mysterious forever. Better than just rushing his past in a bit of exposition or something.

 

 

And yeah it would have been cool to see more of the crew together and happy. It was kind of lame how Mal and Simon were not getting along again.

 

The Mr. Universe character was pointless.

[the pinjockey 0]

I wasn't too concerned about him,

he was only a plot device to give them realistic access to the necessary equipment

[Guest Biggles]

Best gorram movie I've seen in a long long time. I actually want to see it again in the theatre (and at 9 bucks a ticket, that's saying something). You NEED to see this movie.

[Youth N Asia 0]

FRIDAY NUMBERS ARE IN

 

http://www.the-numbers.com/index.php

 

Daily Chart - Friday, September 30

 

1 (1) Flightplan $4,400,000 +197.70% 3,424 $35,500,000

2 (new) Serenity $4,200,000 2,188 $4,200,000

3 (2) The Corpse Bride $2,800,000

 

2,188 theaters...that's 1,300 less than Flightplan. And 1,000 less than Corpse Bride

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

So we're looking at about 12 million for the weekend, which is about to be expected with the niche market and small number of theaters. Not bad, but probably not sequel cash. You can count me in for another $8 in another week or two, though.

[Ravenbomb 0]

well, hopefully it'll have some sort of staying power. Certainly nowhere near Wedding Crashers', but at least SOME staying power.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I'm definitely seeing it again. Fuck spoiler tags, don't read it if you don't wanna know shit.

 

The theatre was at about 40% where we we at and it was only running in one room, but the crowd that was there really enjoyed it. I'd say about 100 people were there in total.

 

My thoughts:

 

The first part of the movie wasn't very good. Joss sucks at having to write a lot in a little period of time. The best example of this is comparing Serenity (the Firefly pilot) to Train Job (the series premiere). Serenity moved along at a slow, but constant, pace and gave you everything you needed to know and it never felt forced. The Train Job was exposition city. The first half hour was The Train Job, with worse special effects. My god were those effects bad. And the first 5-10 minutes had all the sound dubbed in as they were following the crew around, which was annoying as shit and completely unnatural. The characters felt like parodies of themselves, they certainly didn't have the feel they had in Firefly. This had me so down.

 

Then something happened. I dunno when in the movie that it happened, but after Joss got all that 'splainin out of the way, he let everyone do their thang and the movie finally got started. It didn't feel like Firefly again, but it did feel like the Firefly characters that I fell in love with in a different universe. I think the moment was when Inara and Mal were talking over the video phone and everyone was listening in. It felt a lot more "relaxed" after that. Everything fell into place.

 

Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Chiwetel Ejiofor were all top notch in this. Everything that Jayne said was gold, and The Operative was a great, great character. Glau and Fillion are just huge stars. But like all stars, it takes time for us to see their light. Glaus fight scenes were so sweet, and no one gets beat up like Nathan Fillion. Both were able to hit so many notes in this. I thought Book and Inara were used well, as I wasn't expecting much from them in the first place. Though, a simple "so, how much you pressin now?" from Jayne to Book would have warmed my heart. While they had some funny lines, Kaylee and Wash were just there. Simon wasn't nearly as effective as he was in Firefly.

 

I liked the Mr Universe stuff more than I thought I would. The Reavers and Miranda were a good inclusion and the last 15 minutes were insane. Though I've known for months that Wash would die, I never saw it coming and it hit me pretty hard, especially when I think "oh god, that's WASH... and BOOK... The dinosaurs and hawaiian shirts... the strawberries and the hair... these are people I've enjoyed watching and they are gone. Fuck, that hurts.

 

Though I probably am complaning more than I am gushing over it, I can tell you that I am feeling really fucking great right now and loved it despite its initial flaws. The movie is so damn quotable, and once it got its bearings it went from B-movie to something special.

[the pinjockey 0]

You know it is funny

I couldn't prevent reading the Wash spoiler before, so his death was more "HOLY SHIT", concerning how it went down, as opposed to recognizing Wash was actually dead. It wasn't until I was watching Dodgeball tonight that it popped in my head and I realized "Oh fuck, Wash is dead".

[Special K 0]

big fucking props to Summer Glau for leanring a bit of the martial arts and fucking ROCKING those action scenes. They were great. How fucking long did SMG do Buffy, and she made no effort to learn how to throw a punch?

[SuperJerk 0]

Alledgedly, Gellar started Buffy already knowing some Tae Kwon Do.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Hey Rudo, I think you'll like the opening much better on a second viewing. The first time I saw it...it took me about 30 mintues to get into the movie. In fact I warned the people I took to the 2nd screening that the opening was awkward. But the second time I saw it...it wasn't. In fact it's a pretty nice crawl to the title screen after you've seen it once.

[Robert 0]

I was able to get to an early screening of it, and I'm gald I did. It was fun, I loved the action, the dialogue, and everything about it. The opening wasn't great, but everything else was great. I'd give it a 9/10, and it was a great time and I'm buying it when it comes out.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Hey, where'd my post at the beginning of the thread go?

 

Anywho, just got back and my GOD did this movie ever kick ass. Everything with the Reavers was great, as was The Operative.

[Guest fanofcoils]

The worst movie experience I ever had. I walked out like 20 minutes into the movie. The storytelling was horrible, all I got out of it was they had to protect the girl from the "Alliance" or something. I walked out because the constant camera moving and all the action back and forth made me dizzy. Usually action movies do not make me dizzy. Charlie Sheen with a big nose and notJessica Alba didn't do anything for me from what I saw either.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Serenity made you dizzy? SERENITY!?!?

 

 

don't ever go see an omnimax movie.

[Darthtiki 0]

As a Whedon fan who never watched Firefly I enjoyed the film. It did run about 10 minutes too long, however the dialogue was well written and stayed true to Joss' form. Luckily, my galpal is a Whedonite and filled me in on everything so I wasn't lost.

[SuperJerk 0]

I walked out like 20 minutes into the movie. The storytelling was horrible, all I got out of it was they had to protect the girl from the "Alliance" or something.

Gee, could that be because YOU WALKED OUT AFTER 20 MINUTES?

 

You were the kid in school they had to hide the glue from, weren't you?

 

I walked out because the constant camera moving and all the action back and forth made me dizzy.  Usually action movies do not make me dizzy. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No offense, but you're kind of a pussy.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Also, nobody in the movie looked like Charlie Sheen OR Jessica Alba...

[SuperJerk 0]

Nathan Fillion and Charlie Sheen are both white guys with brown hair. The resemblance is uncanny.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

The worst movie experience I ever had.  I walked out like 20 minutes into the movie.  The storytelling was horrible, all I got out of it was they had to protect the girl from the "Alliance" or something.  I walked out because the constant camera moving and all the action back and forth made me dizzy.  Usually action movies do not make me dizzy.  Charlie Sheen with a big nose and notJessica Alba didn't do anything for me from what I saw either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm sorry, but if you walk out 20 minutes into a movie you have no right to complain about the storytelling as you haven't even gotten a taste of it.

 

Oh and:

 

Nathan Fillian:

 

Charlie Sheen:

 

Separated at birth? I think not.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

The worst movie experience I ever had.  I walked out like 20 minutes into the movie.  The storytelling was horrible, all I got out of it was they had to protect the girl from the "Alliance" or something.  I walked out because the constant camera moving and all the action back and forth made me dizzy.  Usually action movies do not make me dizzy.  Charlie Sheen with a big nose and notJessica Alba didn't do anything for me from what I saw either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

All that matters is we got your money.

[Guest fanofcoils]

The storytelling in the first 20 minutes was horrible, I don't know how the storytelling is after that. They just didn't explain anything well. All I got from the first 20 minutes was what I said before, about "protecting the girl from the "Alliance"" but none of the details I understood. Generally I understand what is going on in movies, in these 20 minutes of this movie I did not. The 20 minutes sucked of the movie period but of course the movie could be awesome, more sucky, or whatever after that. I won't know because I probably won't check it out because I just don't want to. The movie really made me dizzy because it was all over the place, they needed to calm things down so the movie could be watchable. That guy does resemble Charlie Sheen and the girl that resembles Jessica Alba is the girl they are trying to protect in the movie.

[Anakin Flair 0]

I saw it twice. I had to, because I was overly critical the first time, since I had red both the novelization and the screenplay, so I spent the first time looking for sceens that they cut. The second time was pure enjoyment.

 

Just a few points and complaints-

 

The scene at Miranda, where the camera spins around and around- the only shot in the movie I didn't like. I almost hate to put it this way, but it almost made me...dizzy.

 

The only other thing I really hated was when they went from a very dark shot to a very brigth shot- it hurt the eyes.

 

Other than that, I was sorry that some characters didn't get any screntime- characters like Wash and Book (and Inara), though I understood why they couldn't fit them in more.

 

I remember listening to the commentary track on the pilot for Firefly, when Joss decribed his idea that the Alliance vessels would be verticle, like skyscrapers. I was never a big fan of that, but it's too bad they scraped that idea.

 

Other than that, it was a great movie. I went with a friend who never saw Firefly, and he said afterwards he'd probably try it out.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Got plans for a Tuesday matinee. Might go catch it again though if it's as good as everyone (barring coils) makes it out to be.