Serenity is a film I’ve been looking forward to for a long time… and now here it is. Based on the all too short lived show Firefly, Serenity marks what I’m sure will be the first of many Joss Whedon excursions to the big screen.
I’ve been very impressed with the quality of visual effects I’ve seen in the commercials and trailers up to this point… but now the time has come for rekoning. Serenity opens nation wide this Friday (Stupid Richard got to see it already a few weeks ago at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and just loved it. You can see his review here)
The early reviews are now coming in and they are basically looking positive… although not entirely. Here’s what some of the critics have to say:
“An A-grade experience. The writing is impeccable, the chemistry among the cast is fantastic, the performances are great, and the action is non-stop!”
Clint Morris, MOVIEHOLE“Good old-fashioned entertainment that delivers primarily through its storyline, it’s a bit like Star Wars with a dash of Indiana Jones-style action.”
Urban Cinefile Critics, URBAN CINEFILE“Bounces around to sometimes memorable effect but rarely soars.”
Derek Elley, VARIETY“Whedon, who always delights in blending genres and tones, has assembled his most frantically disparate collection of pop culture quotations, boldly and cleverly going where plenty have gone before.”
Matt Singer, VILLAGE VOICE
At this moment Serenity has a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Positive… but not as positive as I was hoping to see. It’ll be interesting to see how the rating changes as more reviews come in. Personally I think this movie is going to be exceptional… but I’ll have to wait till Friday to see.
It is now. So discuss it. What did you enjoy? What did you hate besides the violence?
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
I thought this was a Serenity discussion?
Ok Simone calm down for the record I do not think Serenity/Firefly is the next generation of Star Wars. Star Wars is Star Wars period.
There will never be another Star Wars. The prequels proved that! Oh no forget I just said that! :-)
Seriously, as much as I love the original SW films Sci/Fantasy did not start and end with them. Before SW there was Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Barbarella, etc and of course SW borrowed heavily from it’s predecessors and many other sources.
Star Wars simply raised the bar on how far it could be taken. I think Star Wars greatest gift to Science Fiction though is something that is often overlooked… SW gave us a “Lived In Universe”. Prior to SW everyone always wore “silver jump suits” and everything was clean. After Star Wars (Ridley Scott’s Alien and Blade Runner being the first examples) things were dirty, worn and broken. (I think this was mentioned in the DVD docs.)
Serenity continues this tradition.
So enough of Star Wars then what did you think of the characters in Serenity? Who did you like best?
Morbius, I am not going to say anything about Star Wars if none of them here mentioned it first, so its not as if I started it, did you even read the earlier posts?
Yes do watch the series Simone. It’s a lot of fun and only 2 of the 14 episodes are particularly violent.
You can pick the boxset up in HMV very cheaply at the moment. Check out HMV when you are there next.
And stop going on about Star Wars all the time, this is a Serenity Thread!
And besides Star Wars’ day in the sun has long passed! ;-)
OMG {{{PETER!!!!!}}} “It is you, it is you”!!! *trying to sound like C3P0 there talking to Artoo* LOL
Peter says, “Any movie that needs a series to be understood is a bluff.” Now that is a tad too harsh for me. *winks*
Difficult to export where I live, I guess. And either way, I am not a Whedonian at any way. Any movie that needs a series to be understood is a bluff.
Hey, Simone, you remember me of someone!
Just seen it this afternoon and before I continue, and I am expecting a lot of negative reaction after I say this- but let me just say this out loud, that although I enjoyed watching Serenity, this film is not the next generation Star Wars, and I didnt mean this as a bad thing. It is so just not. It shouldnt be compared to Star Wars, there’s just no way you could, so I can not understand why some people hail it as the next Star Wars, like HOW? As for it being better than the SW prequels, being a hardcore SW fan, I dont think so, again, that’s debatable but no, I will not go into that, no more Star Wars debate for this geek.
Now, what I really thought about it for first half hour was like seeing Buffy in space, I guess it was just a tad too violent for me, but a good watch nonetheless.
Question, should I bother watching the series or the violence there never stops?
I must protest Cyberchrist’s review of the movie….
I throughly enjoyed the movie! The fact that you are obviously trying to compare it too Star Wars is just Sad, Sad, Sad. Perhaps your version of a Pirate is running around with bell bottom pants and a smiley face on the back pocket? Or looking like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Carribean, running around saying “Arrrggghhh,,Avast you there you landlubbers!” Come on!!! The obvious comparison for his apearance is a Confederate Soldier from the American Civil War.
River isn’t a fighter! She was an experiment with 15 episodes of back story that you obviously havn’t seen. Your loss actually, The series is a hoot!
Reavers….hmmmm, how many times have you heard a perfectly normal person hacking there lungs out say….”I’m not sick….really!” They are INSANE….TOTALLY INSANE…..now apply reason to a person who is TOTALLY INSANE…..
The camera work is like it was in the series, which gave it it’s own unique flavor. It’s kinda interesting..
Joss Whedon, You did an awesome job on the movie and the series…After watching the series, I cannot believe that Fox cancelled the series….Compared to the other Trash that Network TV tends to put out, they killed a series that was fun to watch, witty to hear, campy as hell, and just downright original. Completely character driven, it was just downright interesting…
Yes, you won’t like this film Simone, its a bit like Star Wars! LOL
I read an amusing article that said that the film has not connected with an audience as it has only made 10 Million in it’s first weekend. That’s a bit silly as with any film you cannot know if you like it or not if you have not seen it. A film made from a failed TV series that few people have actually seen can hardly be expected to break box-office records on its openeing weekend.
As for the violence I watched an episode of Firefly last night that involved a torture scenes that was very strong and another episode with a scene straight out of David Cronenbergs Scanners. I make no excuses for that.
Thanks Crackerjack, I just dont have the time to watch the Firefly series. If that’s the case then let’s give this film a chance.
When I saw the trailer, I kinda thought it was a tad violent.
What a piece of garbage.
A space pirate with pants stuffed into knee-high boots and a pistol on a low-slung holster. Give me a break.. all he needed was a Wookie and he’d be set.
What the hell was up with River? She fights a total of two times and the second time it was only because she saw her brother get shot while she was wimpering in the corner. Yeah.. some weapon she was.
The movie was shot like crap. Instead of putting the camera still and training the actors involved in the fight scenes to do some actual fighting, they do this quick panning all over the place and you have no idea who is doing what because half of it is blurry.
And the Reavers? Where do you begin? Yes, they are mindless cannibals and eat whatever they can, and they apparently don’t know how to overwhelm a government assassin, but they are apparently smart enough to pilot and maintain a fleet of starships. They crave human flesh and attack Alliance planets in search of it, but apparently they are too stupid to stop and say to each other “Hey, I think we’re sick”. Yes, they can maintain an entire fleet, including repairs, refueling, operation of navigation systems, and so on, but they can’t say “Hey, I think we’re kinda ill”. Whatever.
I have to admit that I had not heard a single thing about Firefly until I heard conversations in the theater that this is based off of a TV series, but I can’t say I am very impressed. This is filled with just about every space cliche you can think of. The tortured soldier, the wise old man (a member of a minority, nonetheless), the witty copilot, the uncontrollable government weapon who is really tender inside, the quirky space crew, the invincible bad guy who is forced to see his evil ways in the end, the destruction of friends, the bad guys who are only bad because they are the victims of something.. yadda yadda.
Thanks Hollywood, another mediocre movie for us.
Saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it. Simone I am sure there are aspects of the film that having seen the series made better but I would say it stands alone as a good film. The back stories are expalained well enough for the purpose of the film. I would recomend seeing the film when you have a chance and don’t wait until you can see the series.
Oh so where are you from then Morbius?
Serenity is out in the UK this week I think.
That’s a good question Simone? Are there any Americans here who have seen the movie that can answer that?
Roger, I like Hard SF but I also like Westerns so I can compromise. Sometimes though the Westernisms in the Firefly series did tend to get just a bit overplayed. It could have been a bit more subtle at times.
My only big gripe with the TV series though is that a crew member seems to get shot are critically wounded in every episode but with the help of the good doctor they are always fighting fit by the next episode.
I saw the trailer of Serenity this afternoon, can I ask, should I watch the Firefly series first before seeing this film?
Thanks Roger, cements my plans to see it. I just have to wonder, if so many of us liked the series why did it not get better ratings?
Saw it! Caught the 4:20 matinee today, opening day. Not as well attended as I’d have liked to have seen, but then again it was an early show. Likely the evening shows will draw more folks in.
And, yes, it was all I hoped for and then a bit more. Without losing anything from the TV series, Whedon nonetheless managed to make the most of the big screen (and the doubtless “big budget” that went along with that). Very spectacular special effects, primarily.
I never much cared for Buffy — Whedon’s best-known TV show — and although I did get a bit into Angel, it still wasn’t anything I found myself obsessed with. But Firefly was another matter: it was just an incredible show, assuming you could get past the rather “flexible” understanding they had about what constitutes sf (if you’re a “hard” sf fan, exclusively, you probably wouldn’t have liked Firefly since it had precious little real science in it. Ditto for the movie). I’ve always tended toward “hard” sf, so it actually surprised me how much I came to love Firefly. In the end, it really IS a classic western set in the far future, in space, with space ships and technologies that don’t really make much sense from a purely scientific point of view.
Anyhow, unless you DO tend to get hung up on “hard” sf, Serenity the movie — like Firefly the TV series — should prove deeply satisfying. I’m not going into much detail here about the movie itself, lest I inadvertantly drop a bunch of spoilers on people, but do brace yourself for quite a ride (and, for those familiar with Firefly, brace yourself for some most unexpected developments).
Bottom line over here: a terrific film, well worth the wait.
I loved the tv show and was even a little angry at my friends for not watching it. Sci-fi channel just ran a marathon, I only got to wathc a couple of episodes but I am really looking forward to seeing the movie.
That won’t be hard. There are lots of movies better than SW already!;-)
Well, the Whedonistas have their movie. They’re proclaiming that it’ll (easily) be bigger than STAR WARS, so let the debate begin!
Can’t wait to see this on Saturday!