I saw Serenity on Monday and it was great. I was of course nervous going in, I loved Firefly and was afraid that the movie wouldn't live up to what I was expecting. But I should have known to trust in Joss. It was totally great. My boyfriend, also a fan of the show, decided it was his favorite film of '05 so far (and don't take that lightly, he has a list and has ranked all of them. I'm not joking).
What made the movie work was the balance between keeping the characters and world of the show intact while upping the ante so it felt like a movie rather than just another episode of Firefly. And it worked, I won't say what happened in the film other than that it's a continuation of the River storyline. My boyfriend pointed out that one thing that made the film great was that nothing in the preview (or almost nothing) took place after the first thirty minutes of the movie, so everything you're expecting gets out of the way quickly, then the film moves in a different direction. Even non-fans seemed to like it, I heard some folks at a screening at the same theater the next night (that time I was going to see Oliver Twist, I'm kind of a screening whore) talking about how they were at Serenity and without knowing anything about the show and how they really enjoyed the movie. David Walker, reviewer for the Willamette Week here in Portland seconded that opinion.
According to Entertainment Weekly a couple of weeks ago, reps from Universal have said the film would need to make at least $80 million for sequel consideration. Come on people, the bar has been set!
Posted by minka at September 28, 2005 11:51 PMMy only problems with the movie (and here I'm getting into spoiler territory) were the lovestory bits--I felt like I was adding in so much Zoe/Wash and Kaylee/Simon backstory from what I knew on the show. It made the climactic scenes that much more devastating, but I wonder if it would just be inexplicable to people who weren't already familiar with the material.
I liked how the Inara/Mal lovestory was kept kind of subtly unexplained, THAT worked perfectly. Although, did you think that Inara didn't really look that good? I decided after the film that she might just be one of those actresses who is really meant to work on TV.
Overall, it was a tremendous balancing act to keep it all running and I thought Joss did a spectacular job. I think Serenity is much more the heir-apparent to the original Star Wars legacy than any other science fiction film I've seen since.
Posted by: brian w at September 29, 2005 08:01 AMi want ot see a sequel of this mvoei i loved it and i dont see why this show would even conisder going off the air so soon i want the show to come back and for it to be a big hitt i loved the movie and the seris rock on serenity rock on firefly
Posted by: Robert Kim at June 6, 2006 09:07 AMi loved the movie i loved the sereis although i cant understand why the show had to go off the air i would love for the movei to have a sequel and that may cause the seris to be pi8cked up by sci fi or something well i loved the movie and the seris rock on serenity rock on firefly
Posted by: Robert Kim at June 6, 2006 09:10 AM