HCR Rates The Movies #113: SERENITY

[DTM]

So, our next film, Classic or Crud, Hit or Miss, what say you ALL?

Our next film open for discussion, and ultimately an Overall RATING by you all:

SERENITY
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Let the discussions flow. Likes, dislikes, classic film or overhyped trash, and DONT FORGET to place an Overall Rating when youre done.

Its easy, just give a Rating from 1 (Jaws 4:The Revenge) to 10 (Jaws), and thats it. Course I'd love to have you all give reasons as to why you feel it deserves this Overall Rating, and more than encourage discussions with us all about them.

So, what say you all?

Next Film: ??????

[Big Trouble]

OK, I'm biased. I loved Firefly, and thus loved Serenity as well. But how does it actually rate as a movie "not made for the fans"? There in lies the crucial question. And I cannot give a direct answer. Please indulge me...

So many of the movie moments are made for the fans (and below is only one of MANY examples).
"You cannot make me angry Captain Reynolds." "Please, spend an hour with him." Infact, the "It's a trap" scene defines the relationship between Inara and Mal, new viewers will not get that. But is it important to the new viewers? Not really, but made me appreciate the movie more.

So, does the movie work? Yes. For fans a HUGE yes. But I turned many people on to the movie by word of mouth. No one I've directed it's way or let borrow the DVD has hated it. Biggest complaint, "It felt rushed." Most often heard comment "There was a TV show?"

So, I'm going with an 8.5. A fan would be higher, a new viewer maybe a little lower, but that just feels right.

[T'Chaka]

Ultimately unsatisfying for this fan of the tv show.

7/10.

[Rokk_Krinn]

Hmm....can I fairly judge a movie where the bastiches killed Wash (even if he was the most logical member if they were going to do more with the series and needed an "angst" death)?

I'll get back to you on this.

[Big Trouble]

Hmm....can I fairly judge a movie where the bastiches killed Wash (even if he was the most logical member if they were going to do more with the series and needed an "angst" death)?

I'll get back to you on this.

Agreed, saw Book getting killed, but Wash was an holy s-word moment if there ever was one. But it did advance the story, dammit!

[Rokk_Krinn]

Agreed, saw Book getting killed, but Wash was an holy s-word moment if there ever was one. But it did advance the story, dammit!

See, I hate to say it but for "advancement" - if they want to continue more "Serenity/Firefly" stories down the line - Wash was the best candidate:

*Mal - Yeah, right. Not happening. Core of the show.
*Zoe - Major character and plenty of "angst" with her husband dead.
*Inara - Mal's love-interest so possible but too "eh" for people to care.
*Jayne - Maybe not "major" but he's so different from the rest he's needed
Plus there's the whole fact the -crew- wouldn't care as much.
*Kaylee - Sure, it'd be heart-breaking but too much Simon/Kaylee story
left to tell.
*Simon - See above plus he's rather necessary (& the best character :) )
*River - Couldn't have finished the show if you'd killed her there. ;)

So, unfortunately for Wash, he was a cast member that viewers would hate seeing leave and from an "in-character" stand-point he'd really affect the rest of the characters by his death.

But I still think they should've off'ed Zoe and kept Wash. :devious:

[SaferSephiroth]

I give it a 10. I'd never even heard of Firefly but I enjoyed this movie. Wash, while I hated to see him go, died a hero's death. Kindasorta.

[DTM]

Personally, I loved this film, I loved the show, I love Joss Whedon....er.......his work, I mean (shame its not doing Wonder Woman anymore) :(

I thought this movie did a great job of giving you a speed course in Firefly, getting you to know the characters, their relationships with each other, their attitudes, backgrounds, etc. (as well as could be done anyway)

The story for those who do know the series was fantastic, loads of background into on River (something Joss never got the chance to do in the show), and even an origin tale on the dreaded Reavers (who are danm creepy characters, let me tell you)

The characters were all loads of fun to watch in interacting with anything and their dialogue with one another (Whedons speciality), and I must say I Loved that new character, The Agent (?) universal hitman and bounty hunter. Excellent character, a perfect anithesis to Mals own gruff and gritty nature.

Again, I loved this movie, from the effects (Amazing shot when the Reaver armada flies right into the Alliances own, creating one heck of a space battle), to the story, the music, the pacing, the acting (especially the acting, great characters again help make this movie), and definately more than a few surprises (I feel for you RK, Wash was one of my favorites too :(), this film had it all. A real shame it didnt do as well as I would have liked, and the chances for another (let alone the TV series back) are very slim indeed.

SERENITY - 9.25 / 10

[hail_eris]

Agreed, saw Book getting killed, but Wash was an holy s-word moment if there ever was one. But it did advance the story, dammit!
I was at least hoping that we'd get a bit more back story before the good shepherd breathed his last. I mean, we're left to assume that he'd previously been an Operative, but it would have been an enjoyable tale to hear. I'll give Serenity a hearty 8.5. Good effects, a story that moves quickly without feeling like an overlong episode of the TV show, and a last bite at the apple for a show that died (more accurately, was killed) before its time. And if you enjoyed Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance as the Operative, check him out in Children of Men.

[Magnito]

It was alright, but not great. When it comes to Joss' projects, you really can't beat Buffy (although I'm hoping his attempt at Runaways will be good). I'd give it a 6.5, but I'll up it by 1 for the Buffy connection to 7.5

[DeltaPi1049]

I totally missed firefly when it was on, nor did I know Wheadon was involved when I rented it. But I gotta say, he is as good as ever with serenity, and I gotta give him props for Astonishing X-men too.

9/10

[Wyldstaar]

I'd never seen Firefly before I saw Serenity, and I liked the film a great deal. I wasn't totally blown away by it, but I was interested enough to decide I needed to check out the Firefly box set. Now that I've seen the show, I hate Fox more than ever. How could they have cancelled a program this fantastic?

8/10

This does remind me of something though. Why is it that any time a sci-fi TV show gets translated onto the silver screen, they so often insist on turning all the lights off that were on during the TV series? Serenity was well lit and bright during the show's original run. For the movie, it was like skulking around in a cave. In the original Star Trek, the bridge of the Enterprise was glowing with light from overhead. In the first three movies it was illuminated by little more than the control panels.

[DTM]

Hmm....can I fairly judge a movie where the bastiches killed Wash (even if he was the most logical member if they were going to do more with the series and needed an "angst" death)?

I'll get back to you on this.


Still getting back to us on this one RK? :)

[Canada Maestro]

One of my favourite movies. I laughed, I cried, I loved it more than Cats. I'm going to have to give it a 9.5/10. Can't wait for the next comic series and then anything else they can do with it.

[DTM]

HCR MEMBER CURRENT RATING:

SERENITY - 8.58 / 10

(9 members rating)

[Rokk_Krinn]

There are, frankly, two ways to view this film: as someone who knows the setting and as someone who comes into it cold turkey. While I definitely fall into the first category, I feel to be fair when rating the film, I'm going to have to take both sides into account.

So, we'll hop right to the big question: does "Serenity" work for people who've never seen "Firefly"? Overall, yes. A first-time viewer can still watch the film, be intrigued by the characters and get the "popcorn ride" of the action bits. It may not be a great masterpiece to them but they're hardly going to be sitting there as baffled as someone entering, say, X-3 if they've never encountered the previous X-movies. There are parts that are going to be fairly meaningless to them such as certain "in-jokes" and I'm sure more than one first-timer couldn't figure out why so much time was spent on Book and Inara who weren't even members of the crew. They also likely didn't feel the loss of Wash in the same way certain "Firefly" fans - okay, me :) - did. So that does detract a bit from the movie's overall rating, I'm sorry to say, but no more so than it does for any other "franchise" film - "Empire Strikes Back" is still a good film even if you aren't familiar with "Star Wars".

Now as a fan of the film did I like it? Yes. I did feel that Whedon was hoping enough of the "Brown coats" would come through to get more Serenity green-lighting for the future and thus he wrote the story with that in mind but he also realized it may be the last "Hurrah!" for the group and made sure to take that into account as well. We had been told time and again that the Reavers were "Don't screw with them!"-threats of whom everyone was petrified...well, other than the first episode this was really the proof of that. We knew Book had a mysterious past and while there are still some unanswered questions, I feel Whedon filled in enough "blanks" for us to at least come to whichever conclusion the fan wishes and feels is most appropriate for the character. Everyone had a moment to shine and sometimes that's hard to pull off in these type of films, so a solid nod of appreciation goes to Joss on that as well.

While I can't give the film a perfect rating - it can't 100% stand alone on its' own two feet to the "Rookies" - it was enjoyable, well done and worth the rewatch (even to the "Rookies").

Score: 8.5

[Aminar]

I'm probably a little late on this, but I loved this movie.I still have never watched an episode of Firefly(note to self project of the week, watch Firefly) However, after starting umpteen billion book series on book 2 or 3, ive gotten real good at piecing together pieces missing from the plot.

I give the movie a 9.5/10, as excellant Sci-Fi with a great soundtrack.

[DTM]

I'm probably a little late on this, but I loved this movie.I still have never watched an episode of Firefly(note to self project of the week, watch Firefly) However, after starting umpteen billion book series on book 2 or 3, ive gotten real good at piecing together pieces missing from the plot.

I give the movie a 9.5/10, as excellant Sci-Fi with a great soundtrack.


Never too late on these RtM threads, as theyre always Open (now with links straight to the actual threads in the newer ones), so feel free to pop on any you may have missed before and speak your mind. (You like Serenity, so you obviously have good taste) :)

[KiwiGirl]

This movie was awesome! I really enjoy the characters. I love Joss Whedons work. Im giving it a 10.

[Wyldstaar]

I was watching CNN this week, and they were doing a story about some idiot congressman trying to pass a state law banning the wearing of baggy pants in public schools. Once the story was done, they read some e-mail responses, and played a video response from a webcam. The video response was straight from Serenity, Act One, Scene One- "...They tell us what to do, what to think. They're meddlesome, and they haven't the right."

[Zaq]

That's geeky, but awesome.

[deadalus13]

I give Serenity an 8. I had never seen an episode of Firefly when I watched this movie. Now I think I've seen them all. That says something right there.

[lurker]

A great movie with enjoyable characters and a reminder that we need more great, original, scifi on TV & the movies. I'll give it 8/10.

[Manchine]

I would give this movie a 9 out of 10. I loved the series. :)

[charlesx]

9 out of 10. Solid.

I "found" the series on DVD before I watched the movie. What a great TV show it was, and how sad that it was that it was cancelled before Season 2 was able to air. From what I have read, the Serenity movie was a compressed version of Season 2 - finally revealing and resolving the story behind River and Simon. Not only did we get treated to seeing the characters from Firefly one more time, we were introduced to a couple of new ones - Mister Universe, Fanty and Mingo, and (of course) The Operative. All in all, a very satisfying movie even for those of us who had not been introduced to Firefly.

When Book died, I figured it was natural, given the course of events. The fact that we were left with questions about his past was bittersweet. I loved the character, but found that I didn't need to delve into his past involvement with the Alliance after all.

When Wash died, it was the biggest ZOMG WTF moment that I have experienced in movies for quite some time. I was completely taken by surprise, and at that instant I thought "Anything goes - the series is over, and any of the other characters could die!!" In fact, I seriously thought that there'd be one sole survivor to the mission. (If you want to a big tug at your emotions, see the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold" where Zoe and Wash discuss the fact that they'd like to have kids of their own someday - huge knot in your throat...)

[BudPalmer]

8.5 Loved what it did for fans of the show and for new ones. Wash's death was a real bummer.

[iameleveneight]

8.5 Loved what it did for fans of the show and for new ones. Wash's death was a real bummer.

Nice spoiler there. :p

I give it a 10/10.

Its a solid ending to a very solid and underappreciated tv show. if you haven't seen Firefly you need to, its one of the best shows I have ever seen.

[Richard Of Pony]

I went to Block Buster one day, saw Serenity and even though I have always been a science fiction fan, I never buy (or rent) anything just to try it but some how it happened... And the most amazing part is I got... MY MOTHER TO WATCH IT!!!!!!!!! AND EVEN MORE FRIGHTNING SHE LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then heard about the series, watched that from the library (I beleive) then eventually bought both.

So I loved Serenity before seing the series... and my Mother did also for this, I give it a.... 10/10!!!!!!!

[EmperorNorton]

9/10 from me, mirroring Rokk's sentiments.

[necrodog]

Obviously very late getting to this one...
My son got the novelization at DragonCon the summer before the movie released. We watched the SciFi channel marathon of the series when we got home. And then we went to see the movie with my wife (not a sci-fi fan) and my college student niece, and everyone loved it. So...

Excellent wrap-up of the series, excellent as a stand-alone. Great for fans of the show, but great for those who had never heard of Firefly too. I hated Wash's death (and Book's) but Josh is well-known for "no character is safe" so not a total surprise.

10/10

By the way, if you're a fan of Firefly/Serenity and not watching Castle, shame on you. The opening of the Halloween episode is particularly good.

[Richard Of Pony]

By the way, if you're a fan of Firefly/Serenity and not watching Castle, shame on you. The opening of the Halloween episode is particularly good.

Castle has nothing to do with Joss, So it's really only if you like Nathan Fillion as an actor, But the Show is good never the less and you should defiantly watch it. Plus for the Halloween Special he did dress up as a "Space Cowboy" (The costume was Mal's, brown coat and the works.) Which Castle's daughter mentions that "There's no Cows in Space." Or are there? :cheeky: