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Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:10 pm

I just had to add this post to remind everyone that the movie "Serenity" opens this Friday, Sept 30th, in the US.

This movie is based upon the short-lived television science-fiction series called "Firefly", from Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy. It was one of the best sci-fi shows ever and was cancelled *way* before it ever had a chance to gather a following.

The writing and characters are the best part of this show, and all of the actors are back for the movie. The "buzz" from the various fan sites has been very good, and the movie has already been shown to many hard-core fans in dozens of pre-screenings.

If you haven't seen Firefly before, the SCIFI channel is showing a marathon of episodes on Tuesday, and a special show about the Serenity movie on Tuesday night. You can also rent the DVDs from the original 13 episodes (only 11 were shown originally) from Netflix or your favorite video store.

If the movie does well, perhaps we will get more movies in the future. Who knows, maybe someone will even bring back the TV series (although that's doubtful for many reasons).

Anyway, I thought I should do my part to promote this excellent series and the upcoming movie. I'm more excited about seeing this movie than any other this year, and for the first time in a *long* time, Chiara and I will probably go to the opening night on Friday.

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 4379 Location: USA

I'm excited too. I'm really looking forward to this movie since I loved the series. The problem was that Fox killed it with its Friday night spot.

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:52 pm

I believe it has a later opening date in the UK. I'm still excited though. On a plus side for me it is only a couple of months ago that I discovered Firefly having been lent the whole series (13 episodes, yes!!) on DVD. I loved it. So much so that I watched the whole lot including DVD extras in 2 sittings with a 5 hour sleep break in between.

I'm not one for willing my life to go by but ooooh I can't wait :) Oh and yes I've watched all the movie trailers, though they are all fairly similar, I hope this doesn't mean it'll be crap *fingers crossed*.

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

I actually never took interest in Firefly because it was up against an already full schedule for me and the advertisements for it prior to the start of its season didn't have any meat to them, so it just seemed like junk. After the sterling reccommendations though I will definitely give Firefly another look. Serenity definitely looked interesting from the trailers, but it won't be enough to get me to a theater.

Beginner Joined: 27 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

i am goign to see it friday morning. i will let ya know what i think about it

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:31 pm

Cool! Be sure to keep this blog spoiler-free though. Chiara *hates* getting spoilers and you don't want to get on her bad side Twisted Evil

Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2000 Posts: 389 Location: USA

I have never been one for TV watching. I grew up without a tv. Until I moved in with Zugg, I never lived in a house with cable.
Then I discovered Stargate SG-1 2 years ago, to which I am completely and utterly addicted. I own all the DVDs, several books, and I read fan fiction. I have never done that for any show on television my whole life.

Take that into consideration so you will have an appropriate context when I publically state:

Firefly is better than Stargate

We watched the complete dvd set in 2 days, then we watched it again over Labor Day weekend.
The writing is fantastic, the characters are intriguing and well developed. The dialog has been written with great care. It is FANTASTIC.

I can't WAIT until Friday. I've never gone to see a movie on opening day before. Ever.

Adept Joined: 01 Mar 2005 Posts: 277

I have heard only good things about Firefly. I have never seen it before (I don't have cable in my house.) I am definately going to have to borrow the DVD from a coworker.

Also, seeing as I've been away from the forum for quite sometime I wanted to throw my opinion out on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Some of it was funny, but although my wife laughed a couple times she thought it was way to wierd. I have to admit I forgot a lot about it and some things were not quite how I had pictured them in my mind. It was not a terrible movie but seeing it once was enough (although it may have helped to see it with someone who had read the book.)

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

Sorry to hijack the thread, but the Hitch Hikers movie was __TERRIBLE__, missed the whole point/plot/story. And what makes matters worse is a lot of what happened in the movie never happened in the book, and just when you thought it couldn't get worse, they cut out half of every joke so you never got the whole punch line. And because it told a new and completely different story, they go and release a new hitch hikers book which is based on the movie!

GURU Joined: 28 Sep 2000 Posts: 434 Location: USA

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

I too find it hard to believe that Firefly is better then SG1, although I have actually watched all of Buffy, and most of Angel; both of which are products of Joss Whedon, as you mentioned. I mostly watched them because they are good entertainment. They grab you at the right points and then help you to laugh. As I said to someone today, "I don't laugh when I am at work;" and I found certain shows to have the right combination of seriousness, superciliousness, and humor to help me make the transition back from work to home. I definitely have to give both Serenity and Firefly another look before I declare anything, but my respect for both you and Chiara is endless. That sways my opinion much more readily then Joe Bush politician.

Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:42 pm

Re: Hitchhikers: I totally disagree. I think for fans of Adams' sense of humor it was right on. I agree that anyone who hadn't read and enjoyed his work would have probably hated the movie. As far as the stuff that wasn't in the book, all of it was from other works by Adams, either novels or other short stories. And I thought it stayed true to his intent and style. Most of the bad reviews I have seen were from people who hadn't read his books or didn't like his odd sense of humor.

Back to Serenity: We just got back from seeing the movie, and all I can say without spoilers is "Wow!". Definitely a must see for fans, and I think even people who have never seen Firefly will like it and I'd be interested in seeing comments from people who see Serenity without having seen Firefly. Of course, we are biased because we loved Firefly, but we liked Serenity so much that we will be going back to see it again on Sunday to catch everything we missed the first time around.

As far as "better than Stargate"...well, it's like comparing apples and oranges in a way. Stargate has lasted 9 years and has maintained an incredibly high level of quality all that time. Even with the loss of major characters it has almost reinvented itself and is as good as ever, at least in my opinion.

Firefly, on the other hand, only had 13 (or 14) episodes, of which only 11 aired. It was killed by the Fox from the very beginning...they didn't even show the pilot until the very end after it had been cancelled, and they showed the episodes out of order. This totally ruined the character development that Whedon was writing. It was on a bad time on a bad night and was then moved around so that even fans had a tough time watching it. It had no chance.

So, it's hard to compare something with only a handful of episodes to something that has had 9 full years. But the initial episodes of Firefly are better written than any first season of anything I had seen before, even Stargate or the new Battlestar. I can only imagine how it would have developed if it had been given a chance. It's hard to develop characters that you care about in such a short time. In my honest opinion, I don't even think Stargate Atlantis has been as successful in it's first season in it's character development.

Anyway, before anyone can express an opinion, you must actually watch the show (and all of the episodes in the order they were intended). But it's one of those series where you can just rent the first disk and watch the pilot and be hooked. So it's a pretty inexpensive investment in both time and money to give it a try.

As far as the Serenity movie....no spoilers until at least Monday so that people have a chance to see it fresh this weekend. But it's one of the best I have seen in a long time, in our biased fanboy opinions Smile

Magician Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 459 Location: USA

My wife and I went to the 7:30 showing and enjoyed it so much we went out and back in for the 10:30 showing.

Our theatres weren't really all that crowded, so I'm not sure what the box office is going to be like. There were, after all, something like 5 movies being released on friday, so it could be hard to tell.

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 4:59 pm

The weekend numbers for Serenity are a bit sad. Last time I checked it was #2 and was beat by the second week of FlightPlan, which got bad reviews and bad word of mouth. Don't know what happened. The review of Serenity are very possible and it has an excellent score over on the RottenTomatoes site. I guess people would rather go see a "big name" in a bad movie rather than seeing something new and different and good.

I saw a quote this weekend on one of the movie sites that I just loved:

"To make money, you have to make a movie for the Average Joe...I hate the Average Joe"

My sentiments exactly. Anyway, hopefully it will make enough in the foriegn markets and on DVD to warrant a sequel.

As far as the movie itself, Chiara and I both enjoyed it even more the second time.

Magician Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 459 Location: USA

It did, however, the best of any of the new movies that came out this weekend. That has to mean something.

I'm hoping that people will go into work this week and tell about the film to their co-workers who will go see it this coming weekend.