Am I the only one to hate Serenity the movie.
POSTED BY: Apollo_Master
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 20:29
VIEWED: 16298
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Personally, I love the series, but only like the movie. I certainly don't hate it, but I'll freely admit that it's an inferior product. In a way, SERENITY, to me, is almost like INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. DOOM is a solid enough action movie on its own, but it largely lacks the unique charm of the first and third movies.
So... WHY is the movie inferior to the TV show?
Well, first off, it's a movie rather than a TV show. Joss freely admits that he was telling a story that might have taken 22 episodes, ideally, in 2 hours or so. A lot of detail is lost. And detail is where Joss and Co. excel.
This is a "condensed" version of FIREFLY, so it's a blunt hammer version. Because it's a movie, everything is bigger and more over the top. This is an unfortunate effect of translation of media type.
Additionally, there's a shift from character to plot, and that's the biggest killer here. FIREFLY is about nine people. Sure, Mal and a few others get the focus, but all nine get a lot of attention. In the movie, it's limited to Mal and RIver, with the others reduced to background characters, and, again, forced to be simplified. In a 22-episode season, there's room to play out the fact that, say, Jayne both respects and resents Mal, that he is completely mercenary, but also finds value in the "found family" of the crew. In the movie, he's largely reduced to the archetype of "skeptic." Similarly, most of the other crew members lose their identities in favor of becoming "supporters."
This is further accentuated by the fact that the movie has to serve multiple masters. The series is for fans of the series. The movie is for fans of the series, and for folks who've never heard of it. And for general sci fi fans. To me, most times, when you try to make something serve two contradictory purposes, it won't be excellent in both. The series was an "A+" for a single audience. The best the movie can hope for is a "B+" in both categories.
One area where the movie DOES fail is the nature of the Alliance. The series is careful to depict the Alliance itself as something other than evil, although some of the representatives are certainly questionable, often in their rigidity of thinking. The movie, unfortunately, because it's something of a simplification, TELLS us that the Alliance isn't evil, but shows us something completely different.
Important distinction: In the series, the "alpha villain" (Hands of Blue) ultimately appear to be contractors working for the Blue Sun Corporation, whereas in the movie, the alpha villain is a direct representative of the government of the Alliance. Joss has stated that the ultimate villain in the series is Blue Sun (or is it the Rossum Corporation? Or Wolfram & Hart? Sometimes, even Joss repeats himself), and not the Alliance.
Interestingly, if we consider the comic LEAVES ON THE WIND to me canon, the net result of the Miranda Broadwave is pretty small. It stirs up folks who were paranoid anyway... and ultimately, far from being undercut by it, the Alliance is able to use the situation to their advantage. This is a neat bit of sleight of hand on Whedon's part: if the movie stands on it's own, we're left with the impression that Mal's actions are comparable to Luke taking down the Death Star, but in the larger tapestry of Firefly, we continue the theme of folk crushed under the heel of history rather than folk who make history.
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Quote:The story-telling machinery was embarrassingly exposed in the movie, but never in the TV show. The Operative, a professional killer who ought to know better, tells Mr Universe about his evil plan to ambush Mal and then kills Mr Universe, who is allowed privacy before death to pass the plan to Mal by way of the sex-robot, a robot which was only in the movie to pass the plan along. The story-telling really wasn't as simplified as I'm pretending, but it was clunky and mechanical compared to the smooth and organic stories on the TV show.
Originally posted by GWEK:
One area where the movie DOES fail is the nature of the Alliance. The series is careful to depict the Alliance itself as something other than evil, although some of the representatives are certainly questionable, often in their rigidity of thinking. The movie, unfortunately, because it's something of a simplification, TELLS us that the Alliance isn't evil, but shows us something completely different.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Also, Jayne being harpooned in the leg by Reavers, but still walking on the leg for the rest of the movie? That is not possible. Jayne does not even limp!
My spouse, until recently...was a coal miner (FUCK YOU OBAMA). You should see some of the injuries these guys get and are still walking around with, and THEY don't have a personal doctor with future meds at their disposal...
I always assumed that Mal's bullet hit body armor and that he knew it and was just looking for a distraction for a second to throw him off...
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Quote:I don't wanna be too grumpy about this, but Jayne pours whiskey from his personal flask on the hole through his leg and wraps it in a dirty rag. Dr Tam doesn't look at the wound. (This is one-upsmanship: the last time I saw hole through a leg, the leg had a tourniquet. There was no possibility of jumping immediately back into a fight with Reavers. Maybe TV writers should visit a trauma center before writing about bullet wounds. Try Houston's Ben Taub https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_center#Level_I )
Originally posted by Wishimay:
My spouse, until recently...was a coal miner (FUCK YOU OBAMA). You should see some of the injuries these guys get and are still walking around with, and THEY don't have a personal doctor with future meds at their disposal...
Jayne's dirty rag bandage isn't slowing him down.
Quote:What peeved me about Mal's tactics is that he let the Operative hide behind that equipment that is just to the right of the Operative in the picture. Mal has bruises to prove what happens when he turns his back to the Operative and yet Mal does that again, same as that time with Inara watching. In the longer version of the script, Mal missed the Operative while shooting from 50 feet away, after Mal has crossed halfway over all that rotating machinery of death.
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I always assumed that Mal's bullet hit body armor and that he knew it and was just looking for a distraction for a second to throw him off...
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I think you are missing the point, the leg thing is just supposed to look BADASS.
And I could give you a personal tale about hubby when he was injured, and he walked himself to the rideout, but it's not something I wanna broadcast in the internets...
As for the other thing
Dude, ten years ago....
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I liked Book's character in the show as much as washes, yet when wash died it hit harder. I think because at that very moment I new it was over. You see I saw the show for the first time when the movie was already out. I saw the show and movie pretty much at the same time.
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No hate, though I'd have gone a different way w/ the story in a couple of areas.
The way River was sprung from the academy didn't work for me. There was a great disconnect, imo, from how they escaped to how she ended up in the box, and on board Serenity. I heard it explained, but I've just never bought it.
Minor stuff, like how do Reavers control ships and set up coordinated attacks on settlements and such. Again, I suppose there's some plausible explanation that's not been shown on screen, like " reasoning " Reavers, who may act as commanders, but it doesn't seem to follow.
Hated to death scenes, of course.
And Mal 'shaking off " being skewered , like shish kabob, and then winning the fight...Joss wanted that " moment " , but sorry, the follow up was a bit much to take as well.
All in all, I still gave it a solid B. It is, after all, our BDHs.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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I watched it again tonight, because I haven't in probably five years...It DOES still hurt.
The thing that attracted me to Firefly and to Serenity is STILL as strong as ever...
Every thing Joss does, from the lighting to the music to the little details...It all MEANS something, dammit. I've not seen that before or since. Some shows had it to some degree, but Joss really was a master of it in Firefly.
It's almost enough to make me think something matters again.
And then I wake up. 
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I love the movie. Not one wasted word of dialogue.
I was voted Film of the year, UK, 2006.
Devout Keeper of Jayne's Lunchbox
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Quote:The quote is:
Originally posted by VeraSamuels:
I love the movie. Not one wasted word of dialogue.
It was voted Film of the year, UK, 2006.
1. Perched on top of the heap we call 2005, Serenity.
It was far from the biggest hit of the year but the rabid fanbase which helped get Joss Whedon's cancelled sci-fi series onto the big screen has now handed it the biggest accolade in modern cinema: the title of Film 2005 Film of the Year. Rachel Formby calls it, 'A labour of love filled with strong, superbly written characters, humour, emotion and cool effects'. Juliet Richards in Stanstead claims it 'brilliantly blended comedy, action, drama, horror and romance', adding that 'the only negative point I can think of is that it wasn't out for long enough so I only got to see it five times on the big screen'. That's the sort of passion we like to see.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060709160630/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/f
ilm2005/filmofyear_2005.shtml
Awards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_%28film%29#Awards
Serenity won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form,
the Nebula Award for Best Script,
and the Prometheus Special Award.
The film was also named film of the year by Film 2005 and FilmFocus,
and it was determined by SFX magazine to be the best science fiction movie of all time in 2007.
IGN Film awarded Serenity Best Sci-Fi, Best Story, and Best Trailer for the year,
and it won second for Overall Best Movie after Batman Begins.
The SyFy Genre Awards awarded it runner-up in the categories for Best Movie, Best Actor in a film (Nathan Fillion), and Best Actress in a film (Summer Glau), losing in all categories to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Serenity later ranked 383 on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Films of All Time and 90 of the 301 Greatest Movies of All Time as voted by the magazine's readers.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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