Serenity on Slashdot

POSTED BY: cljohnston108
UPDATED: Monday, November 28, 2005 22:24
VIEWED: 18260
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Seriously, rating a SciFi film based entirely on the physics?? Come on...anybody care to discuss the physics of light sabers or "force lightening"? Geez...some people just can't have fun.

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That's slashdot for ya. Every other comment starts with something like "I hate to bring reality into this, but..." Then the poster tries to show how smart they are.

Even if the subject at hand is space travel, time travel, or how to make a ham sandwhich... :)

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Now they are discussing how many points there are between a planet and a bunch of stuff no one with a real life cares about. Go Slashdot! Oh wait, I'm kidding, Slashdot sucks.

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Maybe it all has to do with familiarity with the issues. I don't have any problem with space travel as it is depicted. I simply assume that they have some sources of power that don't have the characteristics of rockets and can overcome the distances. Someone who is intamtely familiar with all of the real physics might have trouble making the leap. Like say a poker player having to listen to a description of a game where the winner beats a pair of freens with an dilly-poo-frenblat. The poker player would conclude that this represented nothing real and that the story would be of no-interest.

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Originally posted by AcesAndEights:
Go Slashdot! Oh wait, I'm kidding, Slashdot sucks.

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That seems to be the popular theory.

Only reason I posted it was because there were quite a few of the increasingly-typical, "I'd never heard of Firefly until I saw Serenity. I bought the Firefly DVD and watched all 14 episodes in two sittings."
I pay attention to that kinda stuff, cuz I'm a "glass half full" sorta guy.

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Re:Serenity! (Score:5, Interesting)
by BrynM (217883) * on Sunday November 20, @02:35AM (#14074181) ( http://www.networkoftheapes.net/ | Last Journal: Monday November 21, @04:16AM)

I think Serenity hasn't been around long enough to sink in to the culture properly, but god, such a good movie. Firefly was a good series too.

I have a pair of friends (BF/GF unit) that aren't into sci-fi at all. She is arguably the least sci-fi person I have known in a long time. She admits to seeing "that trek thing" but didn't like it. He's just not interested usually.

First the boyfriend saw a couple of episodes of Firefly with me (I have the DVDs) and got really exited to see Serenity. I took them both. The very next day they borrowed my DVD set and watched all of Firefly for the next week.

I'm sure there of hundreds of stories like mine. Give that movie/series to pretty much anyone and I'll bet they like it. It's got a broad appeal and no weird looking costumes. Everyone can identify with working hard (even if what you do is nefarious) and having to defend it in some way. That's it's essence. Within 2-5 years it will be a landmark film, IMHO.

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Serenity (Score:5, Insightful)
by ngunton (460215) on Sunday November 20, @02:08AM (#14074111) ( http://www.neilgunton.com/)

I never watched the series, and just happened to catch the movie two days before it disappeared from my local theatre. It was the matinee, and there were three other people in there with me. I have to say, I've been avoiding going out to see movies in recent years, because there always seems to be some asshat sitting behind me who feels that it's perfectly ok to discuss plot points in a normal voice, or be in a constant state of candy rustling, or other noise that just ruins the whole thing.

Anyway, back to the real point: Serenity has restored my faith in movies. Star Wars (the recent run of prequals) almost killed off my hope totally. I just felt so ... empty ... walking out of those movies. All special effect, no humanity, no heart. Is anyone else yawning these days at the latest, greatest special effects? I mean, it's been a while since I was really wowed by this stuff - I think Terminator II was the last movie that really made me go "hey, neat!". The Matrix was ok (the first one only, please, not the travesty that the other two became), but it was mostly the style (and bullet time) that make that movie.

Serenity was a return to something that George Lucas almost had in his grasp with his very first Star Wars movie: A sense of real people, experiencing real life, only in a very, very different environment to ours. This is true escapism - not Grand Councils and "sheratons in space" (thanks Joss), but real, gritty, imperfect, cowardly, funny, wisecracking people. The sort of characters you would probably like if you met them in real life. Who can imagine interacting with any of the recent Star Wars characters in real life? Sheesh.

Joss Whedon is one of those people who has a talent for mixing the real with the fantastic in a funny, witty way. I think Serenity is right up there at the top of my list of all-time favorite movies. It rocks because it has heart, which so many movies these days lack. The big mistake action movies make is that if you don't care about the characters, then who cares what happens to them? In Serenity, I cared. I took my wife to see it for a second time (had to travel a bit, since it was gone from most places by then). She is not a Sci-Fi fan, but I had a hunch, and I was right - she loved it. That says something.

I also went ri

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