1/8/06 Rental & Sales Chart Update
POSTED BY: LoveThatFireFly
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 00:22
VIEWED: 18830
PAGE 4 of 4
Anyone remember "Pitch Black"? Small movie, cool characters, an intimate look at fear and survival... Remember the sequel? "Chronicles of Riddick"? Big, bombastic, epic...? Box-office flop? Why? Too much of a radical shift in style... the CoR movie, while neat in some ways, was nothing like its forerunner, with the possible exception of the escape from the prison planet sequence... if they had expanded that sequence and made the movie about the rescue of the girl and the escape, focusing on the characters like they did in the first one, they might have had a hit on their hands. Instead, the studio got stuck with a $100 million budget and little, if any chance of a return on their investment.
Same thing happened to Serenity. I think Joss needed to wrap the big story arc up, just in case it was the end of the road for Firefly, but in doing so, he created an epic monster that had little resemblance to the originating series, at least as far as the style and structure. With Firefly, you felt for and with these characters... with Serenity, the intimacy was gone... there was no sense of drama or tragedy as far as the characters were concerned - the overall plot and theatrics took away any chance of making a connection to the characters, which meant that when one of them hurt or was in jeopardy, there was no emotional resonance, no reason to care whether or not they lived or died. That is what ticked me off more than anything else... when I watched Firefly, I was watching the adventures of nine friends... with Serenity, I was watching nine action figures that resembled my friends. I felt cheated, and still do...
Of course, that said, I also know the restrictions of movie making, and know that there is only so much that can be done... I don't blame Joss for this... he did a great job under the circumstances and I think that the movie accomplished as much as it could, it being a compromise between the intimacy of the series and the demands of the popcorn munching throngs... No, ultimately, I blame Fox for cancelling it in the first place. The tale of "Serenity" should have been told over a couple of seasons at least... not a couple of hours. And that is what I feel cheated about the most...
Here endeth the rant....
Quote:
Originally posted by SittingDuck:Quote:
Originally posted by Micronaut:
I've said it before, and I'll now say it again... Firefly works best on the small screen... Intimate stories, complex characters, interwoven plots... these are the hallmarks which made Firefly great in the first place...
Too true. Probably my biggest objection to Serenity was that it was way too epic in scope. The series was decidedly unepic in nature which was part of the appeal.
The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.
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Much work remains to be done before we can announce our total failure to make any progress...
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Quote:
Originally posted by Micronaut:
Same thing happened to Serenity. I think Joss needed to wrap the big story arc up, just in case it was the end of the road for Firefly, but in doing so, he created an epic monster that had little resemblance to the originating series, at least as far as the style and structure. With Firefly, you felt for and with these characters... with Serenity, the intimacy was gone... there was no sense of drama or tragedy as far as the characters were concerned - the overall plot and theatrics took away any chance of making a connection to the characters, which meant that when one of them hurt or was in jeopardy, there was no emotional resonance, no reason to care whether or not they lived or died. That is what ticked me off more than anything else... when I watched Firefly, I was watching the adventures of nine friends... with Serenity, I was watching nine action figures that resembled my friends. I felt cheated, and still do...
Of course, that said, I also know the restrictions of movie making, and know that there is only so much that can be done... I don't blame Joss for this... he did a great job under the circumstances and I think that the movie accomplished as much as it could, it being a compromise between the intimacy of the series and the demands of the popcorn munching throngs... No, ultimately, I blame Fox for cancelling it in the first place. The tale of "Serenity" should have been told over a couple of seasons at least... not a couple of hours. And that is what I feel cheated about the most...
It might have been a good idea if Mr. Whedon had watched Knockin' on Heaven's Door first. That movie is a textbook example of how to make an epic science fiction movie without it actually being epic, if you can follow that.
The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.
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I suppose the movie is doing alright for itself, but not spectacularly. It also took the show some time to catch on, I'm sure the same will happen.
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All this discussion on whether the movie made money, although interesting, is pure conjecture nothing else. The key to getting our beloved show back is to keep reminding the folks that shell out the money to make these things how much we want them to do it again. I'm fairly new on the 'boards here but one thing that would be helpful if it isn't already somewhere around here (anyone know where the gorram search engine is? 
)is who to send my letters of interest in the return of the show to?
The key is to keep making a big noise because, just like the old saying goes "the squeaky wheel gets the grease".
I, for one, have no problem with sending post mail to more than one potential backer of the series/movie a week if necessary. I've done this before and once you get into the habit of writing up the envelopes (DON'T print labels!) make your point in the first sentence of the letter. I realize they don't really read these things but do track how many come in. A little demographics doesn't hurt (how old you are, your sex, how much you make-be truthful) as they sometimes do record this info.
I'm not saying this is gonna work but a continuous barrage of interest does more 'n you think in the world of market research. Afterall, why pay some marketing consultant big bucks to go out and find "the next big thing" when it is simply plopped in your lap?
Besides, it makes me feel like I am doing something for the cause.
So, if there is a canonical list of contacts at F*x, SciFi, HBO, et al, point me to it.
Thanks for putting up with my ramblings...
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