What's the deal with Serenity? (Spoiler Warning!)

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Friday, July 7, 2006 01:58
VIEWED: 4623
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MSG

Monday, June 26, 2006 5:48 PM

Not flaming you just seriously don't agree. I think the BDm gives new depth and meaning to characters and a great starting point for the next step be it sequel or new series...

I choose to rise instead of fall- U2

JIGMAN

Monday, June 26, 2006 11:50 PM

I kind of agree and disagree with you, man. I agree that the BDM had at times what seemed to be a bit of a rushed plot to fit a movie format(maybe he should have gone peter jackson on it and made it superlong), and that the show just would not be the same if it were to pick up right where the movie left off. This is why I am hoping for more movies, because that way it can keep to the grander storylines that the BDM has put forth. However, if you want to see what the movie would have been like stretched into a tv season, check out stillflying.net it is pretty cool what they got going over there in script form. As for the BDM being similar to other movies, honestly I never make connections to other stories with the one before me unless it is completely blatant. That way a person can become engrossed in the story, rather than thinking on some other story they have already heard. I am not sure what else to say or how to close, so I am gonna just shut up now.

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All good things must come to an end.

JONQUIL2006

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:10 AM

6IX, I'm new here too, welcome. I agree with you 6IX. It might not be the same, but you know that we'd all love it. It's Mal, it's Zoe, it's Kaylee, and it's Wash. I think that the movie can be wrapped up into something different, like you said a dream of River's. I just think that if Joss brings back Firefly, he needs to go all the way like he did the first time. Bring it all back or nothing at all. Joss never did anything half-ass before, look at Buffy and Angel. He did those shows great! And I think he can do this again, but the problem is that FOX never gave Firefly a chance, also they didn't think it would get such a following like we have now. They cancelled it because of some stupid reality show or something like that. But it's out of our hands right now. If Joss wants to put Firefly back on the air for the fans, he'll do it. It just takes time.

When ya can't run, ya crawl and when ya can't crawl... you find someone to carry you

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:33 AM

Amen my man

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."

NOSADSEVEN

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 3:36 AM

Welcome, 6ixString. I understand your frustration with the movie, but I think it is misplaced. The frustration should lie soley with FOX.

FOX cancelled Firefly - ended it. Almost four years ago. It can't come back as it was. It won't be ressurected. What Firefly was, artistically speaking, cannot be recreated. We may get more of the 'Verse on screen - more of these characters - but Firefly as a thematic work of art, was ended at the end of 2002. Serenity is not Firefly, and leading up to its release, Joss tried to make no uncertain terms of that. It's even part of why he changed the name. (In an infamous recent interview with Entertainment Weekly concerning the future of the 'franchise', the interviewer misinterpreted Joss's explanation that Firefly is dead, as an assertion that the franchise was dead...leading to much consternation across the internet.)

I guess my point is, don't be mad at Serenity, be mad at FOX. They took something that even Serenity could not bring back (though it does help ease the pain). And keep in mind, there was either Serenity, or there was nothing. The only reason there is even talk of this 'verse continuing is because Joss pushed to get his story told, and the only avenue left to him was the movie.

Now, to address some random points brought up in this thread:

-Joss has said that were there to be another movie, Alan Tudyk and Ron Glass would most certainly be in it. (He did not specify how, but promised it wouldn't be cheesy.)

-Many off-put fans found the movie easier to digest and embrace with the passage of time and repeated viewings. I highly recommend it.

-I think the crew could go back to petty thievery (though certainly with greater difficulty), because it wasn't the military or police arm of the Alliance after them, it was an operative of the Parliment - a man with no name or rank, who likely answered to the "key members of Parliment" himself. While he had the resources of the Alliance at his disposal, it's not like the whole complex was after them, and I imagine that those members of Parliment's desire for revenge is not enough to warrant wasting such vast resources on the crew - especially if their position is already weakened.

-Mal's change in character, is not out of character, so much as character development. He is in a crappy place at the start of the movie (a result of hard times, and Book and Inara's departures), but he is still just trying to get by - he even says so to the operative at the training house. Even at the turning point you point out (when their friends are all wiped out), Mal chooses to go to Miranda not to take down the Alliance, but simply to survive. What they find on Miranda changes his motiviation - it brings him purpose, not just to survive, but to "speak for these people", most likely at the cost of survival. He has no real illusion that the Alliance is going to crumble as a result.

-The possibility of Book and Wash's deaths being in vain doesn't make them meaningless - it makes them all the more painful for our crew to have had to endure. From a viewer's perpective, Book's death served the story in Serenity (pushing Mal forward), and Wash's death served the experience of Serenity (putting the audience in the unsettling position of realizing that any of the remaining crew could die).

Just remember the closing lines of the pilot episode:

MAL: We're still flying.
SIMON: That's not much.
MAL: It's enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't. We. Just.

MRSU

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 3:30 PM

NOSADSEVEN - you summed it up beautifully, I just have a few things to add.

Yes, Firefly the series were killed by FOX and they would NEVER come back, all we were left with were 14 bright sparks to treasure. All that Joss could give us was this movie or nothing. So that's the fact, we just have to live with it.

Now, 6IXSTRINGJACK: I can understand your frustration. That's how I felt when I popped out Serenity DVD for the 1st time, having watched it after the show. I felt cheated and depressed: it wasn't the show I loved, I couldn't recognize the characters: they were pale, faded copies of themselves, the movie looked cheap and messy, many action bits looked unnesessary and silly and were taking away from the character development I mostly cared about. And the actors didn't play their parts as well as in the show, it seemed.
I remember being appaled by the passing through Reaver ships junkyard: how many Reaver ships would you need to completely block the orbit of the large planet, heck, not just the orbit like a circle - orbit like a sphere! It must be a number with about 100 zeros after it. I'm sorry, it looked so absurd it threw me off.

But the movie grew on me: it has many layers of meaning which you can appreciate with repeat viewings. And I was finally reconciliated with it after June 23rd screening: it looked so much better on a big screen. It has harsh, contrast lighting which doesn't translate well to DVD: that's why people on DVD looked like darkened-out siluettes a lot of times and I was missing on their mimics etc. But on the big screen the characters really came alive: for example I finally saw how good Kaylee was in it.

And now for your question about petty theft: well, I was bored by it in the show and I wouldn't be sorry to see it go in the sequel, if there ever would be the one. I even FF petty theft moments when I rewatch the show.
Mal is pretty bad as a petty thief: in fact he is pathetic. It's not his lot: he doesn't fit in, he just wanders blindly i the woods. The only heists which were interesting to watch in the show for me were the ones in Ariel and Trash, and they were planned by brilliant outsiders, not by him.
And the characters he had to encounter at the bottom of society are sordid, disgusting and boring too: they are colorful to look at at first but I got tired of them after about 30 seconds. Joss mentioned on DVD commentary to BDM that he had to cut down a lot on Fanty and Mungo - and I'm thankful for that.
I see it as trying to be cool but failing on Joss's part: it's not his strength to create this lowdown and dirty atmosphere, his strength are characters and their passions, not this. It reminds me of the recent facsination with "tough" guys, tattoed fishes etc. in SpongeBob SquarePants show and movie: it's boring, silly and not what it's all about.

Mal is great as a captain, as a soldier, as a betrayed veteran who is lost in the woods: that's what makes him interesting for me, not petty thefts. And I'd be very interested to see where he can go next, if he will find the way out of the woods or die trying. And getting out of the woods doesn't mean bringing Alliance down or any such nonsense on the epic scale: just finding a different place in life, a different way to survive and stay free. I surely hope that if there would be a sequel River will come into her own, as a genius she is, and they wouldn't bog her down with just helping to rob some stores and flying the ship. She can do a lot, now she's back to herself. It would be interesting to see how all of the characters would adapt to this new situation.

And yes, I'm with you 6IXSTRINGJACK that if Firefly show were picked up (but it won't be) it should be picked up from Objects in Space and not BDM.

And I'm also almost with you on rushing relationships. Kaylee had definitely grown in the movie vs. show, she is no longer a silly girl picking the worst possible moments to flirt with the man or demand his affections, or overreacting to his awkwardness. She is grown-up woman now, caring, accepting, and a bit sad. A

CHRISTHECYNIC

Friday, July 7, 2006 1:58 AM

Been out of it for a while, sorry for the late reply.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
1) Would you agree that "The Arrival" with Charlie Sheen would have been a better comparison to Serenity than the others mentioned?

Yeah, I'd go for better, but to be honest I think I'd go with Behind Enemy Lines above that, if I'm not getting movies mixed up (I only saw it once and that was a while ago) of course in that the message to be gotten out was about genocide, and it was being done by the subject of another government (US pilot in a different country) but the thing is that The Arrival is about a current invasion by outsiders (aliens), Serenity is about remembering those who were wronged over a decade ago by their own people.

Quote:
2) Do you think that Mal would have pressed 666?

In Snake's place I think he'd do without a second thought, but if he had a thing that could shut down all power in the Firefly verse? No. For one thing that'd kill Serenity, his home, for another it leaves you worring about more than just planes in flight. You can get from any point on earth to any other point on earth without power, it just isn't easy or quick. You can't get from one planet to another when you're stuck in a new dark age. Everyone is stranded, and that could mean death for the populations of whole worlds.

The reason I say that is because I don't think the border moons are like Earth. If you live in a place that survives on mining here and the food shipments stop coming in you can move to a place where you can grow stuff, whether or not you'll manage to stay alive is unsure, but you have a chance. Even if the climate shifts and the land becomes barren you can move somewhere else, entire civilizations have moved in the past, but if on a newly tereformed world it could be that the only place is the one your in.

I think that people on a newly teraformed world where the people only have blankets and a herd probably need at least some help to get by, help that would be totally impossible if Mal pressed 666. No matter how remote or poor or dependant no one on earth would have been in that situation when Snake did the same.

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