More controversy....
POSTED BY: jewelstaitefan
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 13:51
VIEWED: 26598
PAGE 6 of 8
The last 4 coworkers I've hooked all agree the Pilot Serenity is the better.
But on bluray, BDM has more enhancements than Pilot.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Pilot, hands down.
I could have lived without the BDM, it let me down on too many levels to make up for its good parts.
The only things I would truly miss about the BDM are the beautiful visuals of the ship and Jayne standing up to Mal. Oh, and the music in the end scene. THAT is truly lovely. And the Operative.
The rest? Meh.
And yes, I know that the movie HAD to be the way it was because of being a different medium, but understanding why doesn't remove the fact that the movie contained very little of what I enjoyed about the series.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Pilot. Easy. No one dies.
The T.Rex they call JANE!
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Shiny! It isn't "just me." Yeah, given a choice between the BDM and the pilot, I think the pilot is better -- and I can say that easily. Mostly it's for reasons others gave here (character development). This isn't to say I didn't like the movie at all though (if I hadn't liked it, my friend wouldn't have given me the series and the movie on DVD).
So yeah I saw the movie first and liked it quite a lot, but there were things I didn't really get (until I got the series, and then watched the BDM a couple more times).
IMO the BDM has some priceless scenes which I really love (and wish could have somehow been part of the series, among my favorites being River's fight scenes), but once I watched the series I found a couple of to me very disturbing inconsistencies when I put the BDM back on:
1. At the end of the series, Shepherd Book was still on Serenity, so what in Special Hell is he doing on Haven when we get to the BDM?!
2. In the series, Simon smuggles River in the box. He talks about how he'd spent time and money cultivating people get her from The Academy where the Alliance was screwing around with her brain -- and now in the BDM, SIMON is rescuing River himself? Huh?
Also I don't think the BDM had to repeat that whole "do we keep or dump the fugitives" Simon and River issue as if it'd never happened. That tension was totally excellent through the series, but supposedly had been resolved, even though Jayne tried to sell them out to the Alliance in "Ariel" which was AFTER Mal had already declared Simon to be a member of his crew and River could stay too as long as Simon kept her under control (not to mention how Mal welcomed River back to the ship at the end of "Objects in Space") -- so I think restarting that from scratch was totally unnecessary to and kind of detracted from the BDM.
So yeah, hands down, pilot for me -- even though I still like the BDM too.
"Call me if anyone interesting shows up..."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Like a lot of people, I saw the movie first too. My brother had to almost twist my arm to watch, but I gave it a chance because it starred Nathan Fillion, who I like and Steve the Pirate (Alan Tudyk, but at the time I only knew him as "Pirate Steve"). I thought it was pretty good, but it wasn't until the second time I watched the movie that I truly got sucked in and suddenly had this insane urge to know more about the characters and the Firefly 'verse.
After that, I just had to watch the series (which my brother had also previously tried to get me to watch). And of course, you know what happens...I completely fell in love with the whole kit and kaboodle. So after completely immersing myself in the series, I went back and watched the movie. Ugh. The movie I had previously quite enjoyed left me just a little unsatisfied.
I agree with the inconsistency of Simon all of a sudden rescuing River himself and the way Simon and River were treated by Mal, when it's already been established both in Ariel and OiS that he accepted them as part of his crew.
Like so many others, I'm upset over the death of Wash and Shepard Book. Probably because I feel like the whole Firefly story is still left to be told and they are such an integral part of it. If the series had been allowed to run its natural course and then the movie occurred and they died, it would probably be a different story. I would feel sad for their loss, but not like I've been cheated.
And a big hurt was memorializing Mr. Universe, who sold them out, with two of their dear friends (yes, I know, they didn't know he had sold them out).
I understand that the tv show and the BDM are two totally different mediums and have to tell their stories in different ways. The show has the luxury of taking things slower, explaining things better and ultimately, cultivating the relationships, developing the characters and showcasing the dynamics of the group, which I'm a huge fan of.
So my vote is for the pilot. Not that the BDM wasn't a good story on it's own, like I said, before I had any knowledge of what happened in the series, I thought it was very good. But it just wasn't on par with the series. The series leaves me warm and happy. The movie leaves me cold and dissatisfied.
"What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing? Oh right, that would be me."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Shinywash:
And a big hurt was memorializing Mr. Universe, who sold them out, with two of their dear friends (yes, I know, they didn't know he had sold them out).
HUH?! Oh wow, where did you get the idea that Mr. Universe sold them out? The way I saw it, the Operative found, then killed him, the same way he found and used or killed all of Mal's other allies on various planets, starting with Inara (so he'd come for her or send someone), moving on to Shepherd Book at Haven, and then those scenes of death and destruction from the other places where Mal and the crew had friends.
So I think Mr. Universe was simply found and killed, and although that message he left for Mal in his love bot ended up giving the same instructions on how to find the backup system to the Operative as it did to Mal, it was Mal for whom the instructions were actually left, and maybe because he was dying from being stabbed with the sword, he didn't have time to take any security precautions to make sure that the love bot would only tell Mal where the backup was.
So what did I miss?!
~Yersinia.
"Call me if anyone interesting shows up..."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Shinywash:
And a big hurt was memorializing Mr. Universe, who sold them out, with two of their dear friends (yes, I know, they didn't know he had sold them out).
I don't recall hearing this point of view.
Mal knew the Operative was waiting for him, on the other side of the ion cloud, and he knew this before they left Miranda.
Mr. Universe knew Mal would show up, outwitting the Operative, and left a message directly for "MAL" giving him the secret location of the intact broadcast system.
Do we really think this was a "betrayal" or just another exchange like Inara waving and not fighting so that Mal would know it was a trap, instead of her just missing him, like aa real people. I had thought Masl and Mr Universe had been reading each other beyond the surface in the "subliminal trigger" conversation.
Mr Universe didn't really have much choice but to give a good performance for the Operative while chatting with Mal.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
just before Mr.U gets skewered he says "there toss me my 30 coin but i have to warn you..Ahaaaaaaaa" so I think he is selling them out for money.
Thats why I don't kiss them on the mouth.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yup, that's it exactly. "Toss me my 30 coin". Mr. Universe sold them out, but he doesn't realize that the Operative doesn't bargain. He figured he could help lure them in, get paid for it and as Serenity approached the base, the Operative would take them out - they'd be none the wiser.
After he realized he was double-crossed, he then leaves the message for Mal about the back up broadcast system.
---
"What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing?! Oh right, that would be me."
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Actually, I think Mr. Universe felt like he didn't have a whole lot of choice more than he WANTED to sell them out.
You'll notice the line is delivered in a very disgruntled manner, very different from the perkiness Mr. Universe had shown previously, and that not just the Operative, but a WHOLE LOT of purple bellies are in the room. I think the hacker was finally tracked down, like many of Mal's other contracts/friends, was forced to comply, and that the request for money was sarcastic.
Remember the scene in the training house, when Mal says the Operative is working this deal all crabbed, and that money should be offered first? I got a similar impression.
Also, with the previous scene where they wave Mr. Universe about what happened at the Maidenhead, there's a cut to the Operative and he already has all the information on the crew. I don't think Mr. Universe supplied the Operative with that information, I think that future camera technology has face recognition software attached to a database the Alliance keeps of it's citizens over the Cortex, something like Interpol. In the comic Better Days, it's revealed that Simon's snazzy glasses are actually specially designed to interfere with the security camera recording and face recognition software.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME