Suffice it to say, we could have a Wash and Book movie. It could be: Serenity: The Prequel :-)

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True, true. It's not like the actors died.

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Don't jinx them!

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Liars figure and figures lie.

Not sure what to make sure of the numbers. Serenity was the only movie in the top ten to drop off on Saturday. Flightplan was on 1300 more screens which is pretty significant. Overseas box office could be the ace in the whole.

I can almost guarantee the marketing this week will be "The number 1 science fiction movie at the box office this weekend was...Serenity."

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The way I see it, Flight Plan is on half again as many screens and made half again as much money. I call that a win for a movie based on a TV show that was cancelled early. Even getting the movie made was a win, but having it match up 'evenly' to a star-shot like Flightplan makes me smile. Hopefully Universal will smile too.

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What I don't understand is the personal rage and sense of betrayal that I've seen exhibited in some responses. Good stories hurt. That's what they do. Good stories surprise and challenge. Killing Wash off was a narrative choice inherent to the form,

Good stories CAN hurt, and there are books I re-read or movies I re-watch where characters I love die. I get upset and sniffly each time, but those deaths don't change how I feel about that book or movie. Don't ask me why Wash's death makes Serenity different for me, why it changes my reaction to the movie, because I can't really explain it myself; it's something very far back in my hindbrain. When I think about it objectively, the narrative choice of killing Wash makes perfect sense. But something about it rubs my emotions the wrong way. I'm sure I'll get to a point where I will watch Serenity again, but right now? No.

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Well, Joss did say that he would be able to have Wash and Book in any sequel, so he wouldn't have to go down the prequel route.

I'm with Consuela, in that I also don't get some of the reactions to Wash's death, but hey, each to their own. For me, it worked a treat, as I did wonder at that point if the trilogy talk was a complete smokescreen, and everyone was going to die. The friend I took (who I had lent the DVDs to) said that it happened just as he was thinking how unreasonable it was that everyone had survived the space-chase. So it worked for him too.

Er, that's all I got.

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I'm afraid I don't understand why people are announcing that they'll never watch the sequel, will "never trust Joss again", and that sort of thing.

I think I'm the person who brought up trust. It wasn't brought up in that context at all, Consuela. It was brought up to explain why I spoiled for BtVS. My trust faded out somewhere between the time of Dawn's appearance, and when Cordelia turned into a demon. The loss of trust has nothing to do with anything that ever happened on Firefly. It predates Firefly. It has to do with how characters are handled/portrayed, much more than anything to do with their actual fates. Some of my favorite M.E. moments are the heartbreakers, including the deaths.

As for a Serenity sequel, it's sort of like this...

River always annoyed me a little. I don't get Simon. Although I thought she was cute, I always found Kaylee to be more caricature than developed character. The holes in the Companion mythology are such that Inara never quite worked for me. I loved Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Book, and Wash, and [Zoe + Wash]. With Wash, Book, and [Zoe + Wash] gone, and with River the main event, I doubt there's enough in the 'verse to hold my interest. It's not a You-Killed-Character-X-I-Hate-You-You-Bastard feeling. It's a Oh-Never-Mind-that-bores-me feeling.

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Flight Plan is on half again as many screens and made half again as much money.

???

Serenity has a higher per screen average than Flightplan but it should since this was the 2nd week of Flightplan.

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I think I'm the person who brought up trust. It wasn't brought up in that context at all, Consuela.

I've seen it elsewhere, Cindy -- I wasn't making a point of your commentary so much as the absolute outrage at killing Wash. As if people felt that Joss did it to be mean to them, personally, as if it had no other value.

I don't mean to put anyone on the spot here at B.org: it's a response I'm seeing in a number of places, and I'm just having trouble parsing it. As my friend Laura said, we're not necessarily talking about bad writing (like parts of late Buffy): it's the fact of the death that has people worked up. I dunno. ::shrugs::

Allyson, I don't think it's outrageous to trust a professional storyteller to tell a story. That's what I trust Joss to do. He's not perfect, but neither is anyone else out there writing television or movies. I don't trust him to save the world or pay my mortgage or come by to feed my dog when I'm out of town. I do trust him to make an effort to entertain me and challenge me (even if it doesn't altogether work); on that basis I'm good with what he's done to date, and will continue to watch what he produces.

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