Riley ,'Sleeper'
Discussion of the Mutant Enemy series, Firefly, the ensuing movie Serenity, and other projects in that universe. Like the other show threads, anything broadcast in the US is fine; spoilers are verboten and will be deleted if found.
YAY! I have seen Serenity! At long last!
Thoroughly enjoyed it. :)
As did one of my best mates, who has never seen Firefly, but who I found sitting in the second row as an eager Whedon Fan, as I entered the cinema for our first local screening - He scared the hell outta me! I had no idea he would be there. :)
Well, the film's getting good reviews in the UK so far. The BBC show Film 2005 loved it, and the presenter hadn't seen Firefly.
My overriding thought as the credits rolled was: "Why on earth couldn't the three most recent Star Wars films have been a third as good as this.?" With its swashbuckling fun and occasional moments of intelligent heroics this film has the qualities which the early instalments in George Lucas's saga possessed, and which the later ones so horribly lacked.
On another BBC show, it gets the film of the week.
Random paraphrasing:
If the TV series was half as good as this film, it makes you wonder what the TV bosses were thinking.
If you are tired of the infantileness of Star Wars, this witty film is for you.
Right, I should think about leaving soon to get to the cinema. I'm glad that I've seen the film already (well, duh), as it means that I won't have to spend a week catching up with this thread!
Christianity Today has collected Serenity reviews by Christian reviewers. Overall, it's been quite positively received. [link]
The Serenity review excerpts and links are grouped together, and make up the first 1/3 or so of the page. SPOILER AVERSE WARNING: Reviews for other films follow.
If Star Wars is the Wagner of space operas, this is Gilbert and Sullivan.Couldn't have said it better.
LATimes has a big story in the business section:
Down-home directing: Joss Whedon used every cost-cutting trick he knew — or could invent — to keep production of the sci-fi feature "Serenity" in L.A.
It talks about how he made the whole film locally. Which I knew, and yet that didn't stop me from saying "oh look, this moon is in Southern California, oh wait, so is this planet, and this one..."
Interview with Joss in the Guardian:
From the Reaver quote that's from the series (the one that my tag is taken from), I'm going to hazard a guess that the interviewer's a Firefly fan.
Oh, obviously I'm back from the cinema, and whilst me and the wife thoroughly enjoyed the film in August, it was definitely better the second time around. It was all the little things you could pick up in the background. Wash's death still, well, it still hurts, even though I'd seen it before, but you can see that the crew do react, which is something I missed the first time (probably due me being all "Nooooooooooooooooo!" first time around).
I still don't get why some reviews accuse the CGI of being a bit shoddy/amateurish. They look fine to me. I'm wondering if they're mistaking the deliberate hand-held camera effect thing with cheapness?
Anyway, I'm still loving this film, and I think that a third viewing might have to be done next weekend.
From thedigitalbits.com via the forum on cantstopthesignal.co.uk:
Our ever reliable industry sources are telling us that Universal will soon announce the DVD release of Joss Whedon's Serenity for 20/12. Early word indicates that the disc may include Whedon audio commentary, along with at least 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Future History, We'll Have a Fruity Oaty Good Time, Re-Lighting the Firefly and What's in a Firefly), a video introduction to the film by Whedon and 6 minutes worth of outtakes. Some of the details on the extras comes from the BBFC website (click the link and hit enter). We'll post more as it comes in.
Though I'm pretty sure that Serenity's Roman Orgy is not a bonus disc with the release. ;)
I imagine that the US release will be at a similar time - though it's going to be leaving it a bit late to make it into the christmas stocking.
I still don't get why some reviews accuse the CGI of being a bit shoddy/amateurish. They look fine to me. I'm wondering if they're mistaking the deliberate hand-held camera effect thing with cheapness?
Yeah, I don't know what they're going on about. I thought the CGI was awesome. I mean, I'm used to it from the show.
I still don't get why some reviews accuse the CGI of being a bit shoddy/amateurish. They look fine to me. I'm wondering if they're mistaking the deliberate hand-held camera effect thing with cheapness?
The effects on the scene when the Reivers are chasing them on the mule are pretty bad. Other than that nothing pinged me.