Review thread part 2 for "Serenity"(spoilers, duh)

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-10-02 08:14pm

FireNexus wrote:It's been like 10 years. Not decades. Zoe and Mal still remember the call for colonization of Miranda, remember.

12 years is the figure given. That was the age of the report, anyway.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-10-02 08:39pm

Great movie, one thing I noticed that sorta irked me. Towards the end of the movie they sorta stopped using chinese. I liked that, it was neat, they cussed and yelled at each other in chinese, then went back to english, it's cool. But the last, at least hour I think, I don't recall seeing a word of it.

I was very fearful after the ship crashed that there wouldn't be enough people left alive to have a show. I knew river was badass, but... yikes.
Fortunately by the end thing seemed pretty well off for a new show, sort of a clean slate if you will. I'm thinking maybe the two dead ones didn't want to do a series or something. And I'm very much of the opinion that Firefly is coming back, it has to after this movie. No question.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-10-02 09:19pm

I was hoping that the last we saw of the Operative would be him falling on his sword as Serenity pulled away.

Deathstalker · Post by **Deathstalker** » 2005-10-02 11:43pm

InnocentBystander wrote:But the last, at least hour I think, I don't recall seeing a word of it.

Jayne said a couple of swear words in Chinese before the fight with the Reavers trying to storm the room.

THe movie was great. Didn't mind the first character death, but the second was suprisinig

Only nitpick I noticed was that in the series, Mal was a sergeant during the war, and the file the Operative was reading had Mal's rank a a captain

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-10-02 11:51pm

Deathstalker wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:But the last, at least hour I think, I don't recall seeing a word of it.
Jayne said a couple of swear words in Chinese before the fight with the Reavers trying to storm the room.

THe movie was great. Didn't mind the first character death, but the second was suprisinig

Only nitpick I noticed was that in the series, Mal was a sergeant during the war, and the file the Operative was reading had Mal's rank a a captain

He's the registered "Captain" of Serenity. They listed him as a Sgt in the war.

xammer99 · Post by **xammer99** » 2005-10-03 12:13am

I loved it and seen it twice already. Though I liked it all the part I liked the most was the last stand against the Reavers. In so much Hollywood crap the good guys will be okay, not a scratch, cover is totally effective, they don't do anything stupid, but not so here. People are getting shot and stabbed left and right and not a one escapes unhurt. I loved that. I appreciate a author/creator who is rough on his characters and willin to take a chance with killin some off. Granted I love Wash's character, but I appreciate it more that Wheddon was willing to kill him off. Especially how it was done. No speaches, no dramatically touching final moments as he is dyin. Just impaled...dead.

Centurian99 · Post by **Centurian99** » 2005-10-03 02:07am

Saw it today...good shit.

Maybe, just maybe, we'll some more good SF out of Hollywood.

BTW...I can't believe they made a movie out of Jarhead. Saw the previews before Serenity and got greatly angered. That book is such a ridiculously false piece of crap.

Setzer · Post by **Setzer** » 2005-10-03 05:32am

Oh don't ruin a thread about a good movie by complaining about a bad one.

Me, I like the fact that Mr. Universe's last message was what led the operative to Mal. Where else does the 'Noble Last Message' nearly get the hero killed?

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-10-03 11:42am

Serenity came in at Number 2 this weekend, with a less-than-stellar $10.1 million take. It opened in 2,188 theatres.

Demiurge · Post by **Demiurge** » 2005-10-03 12:06pm

I was disappointed with the movie's box office numbers. It's not that bad, because I never expected it to be a success. I never expected there to be a sequel, as some fans hoped.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2005-10-03 12:11pm

Damm. All I have to say is, "Screw Jodie Foster."

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-10-03 12:28pm

Demiurge wrote:I was disappointed with the movie's box office numbers. It's not that bad, because I never expected it to be a success. I never expected there to be a sequel, as some fans hoped.

Ah, but consider the dvd sales, also word of mouth and second/third showings as well as the showings outside the us.
The budget was only 45 mill, for a first week it's dissapointing but dvd sales are the real gross winner these days and Serenity should have plenty of that

.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2005-10-03 12:39pm

Durandal wrote:Serenity came in at Number 2 this weekend, with a less-than-stellar $10.1 million take. It opened in 2,188 theatres.

Per theatre, it seems to have done better than Flightplan this week. Flightplan had ~3.5k theatres and made $15mil. Serenity had ~2k theatres, and made $10mil. If Serenity was playing in the same number of theatres, it'd have made much more than Flightplan did.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2005-10-03 01:06pm

Durandal wrote:Serenity came in at Number 2 this weekend, with a less-than-stellar $10.1 million take. It opened in 2,188 theatres.

Not surprising. We wonder why companies won't produce good sci-fi and then when they do nobody goes to see it. I wonder how many Trek fans there are out there who will buy every single goddamn boxset that Paramount puts out who wouldn't go to see this movie.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-10-03 03:59pm

DEATH wrote:Ah, but consider the dvd sales, also word of mouth and second/third showings as well as the showings outside the us.
The budget was only 45 mill, for a first week it's dissapointing but dvd sales are the real gross winner these days and Serenity should have plenty of that .

DVD sales are what could make way for a sequel. Apparently, the first Austin Powers movie did terribly at the box office, but it's DVD sales were through the roof, so they made a sequel.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2005-10-03 04:50pm

Durandal wrote:Serenity came in at Number 2 this weekend, with a less-than-stellar $10.1 million take. It opened in 2,188 theatres.

It's still the #1 new movie and it beat Flightplan solidly in per-screen average.

For a film like this, the second weekend is telling. If good word of mouth keeps the numbers steady or pushes them up, you have a franchise. Remember, Universal only paid $40 million for this movie; it doesn't need to make Independence Day numbers to be a success.

The first weekend was solid. That's all it needed to be. I'm going back next weekend and so are nearly all my friends, including some who haven't seen it yet. Right now the thing to do is spread the word and get more butts in the seats.

CoyoteNature · Post by **CoyoteNature** » 2005-10-03 07:01pm

I'm hoping that the SciFi channel picks it up, it seemed like it was set up either for a sequel, miniseries, or plain series.

Goodness knows if Lexx can come back then maybe Firefly can(both good shows that didn't take themselves too seriously)

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2005-10-03 08:18pm

RedImperator wrote:For a film like this, the second weekend is telling. If good word of mouth keeps the numbers steady or pushes them up, you have a franchise. Remember, Universal only paid $40 million for this movie; it doesn't need to make Independence Day numbers to be a success.

Don't genre films like this usually have a large falloff in the second week? May or may not happen, but isn't that usually the trend?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2005-10-03 08:23pm

On IMDB, Serenity is currently ranked:

#10 Scifi movie of all time.
#20 Adventure movie of all time.
#22 Action movie of all time.
#33 Thriller of all time.
#134 Overall best movie of all time, with a ranking of 8.3 and 8,000 votes.

SHINY

Centurian99 · Post by **Centurian99** » 2005-10-04 12:34am

Durandal wrote:Serenity came in at Number 2 this weekend, with a less-than-stellar $10.1 million take. It opened in 2,188 theatres.

That's actually not that bad. Actually, I'd put the odds of a sequel as pretty good.

If in US Release, the movie only makes double its opening weekend take (very conservative) that means 20 mil, domestically. Doubling that again for foreign box office, means 40 mil. DVD/rental on top of that...means that the studio makes a nifty profit.

Nifty profit for the studio = good chance for sequel.

No, its not a box-office record-breaker. But it'll probably be good enough to get a sequel, if the cast and crew are interested.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » 2005-10-04 02:16am

Durandal wrote:Serenity came in at Number 2 this weekend, with a less-than-stellar $10.1 million take. It opened in 2,188 theatres.

but look at the $ Per theater numbers.

Flightplan $4,324
Serenity $4,610

Flightplan has the advantage of wider distribution. And I think that Serenity will have good legs.

Erik von Nein · Post by **Erik von Nein** » 2005-10-04 07:13am

Just saw it. Awesome movie. Can't want to see it again.

One thing I loved was, in the begining that one five, six minute (maybe longer?) uncut scene from the Serenity's bridge to the engine room to the cargo bay was great. I don't know how difficult it would be to do (well, they did have a number of lines spoken not facing the cameras) but it's always fun when a movie or show manages to pull one off so well.

Oh, and the stuff randomly breaking off the ship and flying off into space/a planet's atmosphere was funny.

SCVN 2812 · Post by **SCVN 2812** » 2005-10-04 08:48am

Erik von Nein wrote:Just saw it. Awesome movie. Can't want to see it again.

One thing I loved was, in the begining that one five, six minute (maybe longer?) uncut scene from the Serenity's bridge to the engine room to the cargo bay was great. I don't know how difficult it would be to do (well, they did have a number of lines spoken not facing the cameras) but it's always fun when a movie or show manages to pull one off so well.

Oh, and the stuff randomly breaking off the ship and flying off into space/a planet's atmosphere was funny.

Yeah, right away it establishes that 'this ain't your normal gorram sci-fi' I half expected the movie end with Mal bellowing "Kayleeee!!!!"

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-10-04 10:14am

As Roger Ebert noted, "More banging than in your average space movie."

Unfortunately this doesn't really tell us much about Serenity space-combat, except that they use some sort of mix of beam weapons and physical projectiles and are quite manueverable; we still don't have a lock on their ranges, etc.

Skylon · Post by **Skylon** » 2005-10-04 12:15pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:On IMDB, Serenity is currently ranked:

#10 Scifi movie of all time.
#20 Adventure movie of all time.
#22 Action movie of all time.
#33 Thriller of all time.
#134 Overall best movie of all time, with a ranking of 8.3 and 8,000 votes.

SHINY

I don't put much stock in IMDB's rankings. New movies that fanboys like usually skyrocket onto the top 250 for their first weeks (or months), then plummet.