Best SF movie ever: Serenity!

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-04-02 07:34am

BBC wrote:Serenity, a film by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, has been voted the world's best sci-fi movie in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 people.

The futuristic release from 2005 was based on short-lived TV series Firefly, and followed a group of smugglers and rebels who were pursued after a raid.

Star Wars - which Whedon has conceded had "an enormous influence" on Serenity - came second in the survey.

Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes and The Matrix completed the top five.

Serenity was about the crew of a spaceship with the same name, and at the time of its release, Whedon declared that it was a way of showcasing the "gritty" side of the genre.

"There's something in science fiction, which I love very much, that I've missed of late - which is a sort of grittiness, the reality of what it must be like to be up in a small community or a small ship," Whedon told the BBC.

"I had a perfectly disparate set of elements.

"I had people who were actual size in a story that was larger than life, and I think when you put those two elements together you get the most exciting kind of film-making."

SFX editor Dave Bradley said it was a "massive surprise" to see Serenity beating Star Wars.

"The TV show may have been cancelled, yet the Serenity universe clearly struck a chord with fans, thanks to its likeable characters, witty dialogue and amazing special effects."

m112880 · Post by **m112880** » 2007-04-02 07:51am

Good for it. It was a great movie and a great series. Kind of odd it beat out star wars though.

Teleros · Post by **Teleros** » 2007-04-02 08:01am

See the first line of the quote for why. I imagine Star Trek & Star Wars are far more popular amongst the general public, but less so amongst people much more interested in sci-fi.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-04-02 08:28am

Alien is my favourite sci-fi film of all time - I liked Serenity as well, but I wouldn't say it was better than The Empire Strikes Back or Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2007-04-02 08:58am

And you can't smell the fan-organized effort from here?

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2007-04-02 09:31am

Majin Gojira wrote:And you can't smell the fan-organized effort from here?

I can.

Seriously, stick this next to "Children of Men". Stick it next to "Bladerunner" or "Enemy Mine". Hell, stick it next to "The Fifth Element". Is Serenity a good movie? Yes. Great movie even. But it's hardly the best.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2007-04-02 09:38am

One of the best maybe?

The thing about teh Firefly series is that the characters are so interesting and you invest so much emotionally in them. You dont get that from MOST scifi.

Take Star Wars...is it a great series? Of course. IMHO it's probably up at the top, in top three scifi franchises at least. BUT...you dont really care about the characters. Lucas writes interesting universes but, for me, most of his characters either fall flat or are too cool to realistically hang out with the other people.

Firefly and Serenity tend to create characters which are far easier to associate with and because of that people invest a great deal emotionally in them. I frankly didnt care when Padme or Quai-Gon died...i cared when Wash died.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2007-04-02 09:40am

Gheto edit: that mini-tized part is a spoiler, incase someone hasnt seen the movie yet. Just FYI.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2007-04-02 09:44am

It is utterly laughable that a movie series that affected an entire generation, created a whole parlance that people use and is unviersally understood (i.e."May the Force be with you.") would be beat out in any way shape or form by this movie. It is a simple popcorn movie with little depth and derivative plot points. To think it is even in the same arena as Bladerunner that influenced sci fi films ever since with its vision of the future, Planet of the Apes which had a twist ending that captured the imaginations of millions and is parodied ad nauseum decades later, the Matrix, that for all its flawed sequels was far more entertaining than Serenity and certainly portrayed cyber punk like themes for the first time effectively on screen is a fucking joke.

I get it browncoats, its a film that keeps your OK series alive but guess what? How many people will be talking about this movie 10 years from now? How many people are trading Serenity lines or sayings in the general public?

The fanaticism of these fans make me dislike the series more than it deserves and that's a shame.

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2007-04-02 10:01am

Serenity? My bullshit meter just exploded. Serenity is a damn good movie, but over STAR WARS? The quintessential sci fi movie? Like Stravo said, how many people will be talking about this movie and rehearsing its lines 10 years from now? How many people's lives has this movie changed? Star Wars inspired me to become a pilot for christ sake!

Post by **weemadando** » 2007-04-02 10:01am

Fuck the Whedonite whores. May they continue to suckle rancid milk for his wrinkled teat.

I have NO time for this kind of bullshit from them. Shouting the longest, hardest and fastest does not make your point correct, let alone the best.

Vehrec · Post by **Vehrec** » 2007-04-02 10:41am

Yeah, there is some definate bias here. I wanna see the raw data and how it was collected. Serenity was a good movie, but when I saw it, I came out of the theater shellshocked. I'd been spoiled for Book, but the deaths of so many good characters hit me in the gut, and might have caused me to never look back. It was a sweet movie, right up until the point where Joss smashed me in the gut. But it wasn't good enough for a number one spot.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-04-02 10:51am

18-Till-I-Die wrote:One of the best maybe?

The thing about teh Firefly series is that the characters are so interesting and you invest so much emotionally in them. You dont get that from MOST scifi.

Take Star Wars...is it a great series? Of course. IMHO it's probably up at the top, in top three scifi franchises at least. BUT...you dont really care about the characters. Lucas writes interesting universes but, for me, most of his characters either fall flat or are too cool to realistically hang out with the other people.

Sometimes part of what makes good characters stick out is how over the top they are. Frankly Serenity fell flat for me in that the characters were too bland and generic with nothing really interesting about them.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2007-04-02 10:59am

Am I the only one who balks every time he sees someone call Star Wars a sci-fi movie? Star Wars is space fantasy, not sci-fi. Most mainstream "sci-fi" isn't sci-fi.

Alien, Blade Runner, 2001, etc. Those are sci-fi. This poll is full of crap (and this comes from a very big Firefly fan).

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-04-02 11:04am

Am I the only one who balks every time he sees someone call Alien a sci-fi movie? Alien is space horror, not sci-fi. Most mainstream "sci-fi" isn't sci-fi.

Personally, the best SF movie for me is 300.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-04-02 11:05am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Am I the only one who balks every time he sees someone call Alien a sci-fi movie? Alien is space horror, not sci-fi. Most mainstream "sci-fi" isn't sci-fi.

Personally, the best SF movie for me is 300.

Have you recently - and repeatedly - hit your head against a brick wall?

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-04-02 11:06am

I was doing it to spite McC. I mean, he thinks Star Wars isn't sci-fi. Space aliens, slugmen, starfighters, explosions, lasers. What do you call that? A teen drama?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-04-02 11:09am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:I was doing it to spite McC. I mean, he thinks Star Wars isn't sci-fi. Space aliens, slugmen, starfighters, explosions, lasers. What do you call that? A teen drama?

I call it fantasy. It's not a complicated concept, to realise that most sci-fi today has so little science involved that it's closer to fantasy then anything else.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-04-02 11:09am

I mean, he thinks Star Wars isn't sci-fi

I missed the post above yours, it looked like you were saying that out of the blue. Mea culpa.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-04-02 11:11am

I call it fantasy. It's not a complicated concept, to realise that most sci-fi today has so little science involved that it's closer to fantasy then anything else.

And the reason it can't be both is?

SW is SF, fantasy, adventure and a few others rolled into one. Alien is SF and horror. Serenity is adventure, western and SF. All have SF elements combined with other genres.

Post by **Dalton** » 2007-04-02 11:13am

Star Wars more easily fits as a science fiction fantasy than anything else. It is essentially a fairy tale set in space.

The list did surprise me, as much of a fan of Serenity as I am. Like Stravo said, Star Wars and several of the other movies on that list did a lot more to impact culture in general than Serenity ever could hope to achieve. Firefly/Serenity is at best a niche success, a cult classic, but it will never reach the level of epic.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-04-02 11:14am

Ace Pace wrote:I call it fantasy. It's not a complicated concept, to realise that most sci-fi today has so little science involved that it's closer to fantasy then anything else.

You're just being picky.

What? They're in the future, with weapons and vehicles and various objects around them that are very much the products of fictional science - stuff we can't possibly have with today's stuff, but possibly can have in the future. Just because they just grab the blaster and shoot the Greedo instead of explaining how X works with Y, doesn't make it less sci-fi.

I mean, look at Alien. The guy says its sci-fi, but where's the science? It's just a homicidal monster in a spaceship. If that's sci-fi, with the central aspect being some crazy acid-blooded animal, then Star Wars ought to be sci-fi too! The biggest thing in the darned movie was a giant technological terror space station.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-04-02 12:06pm

To be annoyingly Asimovian - Star Wars is Sci-Fi. It just isn't SF.

By that token, though, neither is Serenity, Aliens, Robocop, I, Robot (kinda ironic there), or really any movie since "Blade Runner".

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2007-04-02 12:08pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote:What? They're in the future, with weapons and vehicles and various objects around them that are very much the products of fictional science - stuff we can't possibly have with today's stuff, but possibly can have in the future. Just because they just grab the blaster and shoot the Greedo instead of explaining how X works with Y, doesn't make it less sci-fi. \

Not disagreeing with your main point, just questioning that one part of it.

As to Serenity being the best Sci-Fi movie of all time? I call bullshit. I watched serenity and I had to force myself to keep watching it past the halfway point. I could see that it's a good movie at its core but only if you've watched Firefly. And that key flaw prevents it from ever being a "Great Movie" in my eyes. If in order to watch a movie and truly enjoy it I've got to watch half a days worth of preparatory material it's failed at being a great movie.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2007-04-02 12:12pm

Molyneux wrote:To be annoyingly Asimovian - Star Wars is Sci-Fi. It just isn't SF.

That's a fair statement, I suppose. Asimov used "sci-fi" as the sort of generic catch-all term for "pop" space fiction, right?

By that token, though, neither is Serenity, Aliens, Robocop, I, Robot (kinda ironic there), or really any movie since "Blade Runner".

I don't follow you on Robocop (at least insofar as the first movie is concerned). Robocop has cyborgs and robots and...that's it. Those things are tantalizingly close as-is.