posted
Ok, havent seen it.. So dont give anything away.. but after hearing OSC rave about it at the lecture, I'm interested. Im generally interested in Sci-Fi Movies (my husband isnt) but it costs too much money these days t go to a bad movie, and quite frankly the trailer turned me off of it... Set in space... a Rouge sarcastic smuggler reluctantly saves an important girl.. ect ect...
Just sounded like a revamped Star Wars plot.. only no Han Solo.. Please at least tell me someone else caught that from the trailer...
and if you can tell me with out telling me TOO much... Why is it different ... besides the obvious. What makes it so good? Is there anything like Card's amazing charicter development in it? ect... never saw any of the series, so referring me to it or buffy is basically pointless too...
did enjoy that musical episode of buffy though... lol
Posts: 13 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
The big difference to me between Serenity and Star Wars is that Star Wars is an epic. Serenity is about a crew, a family who is faced with their own limitations. It's about Belief, Sin & Family. You will like the characterizations. At least, you will in my most humble opinion, like them.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Ok, it also looked a bit like the fifth element.. which I really did like, but a bit goofy and wouldnt go see in a theatre... so worth the money, eh?
Posts: 13 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
It is very worth seeing, the characters are fantastic, and immediately afterward you need to go purchase the DVD set for Firefly. And I promise you, the captain almost never wears any rouge at all.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
If you found nothing to interest you in the trailer, then there's no particular obligation for you to see the movie - we do sort ourselves out according to our interests.
But along with the reasons already cited, the reason Serenity is NOT Star Wars is for reasons that can't be shown in a trailer. The trailer can only show the adventure stuff - there isn't TIME to show you an actual relationship. Suffice it to say that Serenity has a writer and a director, and the latest three Star Wars films simply do not. The characters declaim at each other and the actors give their worst career performances; in Serenity, relative unknowns were cast for talent, and given a script that gives them a chance to create characters and relationships. There is an intimacy that CAN'T be shown in trailers.
All the adventure is there, yes, but it's FAR more interesting than the Star Wars adventure stuff because we actually care about the people involved.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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Serenity is about the circumstances that arise in life that teach a person things they did not know about themselves. Plus the relationships. It is also the most suspenseful movie I remember seeing as an adult, with a relatively low gore ratio considering that.
And, I can understand the 5th element comparison based on the preview. But that show was directed by a Frenchman, which is not inherently bad, but is to say than any surreal or nihilistic elements would have been magnified.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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(If you are tempted to give up after the pilot, don't.)
Then we will not have to explain anything to you.
-o-
I like Star Wars, so I won't be telling you that Serenity is awesome while Star Wars stinks. But they are very different stories. Star Wars is a fairy tale with some profound archetypal elements and a sweeping scope. Character development is not really central to Star Wars, therefore. We're too busy focusing on all that's happening across the galaxy, and on the comaraderie of the main characters (in the original trilogy).
Star Wars is about Good and Evil on some level, but it isn't really an exploration of what good and evil are. We know who the bad guys are, and they're unabashedly bad. We know who the good guys are. The closest we get to moral complexity is Han and Lando--who, in the end, simply don't have it in them to maintain their selfish demeanors--or Anakin--who is tortured . . . why, exactly? Well, because it serves the plot to have him be flawed.
I don't want to sound like I'm trashing Star Wars. Star Wars works as an action movie, and it works because of the sweeping scale of the story. But it's not a story about human beings who are anything like real people.
Serenity is the story of real people. They happen to be in space. They happen to have some exciting adventures. But it's really about these people and what they learn about themselves and each other. By the end of Firefly I really felt like I knew the characters, and they were as real people to me. For that matter, I felt like Serenity was a real place to me. Any time she took some damage, I hurt physically.
I was attached to Serenity because each room in it spoke to me about the person who lived in it, or the group that spent time in it. The little doodling Kaylee did in the dining area, and the sign leading to her bunk. Mal's cluttered bunk. Inara's bordello-like decor. Wash's toys at his console . . . .
I'm sorry, where was I?
Character's in Star Wars can be summed up in a word or phrase. The rogue smuggler. The fearless princess. The tortured genius. The shining knight. Well, sure: they're types. Mal is so much more than merely a "rogue." There are reasons why he seems the way he is. There is also depth to his character, borne out in actions that surprise you when you first think a rogue is all he is. But gradually, you get to understand the depth of his character, and the internal conflicts he faces. (And to be able to convey internal conflicts in a visual medium must be a mark of genius.) But he is not the only character too complex to be done justice by a simple description. Is Zoe the warrior woman? Or the wife who wants kids? Is Simon just the spoiled rich snob? Or do his sacrifices show that there is more to him than that? Is Jayne just the gruff mercenary type? Why does he not always make the selfish decision, then?
For me the greatest mark of how deep the characterization was was how thoroughly caught up I was in the characters' lives after just fourteen episodes.
(And this is why I strongly recommend seeing the episodes first, though I completely understand the desire of Firefly fans to make the movie as successful as possible. Because without getting to know these characters as well as we did watching the series, you'll be looking for them to behave in these stock fashions, and not understand just what is going on when they don't.)
Beyond the characterization, you should see Serenity because it is a story about good and bad . . . not in the epic sense that Star Wars is, where good and bad are so clear cut that you really don't think about or confront anything within yourself, but on a much muddier, more personal level. This story tackles the issues I struggle with, and the issues people I know struggle with: religion, when to be selfish and when to be selfless, what it means to be a family, how fsar to go for a cause you believe in. And I don't mean to say it gives us the answers. I find stories that hit on "issues" only to preach to me pedantic. Firefly, and Serenity, don't give us all the answers. They just explore the questions.
It may not be for you, but Star Wars it ain't.
(Finally--just when you thought I was done!--you should go see Serenity because it's quality work. All over TV and in the theaters you see Hollywood giving us pre-digested garbage. Shows and movies that don't expect or encourage us to think. (How many sequels do we have in any given year?) Studios greenlight these projects, and table others, because they don't think we can think. This is why Firefly was aborted by FOX, and why Serenity was insufficiently advertised by Universal. You should go see this movie because it's smart and good, and doesn't talk down to you, and we need more smart and good stuff from Hollywood.)
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