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Lyrhawn, they seemed rather comparable to me. It was genuinely my first thought.
But as Narnia so gracefully put it, to each his own. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan. Perhaps it might have been more comparable to say that it's what Star Trek wished it could have been.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I like Serenity better than Star Wars, but the original three (eps IV, V, VI) are classic.
Before I saw the movie with my dad, he asked me if the dialogue in Serenity was wooden like that in Star Wars. After seeing it, he was definately pleased with Whedon's script.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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Loved the movie... it lived up to all my expectations, and then some!
"Serenity" is, without a doubt, better than all three Star Wars prequels combined. Hell, its shooting script alone is probably more entertaining than all three prequels combined. I'd put it way ahead of "Return of the Jedi" as well, even discounting the annoying furballs.
I can't possibly compare it to the first two Star Wars movies in any coherent fashion, though. My feelings about those two movies are inextricably linked to the period of my life when I saw them, so that I wouldn't even know how to start analyzing them in any rational manner. However, if I could, I suspect that "Serenity" would get the edge... it's as dark as "Empire," as rollicking an adventure as "Star Wars," and adds sparkling dialogue, hilarious jokes, and well-drawn, three-dimensional characters played by fantastic actors.
The Star Wars movies do get the advantage for their scores... albeit only because I wish the composer for "Firefly" could've come on board for "Serenity" as well. Which isn't to say that the actual composer for "Serenity" didn't do a bang-up job!
Edit: I posted a much longer, and much SPOILERY-er set of thoughts on my Livejournal, going through everything from the plot to the score to the transition from small screen to silver screen in ludicrously nerdy detail.
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I can't take Star Wars seriously. I watched it in French and honestly, you missed nothing. You just had to watch Chewy and he'd give you all the dialogue you needed to follow the story.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Tarrsk, I just friended you over on LJ and invited you to join my cheesy but fun fan community.
I think it's rather pointless to compare Serenity to Star Wars because they accomplished such different things in the Sci Fi movie genre. Star Wars was unprecedented. Amazing and mind-blowing. Like Tarrsk said, it filled a spot in people's lives that Serenity probably won't...while Serenity hit the spot for me in a way that Star Wars just can't. They're different, they set out to do different things and thank heavens we're lucky enough to have them both. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I just figured out why my friend with the short term memory issues has been on me to see a movie with her.
"Elizabethtown" is opening this weekend. She always drags me to see Orlando Bloom movies, so she can lust openly and not have to worry about her husband finding out. Which is funny, since I'm sure Ron and I dish on each other's Objects of Lust all the time. But whatever.
She's goiung to let me drag her to Serenity so she can drag me to Elizabethtown with a clean conscience.
I lived in Elizabethtown, when my dad was stationed at Fort Knox, so I'm anticipating a painfully inaccurate depiction of some stereotypical 'hick town' and soooo not looking forward to it.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'll retract what I said, because I don't even want to try to compare them until a full Firefly trilogy of movies is released, IF it is released. The scope of the movies has to be defined before I could ever try to define them as a series.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Yes, Pride and Prejudice had been there for four weeks, blah blah blah. But it's nice to see Serenity, even if it's called, in typically weirded-out tones "sci fi film", at the top.
And it's in the news, which is also good.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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It isn't playing at my local theatre anymore. I was going to see it again with a friend this weekend. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote: Alucard, the first thing I said after the credits started rolling when we went to see Serenity was "That was the movie Star Wars wished it could have been."
Thanks Jeni! I couldn't agree more!
quote: ::sigh:: Other than the fact that the prequels and Serenity are both arguably sci fi, they aren't really comparable. And either way, the original Star Wars series is still far better than Serenity.
Sorry Lyrhawn, I couldn't agree less.
So let us take a quick look at how Star Wars and Serenity/Firefly are extremely comparable :
SW: Han Solo Serenity: Malcolm Reynolds
SW: Millenium Falcon Serenity: Well, Serenity
SW: The evil Empire Serenity: The evil Alliance
SW: The Rebels face hopeless odds against the Empire and are forced into hiding. Serenity: The Browncoats have scattered and hide in the face of the ever-present Alliance dangers, living on the fringe of the galaxy.
SW: Cantina/barfights and showdowns Serenity: Barfights and more barfights
Lyrhawn, I am not saying that the stories are even remotely similar. Star Wars is my favorite series of all time, and very dear to me. To hear it be labeled a Space Opera always seemed a bit low in its estimation because I always thought of it as so much more.
Just the same, Serenity could be called a Space Western, but I believe that labelling it as such would also be selling the film short because it was so much more. And in Joss Whedon's defense (although he needs none) I would never hope to compare Star Wars and Serenity in a way that implies that Serenity ripped off George Lucas' vision, because (and this is what I believe Lyrhawn might be eluding to???) the plots are nothing at all similar...
After watching Serenity, I felt like as a rabid Star Wars fan, that this was the film that I had been waiting to see since Return of the Jedi let me down. Serenity is the film that I had grown up to watch. When I look back at the Star Wars films, they seem like the films I enjoyed as a kid, and now that I am labeled as a grown up, I feel like I have graduated to Firefly and Serenity.
After reflecting back on both works, the biggest similarity for me is The Millenium Falcon and Serenity. I have had this pipe dream of getting a personalized license plate for my car, but the M Falcon just sounded silly and the full name is way too long to fit on a plate so I never bothered. Not since Serenity have I even entertained such a thought again...
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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My 9-year-old son said to me last night as we watched the Firefly episode, "Out Of Gas" that it was very sad that they [Fox] cancelled this show because it's really good.
I must say, the kid has taste. And for that matter, everytime I think of no more Firefly, I get teary-eyed...
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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It never even occurred to me to compare Star Wars and Serenity until I read this thread. Does that make me some kind of weird mutant?
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Hey Alucard. You kinda skipped over a key element of what I said.
quote: Other than the fact that the prequels and Serenity are both arguably sci fi, they aren't really comparable.
You did a nice job of pulling together a lot of the similarities between the original series and Serenity, which I agree with, and I never said a single thing about Serenity stealing from Star Wars. So no, that wasn't what I was alluding to. A few commonalities could be chalked up to coincidence, or general Sci Fi ness.
Other than that, the prequels are almost the opposite of Serenity.
Prequels: Rise of an evil empire Serenity: Fall of an evil empire.
Prequels: Centers around headstrong youth with incredible powers who tries to be a law enforcement officer but becomes genocidal murderer. Serenity: Centers around morally ambiguous middle aged man running a smuggling ship that ventures off onto a quest to discover the origins of a crazy girl's psychosis.
Prequels: Third party enemy is an army of clones Serenity: Third party enemy is a fleet of ships run by crazed psychotic cannibals.
So on and so forth.
Edit to add: Part of what you said, about "graduating" to Serenity is a key point of why they should never be compared to each other. They were made for different audiences. Serenity isn't even slightly geared towards children, it is entirely for a mature audience. It's much darker much more mature, not because Joss is a more mature filmmaker (and for the love of God, please don't let that be the only point that gets argued against, it's the smallest point I'm trying to make), but because Joss from the get go was trying to make a different kind of movie.
Star Wars could have been darker, they could have shown Luke slicing off limbs left and right, and chopping up Jabba into little snack sized pieces, but his goal was to make it more fun and adventurous, minus the choppy sarcastic Serenity styled humor. You can compare them until the end of time, but the comparisons will always sound hollow to me, they really shouldn't be compared.
And all the people who feel they HAVE to bring Lucas into a conversation when talking about Serenity should really make Lucas feel better, not worse. It means Lucas is the man to beat.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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So, I took my friend with the short term memory problem to see Serenity yesterday. I know she only did it so I'll have to go see Elizabethtown with her nexttime, but she really enjoyed it.
The theater was even mostly full, which is intersting for a Sunday matinee of a movie that has been out several weeks. We were all laughing and cheering and sniveling together. It was nice. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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The only problem with it was the believability of the Reavers being able to operate starships.
Otherwise, this was the best science fiction movie I've ever seen. I cannot recommend it enough.
EDIT: Incidentally, I'd love to see an explanation of how they operate their ships. Perhaps they're led by Over-reavers-- bloodthirsty, but intelligent low level telepaths that command the Reavers entire.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Perhaps it might have been more comparable to say that it's what Star Trek wished it could have been.
I disagree. I do not think that Star Trek ever had the idea or the wish to be anything like Firefly or Serenity. Their visions of the future are quite at the opposite ends of a spectrum.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Domestic Total as of Oct. 16, 2005: $22,144,000 (Estimate) ... Overseas Total as of Oct. 10, 2005: $3,605,439
So, an estimate of almost $26 million currently. I've seen it twice, and I made a new friend today (neighbor locked out of her car) that I'm going to try to drag to it, too. As for me, I just adore it.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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I'm going home this weekend. If I can convince my parents to see it, although I'm not actually all that sure they'll like it, I'll babysit my squisters so they can go.
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Beren, that yearbook looks like so much fun. We'll definitely have to get something together for that.
I've just contributed our site to the forum/discussion board section of the Big Damn Board, so we'll be famous soon. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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As of October 31. The movie may open in a few more countries (though Israel just dropped it), but it is essentially out of US theatres as of this weekend. A disappointing final total.
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Common logic would dictate that a movie that hasn't made its production budget of $39 million back (not including promotion, prints, etc.) won't get a sequel. Of course, logic dictated that a TV show that was canceled after 11 weeks wouldn't get a movie made either. Hope can keep flying, I suppose.
Moral of the story: Buy lots of Serenity DVDs in December. Give them away as stocking stuffers.
Posts: 102 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I don't buy into the "You have to make $80 million to get a sequel" crap. If this was the LAST movie that Joss was ever going to write or direct, I'd believe it. But Joss is moving up in the world. His next two projects (Wonder Woman and Goner) will doubtless garner him even MORE recognition and it's my hope that he'll soon have the clout to make any movie he wants! Screw the $80 million!
But that's just my oh so humble opinion. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Thats a good thought, but I don't think it will be happening anytime soon. Whedon's work has never attracted vast audiences and while Wonder Woman will have a certain built in audience, I don't think it will be as big as Spiderman, Superman, Batman, or even X-Men. Also, the business that Wonder Woman does do will probably not be attributed to Whedon, but to the fact that it was a comic book movie with a built in audience.
Very few filmmakers can make any movie they want and those that have achieved that status (Spielberg, Lucas, Scorcese) have a proven track record of turning out either box office hits or critically acclaimed/awarded movies. Whedon will not fit into those categories because his projects aren't as public friendly as Spielberg and Lucas.
I'm not sure I buy into Serenity having to have made $80 mil to get a sequel, but I'm pretty sure no studio will pony up the dough for a sequel to a movie that was not profitable.
But if people want an example of a movie that did little business in the theatre but exploded on DVD and resulted in a big franchise, Austin Powers is the best example.
Posts: 102 | Registered: Nov 2005
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The best chance might be if Joss parlay's his next direction jobs into a successful production company, then that production company finances the Serenity sequel. It seems unlikely though.
I think the alternative marketing plan was a pretty big failure. I spoke to a lot of "regular" people who go to a lot of movies, and almost none of them had even heard of the movie.
I submit that the conventional method of TV ads, billboards, trailers, etc. is the best way to market a movie. I understand that in this case the expense wouldn't have been warranted, but I've seen a lot of tripe get hyped into being successful (this applies to music as well).
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Sci fi movie without big name stars. As much as I loved it, it was destined not to be a blockbuster.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I agree with JT -- I saw one trailer for Serenity, before Batman Begins, and other than that I only heard about it here. I saw no conventional advertising, and no one I talked to about it who was not already part of the on-line fanbase had ever heard of it before, including after it opened. I can't see how it could have done well with mainstream audiences if they didn't even know about it. *shrug*
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I saw Serenity last week and I liked it from the get go - so you know where I'm coming from it reminded me of Buffy, which I loved (Angel was a bit cold for me), I was brought up on Star Trek. I hated the later Star Wars movies because the scripts were so incredibly appalling. I had only seen a couple of Firefly episodes, three years ago, so I barely remembered if I had liked the show.
I think the moment I realised that this was so much better than the usual was at the moment that, well not to spoil, but a certain character died violently. I was really shocked. I haven't felt that sad about a movie death since Boromir! I'm not easily moved by onscreen deaths.
So basically, even for someone who wasn't a fan before, this is a movie which can make you care a lot about a character who doesn't even get all that much screen time, in just two hours. And afterwards, the more I thought about it, the more I felt.
So now I need to catch up on Firefly, I guess.
Anyway, ramble over. I just wanted to say that I think Serenity is something special. Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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It was genuinely my first thought. 
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I'd put it way ahead of "Return of the Jedi" as well, even discounting the annoying furballs.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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She always drags me to see Orlando Bloom movies, so she can lust openly and not have to worry about her husband finding out. Which is funny, since I'm sure Ron and I dish on each other's Objects of Lust all the time. But whatever.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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Just kidding.
