Serenity Movie Reaction
Added 2019-05-13 16:28:59 +0000 UTC
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpzxogs3ho9hik8/Serenity.mp4?dl=0
Comments
Damn... That was kind of frustrating to watch. All of your reactions up until here for this show were good, but I wish someone had been around to tell you simply, "it is a direct sequel, but time has passed and things are clearly more desperate than when the show ended, which explains why there's more tension". That was a natural choice, given that several years had passed between the cancellation and the filming of the movie. That would have solved a lot of problems for you, I think, because once you convinced yourself that the show and the movie didn't fit together, you seemed intent on looking for things to reinforce that erroneous perception. For example, River's backstory didn't change - they'd only begun to hint at it in the show, with her latent ability to kill people easily (episode 10) and her psychic powers (episode 14). Since they didn't have a whole season plus to develop that plotline, they had to speed things up so that a season and a half of plot would fit into two hours. The only thing that doesn't quite line up is how much Simon actually knows about what they did to River. In the show, he's depicted as having simply received her in a crate - doesn't know much else. They retconned that into him having played a direct role in her kidnapping. Of course, it's entirely possible that Simon always knew more than he was letting on in the show, and was keeping that information from the crew, who would have been much less inclined to help him initially if they knew she was dangerous or could read peoples' minds. Similarly, Wash's death was necessary to give the audience a reason to believe that they might actually all die in the battle that follows. Wash didn't have a role to play in the rest of the movie, so they used him for that purpose. When Kaylee gets shot, when Simon gets shot, when River gets pulled away, all of those (especially the last two) feel for a moment like they might actually be killed. It might be worth your time to watch this with the director's commentary track on, if that's available (it's on the DVD / Blu Ray). It's one of the best commentary tracks I've ever seen and Joss gives you a ton of information.
J.D.
2019-06-03 18:21:35 +0000 UTCI respect your opinion and I really enjoyed your reaction, commentary and insight. I didn’t have as many issues with the movie, though. I haven’t read the graphic novels (I really need to do that), however, when I first saw the movie I didn’t really have a problem with slight changes in the characters or relationships. For me it was obvious the movie took place at least several months where the series left off and I assumed things had occurred during that time span that had evolved things to their current state. Even the additional knowledge about River from the opening scene I felt was probably part of the original overall plan…maybe Simon wasn’t completely honest about everything he knew to protect River. I also felt the deaths were handled okay. Of course I wasn’t happy about it, Joss killed off Book and Wash! But for both they were right in the middle of events and there was no time for mourning. I agree they may have glossed over the mourning period between the memorial service and re-launching the ship but I assume it was in there and you can only get so much in a movie. There was a lot to cover. So for me, the movie was definitely a 9 maybe a 10. I guess I’m less of a critical fan and more of a “fill-in-the-holes-where-I-need-to” fan 😊.
Lostmyshoe22
2019-05-14 00:54:20 +0000 UTC"She's tore up plenty, but she'll fly true..." Nathan Fillion didn't see the Joss's double entendre there. I think if you'd have seen this in the theaters you'd have known from the chatter that it was a direct sequel after some time had passed and you'd have been preoccupied during the film of "what happened to drive these characters to where they are" instead trying to map the characters to each other in your head.
Chris Nowak
2019-05-14 00:34:50 +0000 UTCThat bad guy was ruthless mass murderer. In all wars the opposing government is the main enemy. I think Mal knew that the only possibility of them getting to leave alive was to make that operative to call of his people. So I think it was great writing.
Jussi Vatanen
2019-05-13 23:27:30 +0000 UTCThis movie is sequel to TV show, but it's happening like months or even a year later. So people who just met in the TV show are now more familiar with each other, have more package with each other and the situation has become more stressful because of alliance. They just made it seem like telling the story again through the video the assassin was watching. It needed to be there or this movie would be unwatchable without the TV show. Inara went away, as she said she would be, and also Sheppard Book went away.
Jussi Vatanen
2019-05-13 23:13:08 +0000 UTCYep, the first of the graphic novels actually covers the time between the series and the movie and helps explain the tone shift.
Chris Nowak
2019-05-13 23:08:10 +0000 UTCThis is in my top 10 of movies, i did start off with the movie then moved to the tv show, i think a lot of people did the same so the movie grew the fan base and closed it at the same time, not an easy feat.
Amanda Logsdon
2019-05-13 20:36:12 +0000 UTCI like the fact Mal let the operative live. He wasn’t the main enemy, the government was. I can’t name another show or movie that lets the bad guy live at the end except for Princess Bride. What killed Walsh was a spike from the reavers ship. Zoe is a war veteran. When you are in the middle of combat you can’t mourn till the combat is over. Your comments show that what little we have of Firefly is never going to be enough. At the end when Mal and Zoe were talking it seems it is about the ship , but it is really about Zoe.
Allan Cornett
2019-05-13 20:11:47 +0000 UTCDang you landed on that "not a sequel" thing early and didnt let go for a while. There was definitely a little different feeling and retelling for sure, but nope everything that happened happened. It was just months later and the issues Mal and Doc were having even the "family" stuff is supposed to be interpreted as stemming from Mal wanting to use River and put her in harms way, which is a new thing.
DougRaw
2019-05-13 20:03:19 +0000 UTCit is a sequel. it's not a retelling. Since the show was cancelled, whatever story they had planned had to be condensed into this movie. So. time has passed, and people and situations have changed a bit.
Justin Sherman
2019-05-13 18:41:40 +0000 UTC
