Serenity reviews -- *spoilers* by canttakesky

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Serenity reviews -- *spoilers*

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Thursday, September 29, 2005 08:44
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VIEWED: 2899
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Tuesday, September 27, 2005 4:59 AM

The reviews are coming out. Some shiny, some not so much. Here are a few I found. If you find more, please post to this thread. Thanks.

Most of these reviews have some level of spoilerage.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/reviews/serenityn.php
2.5 out of 5 stars

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/12/050019.php
[loved it]

http://www.thezreview.co.uk/reviews/s/serenity.htm
4 out of 5 stars

http://comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=11129
8 out of 10

http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2005/08/richard_reviews_serenity.
html
[liked it]

http://www.entertainment-geekly.com/web/general/apr2005/serenity
["Serenity is what Star Wars should be."]

http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/Article.php?a=693
[D+ -- this guy hated it -- you can register to help vote]

http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/reviews/article_9843.php/Movie_Re
view_Serenity
4.5 out of 5 stars

http://home.comcast.net/~fosteronfilm/revsf.htm#serenity
3 out of 4

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050926/REV
IEWS/50926004/1023
[Roger Ebert's review will come on release date.]

Can't Take My Gorram Sky

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Tuesday, September 27, 2005 5:13 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

The caption under River's pic on Ebert's site is a testament to the consequence of failing to research.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Thursday, September 29, 2005 3:36 AM

CANTTAKESKY

I didn't even notice that caption. How bizarre! But today I find that they changed it, so it says River instead of Serenity.

Quote:
Dancing on the ceiling: The less-than-serene River (Summer Glau) finds she's not in Sunnydale anymore (if she ever was), in Joss Whedon's feature film, based on his TV series "Firefly."

Here is EW's review finally.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/movie/0,6115,1110760_1_0_,00.html
Grade: B

Can't Take My Gorram Sky

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Thursday, September 29, 2005 4:08 AM

KENADAK

This was posted to Rotten Tomatoes website... its whats not listed on the serenity page:

A wide collection of SERENITY reviews not posted at "rottentomatoes":

Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman -

This is the type of filmmaking that knows how to keep us entertained from first frame to the last. It's a fantastically layered film, with a dense structure, but it's not overloaded with mythological significance, nor does it try to pound us into submission with an inflated sense of its own importance. The plot is tightly constructed, but there's enough room for the actors to manoeuvre and let us get to know their characters. And the script is smart and funny, which keep the atmosphere light when it needs to be, but ensures that dramatic and emotional moments are pretty toothsome, too.

url: http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/...m?id=1831122005

John Millar, Mail on Sunday -

Sci-fi adventure Serenity rides through space's final frontier with such gusto, style and wit that you wish that its director and writer Joss Whedon had been holding the reins of Star Wars:Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. It's an epic film, which reminds us how George Lucas's most recent release could have turned out if he hadn't sacrificed plot and character for special effects.

url: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/...424484#26424484

Andy McKeague, Monsters and Critics -

The action is breathtaking; Whedon brings out an Action Queen in Glau, playing the melancholy River, an extraordinary fighting machine with lethal accuracy. She is one of the movies many bright stars, showing more range of emotion than she could on the show. After the credits roll one cannot forget the edge of the seat space battle, which can rival anything in those later 'Star Wars' eye candy episodes, and the last half hour is so much fun, pain, sadness, excitement and more all rolled into one interstellar package.

url: http://movies.monstersandcritics.co...Review_Serenity

Adam Whyte, the Z review -

If you thought that the new Star Wars trilogy was bogged down by joyless, dull dialogue and a general lack of excitement, you may find that Serenity is just what you’re looking for. Joss Whedon has the same sort of determined ambition as the young George Lucas. Serenity cares about its characters and puts them in exciting and imaginative situations. It’s a lot of fun.

url: http://www.thezreview.co.uk/reviews/s/serenity.htm

Richard Brunton, the Movie Blog -

That is indeed the key to this movie, Whedon's writing, it's superb. The dialogue is sharp, witty, quickfire and sarcasm filled. He's also got a great understanding of how to pull the audience's strings. Tension, suspense and impending danger often twist around in a shocking or explosive moment delivering a good deal of the entertainment value. He's without a doubt a great writer and director and he shows it here, he's a great entertainer.

url: http://www.themovieblog.com/archive...s_serenity.html

Steve Head, Filmforce IGN -

Leaving the theater I wasn't thinking anything less than Serenity is a terrific movie. It's a thing of goodness. Great characters. Extremely funny. Ultra-cool action. (Particularly the scene in which River (Summer Glau) flips it mental and trashes a bar full of thugs Bruce Lee-style. Hooray for the art of choreographed fighting!)

url: http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/650/650080p1.html

Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons -

At times it does soar, especially when it returns to the more offbeat elements of the show, but this new direction is not Whedon's forte and it shows. His work helming is solid but nothing special and there's a definite sense of a television background with the way scenes are handled (ie. repetitive tight dark interiors, the odd exterior shot in a redressed national park). Pacing veers wildly, much of the action feels tacked on rather than being integrated into the story, and there's the predictable albeit smart end of second act twist. For all its little movements away from the Trek-ian formula it, "Serenity" - much like the early episodes of the recent "Battlestar Galactica" - essentially uses the exact same mold and merely changes its window dressing into something a little less polished, rougher and grittier to try and pass itself off as something new.

url: http://www.darkhorizons.com/reviews/serenityn.php

Scott Chitwood, Coming Soon Media -

In the end, Serenity was a lot of fun and a nice dose of sci-fi to keep me happy now that Star Wars has gone back into carbon freeze. While the film probably isn't destined to blow audiences away, it's a solid enough big screen debut to hopefully convince Universal to crank out more. Firefly fans should really enjoy it and new fans should hopefully find it accessible enough to jump on board.

url: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=11129

Joshua Starnes, Coming Soon Media -

It's not perfect. Occasionally its television roots show a little too much. It's an ambitious directorial debut on a modest budget for this particular genre, and occasionally Serenity bumps its head on the ceiling of what its capable of....There's some overly forced exposition at the beginning as the crew is introduced for the third time. There's no getting around it, but hopefully this will be the charmed time and they won't have to do it again....These are all minor problems, however, that do nothing to distract from the how genuinely entertaining Serenity is. It's often said that you have to make one of these types of films before you know how to make one of these types of films, and if so that bodes great things for a sequel.

url: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=11151

Adam Mast, The Hollywood News -

Now obviously, I can’t judge the film as a Firefly fan, but if you think about it, I’m the tougher audience given that I had never seen the show. Having said that, Serenity is the most entertaining science fiction film I’ve seen in quite a while. In terms of pure entertainment value, I even preferred it to this summer’s Revenge of the Sith and War of the Worlds, two other pictures that I quite liked.

url: http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/reviews/3183.php

Colin Polonowski, DVD Times -

Serenity succeeds in every way; it's a great introduction to Firefly, it has the potential to lead on to bigger and better films and most of all it pleases the fans who believed in the story and show from the start. Even better, it's a damn good film and well worth checking out.

url: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58592

Megan Spencer, The Movie Show -

Serenity is a glossy, hip Wagon Train in Space. It’s not the kind of science fiction I usually find interesting, but Whedon has added a thought provoking subtext.

url: http://www20.sbs.com.au/movieshow/i...=review&id=1762

Tim Postins, skymovies.com -

The film serves a far greater purpose than merely satisfying the impassioned throng of Firefly devotees. It’s the kind of balls-to-the-wall action movie that so many others, this past summer especially, purported to be and yet time and time again managed to disappoint.

url: http://www.skymovies.com/skymovies/...3308149,00.html

Ben Faresich, Triple Reviews -

This movie is both fast-paced and engaging. The characters are real and likeable people that can be easily identified with. But possibly the most important aspect of Serenity is that it’s fun. It is a bit darker than many of its sci-fi relatives. Serenity is presumably Joss Whedon’s concept of what he wanted his Firefly show to be, but couldn’t really do with Fox executives looking over his shoulder. He doesn’t pull punches, and some hardcore fans might be in for some big shocks.

url: http://www.triplereviews.com/serenity.htm

Monica Higgins, threeDworld.com -
Where other films clobber us into submission with spectacular, costly digital effects - and not much else, Serenity is story telling at its very best. There’s a rich synthesis of warm and interesting characters, dressed not in one-piece silver space suits, but in grungy, contemporary attire. At the ship’s wiry mess of a control panel, there is a little tableau of plastic figurines, much like the ones you see lined up on a car’s dash. This very realness stops the film from becoming too static or melodramatic and balances the space monster action that is packed into almost every frame.

url: http://www.threedworld.com.au/whats...dvds.php?id=144

Nick Nunziata, CHUD.com -

There's a certain swagger to Serenity that is infectious. It has no fear of relying on convention and tosses caution to the wind in its approach and as a result the film is a breath of fresh air amidst the overblown vacant spectacles we've been fed these past few years.

url: http://chud.com/reviews/3816

Neil Figuracion, Broken Frontier -

Serenity is a great movie whether or not you’ve ever seen Firefly. The film is thrilling and gripping, hilarious and horrific. Even for seasoned fans, Serenity creates a sensory overload within the first few minutes, and keeps up that pace throughout.

url: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdo...ails.php?id=232

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine (slight SPOILERS) -

With Serenity, Whedon proves once again that the storytelling and characterization featured by the best television writing are just as rich and deep - often more so - than anything in the cinema. The movie is suffused with a uniquely sardonic romanticism (humor and passion both tart and sweet). And it’s also an action movie that truly defines the term 'space opera'...

url: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro...4545/index.html

Matt Singer, Village Voice (slight SPOILERS) -

The film, right down to the tagline ("You can't stop the signal"), is one big middle finger to Fox TV executives. Of course, it remains to be seen whether anyone who couldn't be bothered to watch Firefly for free will pay $10.75 to see Serenity, but those who do will be too engrossed by the film's effective blend of humor, horror, and action to contemplate what they've missed.

url: http://www.villagevoice.com/film/05...r,68229,20.html

Jason Nahrung, The Courier-Mail -

...Whedon has provided a thrill ride leavened by humour and some of the best casting around. Whedon has done a sterling job of balancing an existing storyline with fresh appeal, and even though the climax seems a little hokey, there is plenty here for Firefly fans and newcomers alike. Hopefully, this is not the last foray into the Firefly/Serenity universe.

url: http://www.thecouriermail.news.com....55E7642,00.html

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Thursday, September 29, 2005 6:39 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

There continues to be more positive buzz than bad, and Rottentomatoes continues to place Serenity in the Fresh category. I can only hope this trend continues when the massive influx of reviews comes out on Friday.

We need a 30 million opening to assure that the film makes a fair profit. We need a 40 million opener to assure the film of a sequel (assuming that box office approximately halves itself from week to week) so that the film will earn the necessary 80 million mark claimed to be the magic number needed to turn this into a trilogy.

If we make that 40 million opener, I am certain that Universal will grant Joss the 100 million he will need to make movies 2 and 3 at the same time. (Giving each movie a relative budget of 50 million, 25% more than the existing picture.)

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Thursday, September 29, 2005 8:34 AM

ASA

I'm sorry Anthony T, but your numbers are so off that I feel forced to reply.

Specifically Universal has said we may need to make $80 million overall for there to be a sequel. That's worldwide gross, including the UK and Australia. Since serenity is only showing at 2,200+ screens not 3,000+ as Fightplan and Corpse Bridge did last weekend, I think that $15-25 million is a much more likely outcome.

More importantly, we don't "need" $30-50 million to get a sequel. How long the movie lasts is much more important than it's opening weekend. The real question is what the 2nd and 3rd weekend grosses are like. $20+$15+$12+$10 would be a wonderful scenario.

So don't get your hopes too high for the opening weekend. We all love Serenity but it's important to be realistic.

The movie websites are predictiong $15 million this weekend, so that's why I just wanted to correct your over-optimistic $30-40 million estimate.

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Thursday, September 29, 2005 8:44 AM

ZEEK

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:

There continues to be more positive buzz than bad, and Rottentomatoes continues to place Serenity in the Fresh category. I can only hope this trend continues when the massive influx of reviews comes out on Friday.

We need a 30 million opening to assure that the film makes a fair profit. We need a 40 million opener to assure the film of a sequel (assuming that box office approximately halves itself from week to week) so that the film will earn the necessary 80 million mark claimed to be the magic number needed to turn this into a trilogy.

If we make that 40 million opener, I am certain that Universal will grant Joss the 100 million he will need to make movies 2 and 3 at the same time. (Giving each movie a relative budget of 50 million, 25% more than the existing picture.)

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

A 40 million opening at the end of September would be insanity. They'd give Joss his own golden thrown I'm pretty sure.

The 80 million mark is worldwide. We just need about 40 million in the states after it's whole run. From what I hear the international market usually comes in at about the same as the US boxoffice. So, don't worry about a 40 million opening weekend.

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