Watched Serenity for the first time last night by Kibbster

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Watched Serenity for the first time last night

POSTED BY: KIBBSTER
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 09:51
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 4795
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Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:41 PM

Great movie!

But it was weird, don't know if anyone else found this but the first hour I was noticing all the little differences from Firefly.
The crew looked different, there was more conflict between them, Serenity was lit differently and it was quite a surreal feeling watching the movie after weeks of watching firefly.

I guess it was much like watching ST:TNG and then watching the first TNG movie...Everything was kind of the same but darker and more sombre.

Other than that River.... Wow! :D
Wish I could fight like that lol

Great movie though, going to have to watch it a few more times to get over the strangeness though

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 12:17 AM

J6NGO1977

Yeh I felt like that after watching Firefly. Serenity is alot darker the way its lit and the cinematography is different. I felt detached from the whole thing. TV cinematography is alot different than Cinema. There's alot more close in cropped shots. The lighting is alot brighter. The action alot less exaggerated. So with that and the 'ground level' shakey cam mixed with zoom and misframing it feels all alot more visceral and real and as a result involves you more. Serenity just feels like tou are watching from a distance.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 4:54 AM

PYNKETT

When I watched Serenity it was kind of bothersome how different the characters seemed. They didn't seem as laid back as in Firefly. Simon deffinitely was the most "different" to me. Mal was somewhat but still kind of Mal. They both seemed like darker characters.
Serenity was a really good movie and like Joss has said something like Serenity is not Firefly. The differences weren't so large that it went off course. It stayed the course just in a different way...a movie way.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 4:56 AM

KIBBSTER

Exactly!
So glad I'm not the only one who found this

Still, I'll watch it again tonight and see how I feel about it after that.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 5:04 AM

MRBEN

Is there anyone here who has read the comic books too, and can tell us (me) whether or not they go some way to redressing the balance by introducing additional elements of tension/character?

mrben

"Carpe Aptenodytes"
http://www.jedimoose.org

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 5:17 AM

FOLLOWMAL

I felt a little the same way the first time I saw the movie, Kibbster, but as time has gone on and with repeated viewings, that feeling fades.
The story in the movie is so much darker than the last episodes of the series, and things are harder for the crew and that plays out in the movie and the more you watch it the more you connect to the crew again, just on a different level.
Like the series though, the movie is one of those that repeated viewings add up to more and more enjoyment. And more understanding.
I also love how each time I watch it, I pick up on stuff I didn't see or hear the last time. That's true of the show too, by the way. And I've seen them both A LOT of times now, lol.

"The war's long done. We're all just folk now."
Mal

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 5:18 AM

STDOUBT

Quote:
Is there anyone here who has read the comic books too, and can tell us (me) whether or not they go some way to redressing the balance by introducing additional elements of tension/character?

IMO, the comics flat out sucked. Hate to say it too.
The characterizations were even MORE deviant from
FF than Serenity was. The comics in no way
advanced the characters, nor the plot so much that
it matters to the 'verse. There were also quite a
few things in the comics that just were not Joss.
Most of the BDHs were just WAY out of character.
The comics ain't FF and they ain't Serenity. I'm
actually sorry they happened (well, the cover art
is pretty nice....)
I'm sure many see it differently.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 5:24 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by Kibbster:
Great movie!
But it was weird, don't know if anyone else found this but the first hour I was noticing all the little differences from Firefly.
The crew looked different...

Even if it was only a bit, the crew (actors) understandably had aged since the series, to the point where I actually thought the opening rescue sequence was not/could not have been a flashback to River's original rescue, but was instead another fine mess River had gotten into and Simon was saving her from (that and the fact that in the series it wasn't Simon who did the original rescue).

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.net

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 5:47 AM

FORDAITH

I think one of the things about the Simon/River rescue scene is that Serenity picks them up. That would basically debunk the entire pilot episode of Firefly.

Also anyone else notice the little fudge on the info screen when the operative is getting Mal's bio? Do the math, it says 2468 for DOB. If you catch all the dates in the timeline, that would make Mal 50 in the movie. 50!! I think someone musta transposed the numbers, and it shoulda said 2486. (fyi, the movie roughly takes place in late 2517, early 2518)

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:05 AM

AMITON

I personally kind of enjoyed the comics. The story arc was a bit brief and things moved a little fast, but it was interesting.

I agree that not a thing happened to really progress the story or the characters, and I think that was pretty intentional. While the comics were intended as a segue between the series and the BDM, they couldn't move too much -- with the relatively small audience that the comics would reach, it would only cause more confusion and make it harder to contain the movie in a two hour capsule.

I don't think it's fair to say that the comics sucked or that they were out of character or non-Joss. I'm almost certain that the story arc was written by Joss, even if the actual dialog wasn't done by him. Likewise, I'm even more certain that Joss was much more involved in the direct control of the comics than he was on the novelization. Joss flat out said he barely was able to have cursory review over the novelization and he didn't want to get too involved lest it detract from other focus' of his attention. Also, in similar fashion, the movie wasn't the series - and couldn't be because of the restraints and medium, and as such, the comics could be neither the series nor the movie because it is a different medium and has different restraints.

Or at least that's my take =) I found the money I spent on the comics to be an investment, and I'm very happy with it! I guess maybe I didn't expect as much from them, so I wasn't as let down maybe?

Amiton.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:12 AM

PRINCESSROHANNEN

Quote:
Originally posted by fordaith:
I think one of the things about the Simon/River rescue scene is that Serenity picks them up. That would basically debunk the entire pilot episode of Firefly.

Was that serenity? I thought it was too small. I assumed that it was a craft run by those guys Simon talks about in the pilot. That would fit better, anyway.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:15 AM

AMITON

There have been a few threads about breaks from canon between the movie and the series. All of them can be explained away, some with more difficulty than others. The ship issue shouldn't be, however. There's an assumption for someone who doesn't know the backstory that Serenity broke the Tams out, but the ship that actually does so is much smaller and is shaped pretty differently if you look closely.

Just had to throw that out there...didn't want to get into all of the BDTheories to smooth over the apparent inconsistancies, though.

Amiton.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:18 AM

FOLLOWMAL

I don't believe the craft picking up Simon and River IS Serenity, it's a much smaller craft.

As it's been said here many times, Simon may not have told the crew in the show's story arc the whole truth of how he got River out.... he barely knew them! And I think the movie fits with the show about them, if you allow for that.

There are always mistakes in movies, Serenity has less than some of the others I've enjoyed over the years. Perhaps on the NEXT DVD release ( oh, joy!) those things will be fixed and we'll get somemore shiny extras!

"The war's long done. We're all just folk now."
Mal

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:41 AM

OKCBROWNCOAT

*SPOILER ALERT FOR COMICS!!!!!*

*******************************
The part that really pi$$ed me off in the comics is Shepherd Book hauling off and punching Mal... WTF? Totally out of character.

We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:55 AM

AMITON

Quote:
Originally posted by okcbrowncoat:
The part that really pi$$ed me off in the comics is Shepherd Book hauling off and punching Mal... WTF? Totally out of character.

I don't think it's that far out of character. I am pretty sure Mal has had Book *really* close to doing exactly that more than once. Book has hit people more than once, and he has let it be known that he will do what he has to do more than once. For me, that particular exchange served a lot of purposes, and most of them became intentional *before* the punch on Book's part.

As always, though, that's just an opinion =)

Amiton.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 8:13 AM

NOSADSEVEN

Quote:
Originally posted by okcbrowncoat:
The part that really pi$$ed me off in the comics is
Select to view spoiler:
Shepherd Book hauling off and punching Mal...
WTF? Totally out of character.

First, it would be thoughtful of you to edit your post to warn of the specific comic spoilers you're discussing.

Second, to address your point...

Select to view spoiler:

Book thought it was out of character too, or at least out of character for the person he was trying to be. That's why he detemined that he needed to leave.

One of the things I like so much about Joss's writing is that his characters often appear to do things "out of character", as do we all. It's because the characters are dynamic, they develop, they struggle. Frequently, Joss uses the changes in the characters to tell the story - for example, Mal. Mal was 'darker' in the movie...what does that tell us? Things aren't going well, raising tensions all around. Mal's not been dealing well with it. As it's his ship, this affects everyone else. The comics bear that out:

Select to view spoiler:

They've had at least two jobs with no payoff (and no shortage of peril). Mal is not dealing well with Inara's leaving - which (as River alludes to) puts him in a position of not dealing well with anyone, particularly Book.

Mal is spiraling downward, and he has no way to deal with it but to keep moving forward. Unfortunately, that doesn't really meet anyone else's needs, thus Kaylee's sentiments in Serenity, "Captain'll drive us all off, one by one."

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't. We. Just.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 8:56 AM

HAPPYBRAIN

I agree. The lighting threw me the first time I watched the movie. The crew looked so tan. They must have done a job on a tropical planet somewhere. And although it's a neccessity for people who never watched the show, I hate having to go through all the character introductions. Still, it was a great movie and I will wtch it over and over and over...

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:37 AM

FOLLOWMAL

Just noticed you are new, HappyBrain. Welcome aboard!

Hope you will enjoy yourself and post often! We love hearin' from folks.

Don't forget to spread the world of Firefly/Serenity to others, I'm sure we all want a BDS= Big Damn Sequel!

Tanned huh? Yup, couldn't help but notice the Cap'n was a mite tan. Kinda liked it. That workin' out in the sun on a tropical planet'll do it to ya.

" You hold. Hold til I get back." Mal

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:46 AM

MATTEBLACK

I read an artical in a Serenity movie guide where Whedon said the characters were intended to be much darker. The lighting and such was meant to heighten where their moods were at after hard times that were to have been in the unmade episodes.

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:51 AM

FOLLOWMAL

Read that same article MatteBlack. The darker, somber mood and lighting were intentional by Joss.
Seems like I recall he even spelled out specific lighting for each character.

I loved the movie, just the way it is and I'd love to have more stories in any form I can get them in! But I'd prefer a movie or the series back!

"Just don't... fiddle with it." Simon

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