OK, so I'm a pessimist.... by SergeantX

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

OK, so I'm a pessimist....

POSTED BY: SERGEANTX
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 19:11
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VIEWED: 2175
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Monday, May 10, 2004 9:41 PM

Well, it seems filming will begin soon on the 'big damn movie'. Ever since this movie thing was announced I've had this nagging concern that it'll never be the same again.

It's not like I think the movie will crash and burn, but here's my concern. From the looks of things, the very feature that I enjoyed most about Firefly is the first thing they'll drop when it comes time to make a movie. Joss Whedon himself has mentioned several times that the movie will be 'epic' and 'larger than life'.

Quote:
...Compared with the Fox series, the movie will be "bigger, faster, stronger," Whedon said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles. "The show plays on a very small, personal level. And while I want that to work in the movie, the movie has an epic quality and a resolve that you simply can't afford in a TV show. Because if you have the epic quality, you run out of money, and if you have the resolve, you run out of ideas. ... The movie is really like, if you took a giant hit of the show all at once. It's very big. Perhaps I should use different imagery."

It seems to me that what he's saying is: "Universal won't finance this thing if I make it like the series, they want a blockbuster".
Now, I'm no doubt in a minority, but for me the low keyed stories of personal struggle and survival were what made Firefly so special. And while I'm sure he'll do a first rate job, it sounds like they're turning Firefly into some kind of action/adventure extravaganza.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I can't play along with action movies anymore. Movies that neglect character development in favor of whiz bang fights, gratuitous 'splosions and nonsense chase scenes leave me cold. Maybe its just been awhile since anyone's done it right. Maybe Joss will pull off exactly that. But it still won't be the Firefly I fell in love with.
..or, maybe he's saying all that to keep the suits at Universal off his back while he makes the comtemplative, personal drama that will satisfy those of us who bought into the heart and soul of the series. One can hope.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Monday, May 10, 2004 10:28 PM

WEERWOLF

Actually I'm more worried about that 'resolve' thing there... "If you have a resolve, you run out of ideas."

I don't wanna resolve! That ain't right, I wanna series!

*starts crying*

Mommy...

"Everybody dies alone."

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 3:56 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

Quote:
Originally posted by SergeantX:
Well, it seems filming will begin soon on the 'big damn movie'. Ever since this movie thing was announced I've had this nagging concern that it'll never be the same again.

It's not like I think the movie will crash and burn, but here's my concern. From the looks of things, the very feature that I enjoyed most about Firefly is the first thing they'll drop when it comes time to make a movie. Joss Whedon himself has mentioned several times that the movie will be 'epic' and 'larger than life'.
Quote:
...Compared with the Fox series, the movie will be "bigger, faster, stronger," Whedon said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles. "The show plays on a very small, personal level. And while I want that to work in the movie, the movie has an epic quality and a resolve that you simply can't afford in a TV show. Because if you have the epic quality, you run out of money, and if you have the resolve, you run out of ideas. ... The movie is really like, if you took a giant hit of the show all at once. It's very big. Perhaps I should use different imagery."
It seems to me that what he's saying is: "Universal won't finance this thing if I make it like the series, they want a blockbuster".
Now, I'm no doubt in a minority, but for me the low keyed stories of personal struggle and survival were what made Firefly so special. And while I'm sure he'll do a first rate job, it sounds like they're turning Firefly into some kind of action/adventure extravaganza.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but I can't play along with action movies anymore. Movies that neglect character development in favor of whiz bang fights, gratuitous 'splosions and nonsense chase scenes leave me cold. Maybe its just been awhile since anyone's done it right. Maybe Joss will pull off exactly that. But it still won't be the Firefly I fell in love with.
..or, maybe he's saying all that to keep the suits at Universal off his back while he makes the comtemplative, personal drama that will satisfy those of us who bought into the heart and soul of the series. One can hope.

You are not alone SergeantX. I must admit I share your apprehension.

One of the reasons I fell in love w/ Firefly was because it was the story of 9 people trying to make it in the 'verse. Words like epic, bigger, faster, stronger give me pause when I consider the BDM. The small, personal level of Firefly is what made it feel like a family to us Browncoats.

I too like a plot and character development in a movie. I do not want to simply set and watch two hours of pyrotechnics and firefights.

I do trust Joss though to keep as much of the feel and flavor of the Firefly we have all come to know and love. I only hope that Hollywood, and the need to deliver a successful product will not warp Serenity beyond what we know.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 3:57 AM

SERGEANTX

Quote:
Originally posted by weerwolf:
Actually I'm more worried about that 'resolve' thing there... "If you have a resolve, you run out of ideas."

I don't wanna resolve! That ain't right, I wanna series!

*starts crying*

Mommy...

"Everybody dies alone."

Chin up! It ain't happened yet.
Personally I never believed Joss would have hung his ass as far out on this limb as he has. I'm impressed, and I love being proven wrong.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 4:38 AM

IDEFIX

you're not alone at all.

I went to the movies about 10 times last year or so and I was more or less disappointed every time. I go there with friends. it's a social event. our tradition I often say. a tradition of watching bad movies because there aren't any others or my friends (all of them male, normal people with differnet tastes, mostly SciFi) won't watch them. most movies nowadays are lots of boom bang with little story and no character development at all or they are kids cartoons blown out of proportion or they are sappy romances not even a femal of the species (like me) would want to watch.

I hope Serenity will be different. I didn't like the 'bigger, faster...' comments from Joss lately. I hope he's just saying what they want him to say. maybe we should really just have faith in the man, he hasn't disappointed us yet.

what I always said when watching Star Trek TNG and the accompanying movies was: every single two-part EP of TNG was better than any single movie they made. I don't know why but as soon as they did it for the big screen they screwed it up badly. too big, too loud, too fast. no emotion, no drama, no nothing to watch there.

I sometimes think it's the extra money. they should do movies on 10% of the budget. if they did they would think of a good story (because thinking and writing is much cheaper than special effects) and the actors would play their characters and not fire loud guns and kick on another in the head, or have stunt doubles do it for them. I'm really not getting off on watching them fight (more than a few moments at a time). I just keep looking around and waiting for it to be over. asking myself, could they cut that down a bit, it's boring. just tell me who won already.

Idefix

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 4:47 AM

DELIA

Honestly, the thing that I worry about is no matter how good this movie is we'll all be terribly disappointed, because we'll all have spent all this time building up our own ideas about the characters and the plot and what it "should" be. And we've got another year to keep building on them!

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:05 AM

SHAMBLEAU

I yield to no one in the pessimism department, but I don't read the "bigger, faster" comment as meaning just going for bigger explosions and fx, at the expense of characterization. Bigger can mean anything - larger crowd scenes on Core planets instead of the sparse population scenes on the Rim, bigger battle scenes from the war rather than squad-sized actions, bigger stakes than pulling a smuggling job, bigger themes such as why Blue Sun did what it did to River, etc. None of that would necessarily take the focus away from the characters, it would just make the scope more impressive.

Faster is more problematic. It implies a lot of plot to cover, which could mean less time for character moments. But, Firefly moved like an express train sometimes - the last half hour of the pilot, most of Ariel and Trash, parts of War Stories. Not to mention, Joss's script for Speed managed to zip along without neglecting character, which is why it worked so well.

I do believe that this won't be typical of the series, which I guess is the fear that is being expressed here. It will be more like one of the special eps that Joss did for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hush, Restless, The Body and Once More with Feeling broke with the standard story-telling mode on the show, each in its own way. I loved them all. Serenity will, of necessity, break with the way that stories were told on the series - it's a movie, after all.

I'm more worried about deja vu than anything else. Serenity has to establish nine characters for a mass audience without reiterating what went before too much for the long-time fans. That's a tall order.

shambleau

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 12:21 PM

MISGUIDED BY VOICES

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
One of the reasons I fell in love w/ Firefly was because it was the story of 9 people trying to make it in the 'verse. Words like epic, bigger, faster, stronger give me pause when I consider the BDM. The small, personal level of Firefly is what made it feel like a family to us Browncoats. I too like a plot and character development in a movie. I do not want to simply set and watch two hours of pyrotechnics and firefights.

IMO it boils down to this -

Van Helsing is "epic", its "bigger, faster and stronger" than Mummy and Mummy 2 - and you care not one inch for anything on screen (I defy you to even be interested in the "special" effects).

Spiderman 2 I'm also hoping will be "bigger,faster and stronger" - I choose this one because the advert was on before VH and stayed with me throughout the 2.5 hrs of that dren (that and the Azkaban trailer - HP looks pretty cool too). Spiderman kept true to the comics and the themes, and at the centre the characters drove the plot - it appears that will also be true in the sequel.

We know that the characters are there for you to care about, and we know Joss can imagine some pretty cool stuff - I'm willing to bet its more Spiderman than Van the man when it comes to Serenity - for a start, would Universal let Joss call it Serenity if it was wall to wall explosions? Subtle irony isn't well used as a marketing campaign.

"I threw up on your bed"

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 2:54 PM

BADGERSHAT

Here's the thing--

I've been watching Joss Whedon and Whedon-related stuff for a long time.

I've yet to be let down, or disappointed, or left with a feeling of "That wasn't up to par."

Don't worry. "Epic" and "larger than life" need not refer to action and SFX, it just means BIG DAMN MOVIE.

Learn the truth of Whedoning, folks...

--Jefé The Hat

***************************
"I like smackin 'em"--Jayne

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 3:13 PM

JEBBYPAL

Quote:
Misguided by voices wrote: .. I'm willing to bet its more Spiderman than Van the man when it comes to Serenity ...

I don't think it will end up being Van because Joss does not have the style of the director/writer who did it (can't remember name). Creator of Mummy and Van writes way too cheesy of lines.. In contrast, Joss has very dry wit at times (though not above appropriate cheese). Also, Joss refuses to let the fx guys go overboard -- remember his commentary about what they wanted to do to the crybaby scene of Serenity??

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 5:24 PM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by jebbypal:
Also, Joss refuses to let the fx guys go overboard -- remember his commentary about what they wanted to do to the crybaby scene of Serenity??

This is why I refuse to be pessimistic,
for Joss it is always about the writing,
and about the characters.
He has always used special effects in the past to support the story, never to replace it.

I'm thinking the Big Damn Movie will mean bigger and better sets than they've been able to build for TV
(more space stations and cool enviornments)
and a lot more location shots than he has been able to afford ever before....

I'm really thinking that Joss will have the freedom to give his imagination full reign, which has to be a good!

And I think we can be confident the human relationships will be there, all the actors will be in the film and we've heard rumors that we'll learn more about Inara and Book....

Personally I'm not afraid to raise my expectations sky high, every time I rewatch the pilot episode 'Serenity' I am blown away...

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 6:49 PM

VETERAN

Don't squat with your spurs on.

I hope the movie lives up to our BDM dreams. If it is completely self contained, I'll toss down a couple or dozen shots and be happy for one last episode. If the BDM fizzles and burns in the wake of studio interference and special effects overkill, I'll toss down a couple or dozen shots and be thankful for one last viewing.

My greatest hope is that the BDM is a huge success and leads to the rebirth of the series.

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Tuesday, May 11, 2004 7:11 PM

NRKANGEL

Ya know...I have to admit, I got into Firefly only recently through a friends' DVD set. (I don't have cable.) Of course I've since purchased my very own copy for viewing with ridiculous frequency.

Now, about this worrying over the movie, seems to me that we're jumping the gun here a bit and mayhap over-reacting to a situation that hasn't even presented itself.

I'm not saying that any of you are going to be right or wrong, I'm just saying that come Rustlers or Reavers, I'm going to be one happy FFF when I see Serenity for the first time on the big screen. (Broke my collar bone a year or two back and swore a blue streak. Never thought to cry...first sign of that gorram ship and I'm likely to act like a two year old...hell, the 'verse takes all kinds to keep it spinning...)

It's like anything else, know your mind on a thing, but keep the faith or you may talk yourself out of some of the best things in life.

Everyone stay shiny now...the Alliance is watching...

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