Bloggers' reviews starting to come in!!! by Uriah

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Bloggers' reviews starting to come in!!!

POSTED BY: URIAH
UPDATED: Thursday, September 29, 2005 06:15
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 1792
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005 3:24 PM

http://instapundit.com/archives/025847.php

If you know the Blogosphere you know that this guy is one of the most read people on the net. He includes links to several other reviews.

Here's one by a friend of mine and his fiance'.
http://www.imao.us/archives/003993.html
Frank Movie Reviews: Serenity
Posted by Frank J. at 10:03 AM | TrackBack (2)
"I am a leaf on the wind."

Holy.

That movie was so intense it was like a punch to the guy afterwards. It was definitely not just a two hour long episode of Firefly. It had a lot of the humor fans of the series love (especially all the times the main character, Captain Malcolm Reynolds - no relation to the puppy blender - starts to get dramatic and then deflates the scene with a humorous line), but the humor was just short breathers from the plot of the movie which had the crew of Serenity looking about as hopeless as possible. It's their one ship with no guns versus the entire Alliance government with its battleships and unlimited resources.

For the uninitiated, mankind has spread out from Earth to terraform other planets. Some, the central planets, became huge advanced civilizations. Others remained backwater planets. Eventually the Alliance was formed to unite all the planets - whether they wanted it or not - which led to war, the scrappy rebels known as the "Browncoats" fighting for independence from the Alliance.

And they lost.

Captain Reynolds (known as "Mal" to most of the crew) was on the losing side of that war – which, at the beginning of the movie, had been over for a number of years - and captains a ship where they take any job they can, legal or illegal, to keep on going and being free, something that has become harder as the Alliance continues to grow.

Furthering Mal's problem, a while back (that would be the pilot of the T.V. series - which, incidentally, FOX didn't air first) he picked up two stragglers: a doctor used to only living on civilized planets and his sister, River, who a brilliant schizophrenic who apparently was some Alliance government experiment. At the beginning of the movie, the Alliance becomes determined to do anything to get her for reasons that eventually become quite clear.

The cast, as I knew coming into this, was phenomenal. Of course, it's too large for all to get equal time, and most of the focus of the movie was with the Captain himself. The bad guy, The Operative, while not quite as menacing personally as the trailers mad him seem, made for a very effective villain, evil enough to push the main characters into danger that would otherwise be unbelievable for them to take up (by the end, everyone has a chip on his or her shoulder).

The special effects were very special, and at times it almost seemed to be aiming to look like a summer blockbuster. In the end, though, it stayed true to being a very character driven action/drama/sci-fi movie. It even had a central theme - beliefs - which sounds kinda cheesy but plays out well. Honestly, I can't remember a better movie going experience in a long time (SarahK kept suddenly blurting out, "That was so good!" about fifty times on our way back from Orlando - a long with quoting many of the memorable lines), and, since The Operative knew martial arts and carried a sword, I'll declare him a ninja (a prerequisite for the coveted five star rating).

So, yes, I give this movie five out of five stars and order everyone to see it this weekend. SarahK and I will see it again Friday at our local theatre, where, hopefully, it will be shown on the digital projector (cigarette burns are so distracting to me ever since I've seen the movie Fight Club). Monday, there will be a spoiler discussion and vote for best line from the move (so many to choose from!).

Oh, and I'll give one minor spoiler (and there is more than you'd think to spoil): the theme song from Firefly only appears as a guitar solo at the end of the credits.

For the view of someone who had never seen the series, here's Glenn Reynolds’ thoughts (and, apparently, he's now a convert - I've converted four people to Firefly fans, myself) and links to more blogger reviews.

Also, I met three other bloggers at the screening. One couple, Rachel and Jim, and a guy named Duane. They'll probably have reviews up soon, but, in the meantime, make sure to check them out since none of them seem to have heard of SarahK or me, so it'll be funny to hit them with a big traffic surge.

One last thing, there was only one preview for this screening - the trailer for Doom. As long time FPS player, the FPS sequences of the trailer made me giddy (and got a big reaction from the crowd). I want to fight demons with a chainsaw!

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Thursday, September 29, 2005 6:15 AM

URIAH

somebody that never saw the series and wasn't interested in the movie....looking good people!
http://pereiraville.com/scribble/scribble.html

092805 @ 945p - Now then, about Serenity. SPOILER ALERT! I already mentioned I had zero desire to see this movie, so I was quite pleased to discover I really enjoyed it. It was funny and action packed and appalling (Reavers, ech). As someone who had never seen the television series Firefly, I was going into the movie with absolutely no background. I thought Joss Wheedon handled newbie viewers quite well with bringing us up to speed on the history and characters. River, was so kick ass! (I still can't tell if she's pretty or not) You have to appreciate a 17 year old girl who can kill everyone who pisses her off without getting winded. I appreciated the humor throughout and wish I could quote some of it for you (No grenades... Are those grenades? Yes, Mal says I can't bring them... we sure could use a grenade). I thought Jayne was a little underdeveloped, but it was only a 2 hour movie, and they had a lot of ground to cover. Also, I think the Companion was underdeveloped, but, again, only a 2 hour movie. And I have no idea how well developed the characters were in Firefly. hee hee... I haven't had anything in my nethers that wasn't battery powered in so long... hee hee... you mean, sex? I WANT TO LIVE! I don't know what that character's name was, but she was very funny and I'm glad she got some in the end. I appreciate a female sex fiend who isn't ashamed to express her need to get laid.

If you liked the 3 crappy Star Wars movies, go see Serenity; it blows those steaming piles away. If you like Battlestar, go see Serenity; the babes are way sexier than the Battlestar babes. But the Cylons (the non-human cylons) are way cooler than the Reavers (ech). I would enjoy seeing this movie a second time, and will likely watch Firefly on DVD.

Have I reviewed it enough for you? I'm not good at movie reviews.

Was Mr. Universe the guy from Numbers / the elf from The Santa Clause? Yes, yes he was. I liked Mr. Universe a lot, and his robot wife. That scene at the end where Mal is trying to find the back up signal upload thingy (technical term) reminded me of that scene in Galaxy Quest. I leaned over to Jim and said, "The person who wrote this episode should be shot!" Difficult to access indeed.

Go see it. You won't be disappointed. Especially if you suffered through the Star Wars crapfest.

Go read what other bloggers had to say (or will eventually have to say, if they haven't posted their review yet) Jim, Duane, FrankJ, SarahK, Martini Boy 1, Martini Boy 2, and Instapundit, who linked to a bunch of other blogger reviews. Excellent marketing idea, if you ask me (which you obviously did).

Trap?
Yup.
Well, how do you know she doesn't just want to see you?
Were you listening to the conversations?
Yes.
Did you hear us fight?

End of Serenity review-type thingy.

Good lord they've sent a lot of readers my way. And this, on a week where I wouldn't allow myself to rant until I finished editing that thesis (have I mentioned just how boring it was?). Thanks for stopping by, oh faithful readers of FrankJ and SarahK.

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