Firefly: the movie - Page 2

I have to say that I have a borderline obsession with Firefly (I keep ISO copies of the DVDs on my HTPC so that I don't wear out the discs). Unfortunately I didn't get to see the pre-screening. Does the movie have the original style of western music, or techno as in the trailer?

Watch it buddy...

Spoilers should probably be kept to PM's. Least you want the Browncoat Mafia on your arse.


You can't refuse...

one of my favorite subtle things in the series so far (netflix/us postal system has lost one of the discs i sent back, so i am stuck...waiting) is that in every space scene, there is DEAD SILENCE, other than the soundtrack playing. no wooshes and explosions and such. since, you know, you have to have AIR to carry those sounds waves. plus, it just adds to how empty and vast space is when you're in it... simon mentions his fear of it at one point, the fear of so much nothing.

i know, it's a little thing, but man it's a nice touch.

what, 114 days or something now? maybe i'll get my last firefly disc from netflix by then.

You are so right about that. Really the first time since "2001" that I've seen space based sci-fi that took the trouble to treat space as its own aesthetic, rather than a less well lit version of a WWII dog fight. Nice deep, diffusion-less shadows as well.

I also love the rest of the fx style. I've seen the look in a few other things (maybe from the same company?), but it really enhances the mood of the CG work-- snap zooms, camera overshoots and shake, focus pull, hunting for focus, exposure shifts, etc. Not overdone, just enough to sell the idea that what you are seeing has been "photographed" rather than rendered. It matches up nicely with the live action cinematography.

red alert - SECOND SERENITY TRAILER ONLINE NOW!!!!

That's the second available from the Apple site. There is also an international trailer available here, so there are three different trailers, so far.

Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, be on the lookout for the occasional Firefly class ship. Supposedly there are at least two sightings so far.

i am really hoping for enough word of mouth on this movie to make it enough of a success to bring it back for a sequel or two. i thought everyone who raved about it was over-reacting, but when i saw the whole series through, i became a believer. nay, a browncoat.

8)

hmmmm... here's something i don't get. we've got three trailers, and not a single one of them shows shepherd book more than a "blink and you'll miss it" shot (he's in the first trailer where kaylee is sitting with a child in her lap while jayne and mal are in a tent. every other character gets at least 3 seconds of face time, but he's strangely absent.

it'll be a pity if he's not in this movie, but maybe joss has plans to focus on him in an upcoming movie?

plus, heck, ron glass just rocks.

I think this says enough, without saying too much:

Gina Torres on Serenity
Firefly co-star expects a good reception for the Joss Whedon film.
by Paul Davidson

August 3, 2005 - "[Serenity] is a continuation of where we left off. It's a continuation of the [Firefly] stories," explains actress Gina Torres, who stars as Zoë Washburn in this fall's Serenity, a follow-up to the science fiction series Firefly.

In an interview with Blackfilm.com, Torres assured the show's many fans that the entire beloved crew was returning in Joss Whedon's feature film.

"All of the characters that you came to know and love are all present and are who they are. Circumstances determine certain reactions that we have. Circumstances that are particular to the storyline and so, stakes are very high and therefore we have to react in an appropriate manner."

Torres had words of appreciation for director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alien IV) and her fellow cast members, particularly veteran Ron Glass. "He's one of our gifts that unfortunately I feel I don't get to see enough of him or his work and what he's capable of."

In the series and the upcoming film, Glass (who starred in the old police sitcom Barney Miller) plays an enigmatic preacher who signs on as a passenger and accompanies the rag-tag crew of the ship Serenity on their various outings and misadventures.

Source: http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/638/638800p1.html

I'm a big fan of SciFi, not that every show or movie pushes my buttons. Actually, good SciFi is hard to find IMO. So I wonder what rock I was under when Firefly hit the air?? Never heard of it.

I really need to work on blinking with only one eye at a time. I should also learn to sleep like a dolphin so I can have half a brain awake at all time. Tha way I'll stop missing things.

One good rule of thumb: if the advance buzz for a show on Fox is really really good, and then you watch the pilot and it seems cool and different and well written, make sure to watch every show they air because they will definitely cancel it within four or five episodes, having killed any chance of building an audience by airing each of those episodes on a different night at a different time with a few two or three week gaps thrown in for good measure.

you know, technically, i guess the title of this thread should be rebranded to "Serenity: The Firefly Movie." nevertheless...

I saw this posted somewhere,shortly after the announcement of firefly's cancellation:

I had heard here and there about Firefly and then saw the whole thing, all episodes, nicely packaged in one big Bittorrent with a ton of seeds and couldn't resist.

I had NO expectations whatsoever, and over a weekend I saw them all. Was really really good. I loved the character development and such.

Go figure that a week after I saw the DVD-rip they announce that a movie is coming out and such

Am really looking forward to seeing it and buying the DVD of Season 1 so I can see and hear with surround on a bigger screen

Just under two weeks to go! Woooo!

Something I've been wondering and haven't been able to find out on the internet, does Serenity (the movie) use the same filming techniques as Firefly (series) did? In other words, the silence in space, the 'hand-held' camera look, etc.

I saw the Box set for $44 at Fry's. Don't know about Amazon.com.

We just finished re-watching everything again. I also saw a ad on FOX. (Same as the downloadable ones.)

Amazon was $34, but I heard that they just lowered the price to $30 or less (the price it was a couple of months ago).

well, joss said the hand-held thing was to try to convey the tight confines of the ship, so i have to assume we'll see that again, whenever they're on the ship anyway.

I heard there was an epic fight over silence in space. I didn't hear who won.\

Hmmm.... I have a bad feeling they went 'Hollywood' with it, based on the trailers so far....

There should be no sound in space. In my opinion, it's cooler if it's silent anyways.

As for the movie, it looks like it'll be awesome. Definitely seeing it.

"This is the captain speaking... we're going to experience some turbulence and then, uh, explode..."

"But I don't wanna explode!"

Makes me think of my favorite ff episode Objects In Space.

That is correct. Objects In Space rules.

well, saw the movie last night. very under-populated theater, especially for a friday night opener, but then again, a.) we're in the midst of hurricane recovery and b.) most of the teen-crowd that frequents this theater are idiots who go to see roll-bounce and care more about making out than watching a movie. i guess this attitude of mine makes me officially old. oh well...

i never remember any silence in space in the movie. i am hoping that there is an alternate version on the dvd that uses a differnt soundtrack for those areas, for those who want the good ol' tv treatment. that'd be cool.

all in all, very worth the money and the wait, especially if you liked the series at all. you can also see that joss had a backstory line he could have dragged out for five or more seasons if he needed to. it's a very intense story, that might have even benefitted from being told in episodic tv, since you can break it up with other plots easier for longer periods of time. this story just keeps hitting you wham, wham, wham... the pacing is frenetic, and you never get much time to absorb what's happenign so much as react to it. i'm not sure if that's a fault, or if whedon was trying to show how the character could not slow down or grieve, or else risk getting killed themselves. but, all in all, it sure is a lot of fun.

oh, and don't worry if you've watched the trailers 80 times like i have...most of the trailer contents occur in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie. maybe i'm just clueless, but i did not see the surprise plot twists coming. there were a couple small logic holes, but the pacing never gives you enough time to spot them and labor upon them.

is it me, or is morena baccarin even hotter than she was on tv? rowr! i could have used her on screen more. i assume, if there is a second or third movie, the mal/inara relationship will expand in the han solo/leia tit-for-tat that we all liked fromt he original star wars trilogy.

potential spoiler:

for those who have not seen the movie yet, this isn't as much a spoiler, as just a reminder... joss whedon has no problems with killing off pretty major characters in order to convince the audience that the danger the rest of the cast faces is truly mortal. you'll not see "ensign expendable" bite the dust here. that's all i'm saying.

I tried to see it last night but was sold-out - I saw Lord of War instead (which BTW, it was actually pretty good).

I saw it last night, and I'm truly impressed. I can't not recommend this movie to anyone.

Just saw it today, even better than I hoped it would be! Outstanding movie!


Potential spoiler:





IRT rok, you were right about your spoiler. Made me think of that book series by George R R Martin, he does the same thing in regard to main characters in his books.

Question:

I thought the series was AWFUL. Does the movie have the same, over-done familial motifs?

I don't want to give too much away, but Mal was intentionally written much darker in the movie than the TV series. (I've read this is how Joss wanted Mal in the first place, but changed it to appeal to the networks.) There are a handful of puns, some big plot twists, and LOTS of action. (I love the movie, but I did feel dizzy once. I was pretty close to the screen too.)

wow, all-caps awful? seems a tad harsh, but i'll do my best to encapsulate the main differences i saw int he movie last night from the series (and i only watched the series once in the box set):

- way more of the unique frontier dialect (kaylee has maybe the best line in the movie, but i won't spoil it). i guess joss was asked to tone down the chinese slang and swearing for tv since the audience "wouldn't get it", but here, it pervades the discourse a lot more during the crew's informal discussions, and there are some great plays on words that make sense in context. i wish i could relay some of them, but i think that would spoil some moments.

- i assume by the familial motifs, you may be referring to the brother-sister story, as well as the husband-wife thing? well, the brother-sister stuff has to be there, since the sister is the crux of the plot. the husband-wife thing is alluded to, but not beaten over your head.

- the presence of the reavers gives some scenes a campy-yet-terrifying b-movie horror feel (and i actually don't mean that in a bad way). i'm sure others felt the same way. the reavers were also given, in very efficient manner, a presence that felt like, if they touched you, you were already dead. i have heard several folks say that the makeup for the reavers seemed cheesy, but i prefer the old-fashioned touch rather than the lucas "cgi, because i can" approach. yet in the series, we were never even SHOWN a true reaver. they were just this presence you were told to never, ever let get close to you. similar to the "blue sun group" that was looking for river & simon tam in the series.

- adam baldwin wasn't made to be as goofy or dumb muscle as he was in the series, and i actually preferred him much better this way. he's portrayed in a much more pragmatic and survivalist way. if the current plan does not benefit his survival or profit, he'd rather not have any of it. here, it has a simplicity, whereas in the series it was portrayed as stupidity.

- oh, yeah, there's one scene that may give you vertigo if you sit too close to the screen. not sure if that was intentional, but considering how many advanced screenings and edits this movie reportedly had, i have to assume it was intentional. you'll know it when you see it.

there will be comparisons to the last series episode which never aired int he u.s., "objects in space," and there are some definite similarities in the bad guys' personal philosophies and professional sophistication, though the operative is given a much more enormous scope in pursuit of river tam than the lone-wolf bounty hunter, jubal early. but i'd say if you liked that last episode, the movie is all that AND a bag of chips.

p.s. fans of the series should probably stay all the way to the end of the credits. there is a very small treat awaiting you at the end.

Damn, I had to go really bad at the end, (had one of those Mega size Cokes) so I left when the credits started!

Is it something worth going to see it again, or wait for the DVD?

no, it's not huge. it was just a nice homage to the tv series. seriously, if you think about it, you'll probably guess what it was.

DAMN! I remember I heard something about that but forgot! That's why all those people stayed. (I must have looked like an ass walking out with a brown shirt.) Guess I'll have to see it again...

Two thumbs up

i am interested to see the direction they will take with the next movie (joss said this will not be the last you will see of the serenity crew at the san diego comicon panel, and they were second at the box office... second... a movie that is a sequel to a series NO ONE SAW was SECOND. that's pretty damned good).

without giving any spoilers, you gotta figure the blue sun group will be coming next. from the series, they had some vested interest in the tam twins that they were willing to kill an entire alliance installation to keep secret. and if you look around online, apparently there are a LOT of blue sun references throughout the series in its short run. in fact, there's one "blink and you'll miss it" reference in the movie.

joss said he wanted the blue sun group to be this galactic coca-cola-style megacorporation that seemed to deal in much more than food items as the story unfolded... or perhaps that's their avenue for, well, whatever they do.

methinks river holds more than just one secret in that kooky head of hers.

plus, i'd like to see the browncoats rise up again. heck, i could even live with the movies ending their run with mal being killed off in some future movie as he saw his actions convincing people to fight the good fight one more time after he was gone.

there's also a slant i think people are missing, and that's alluded to very briefly in the commentary of the firefly box set. simon tam isn't as squeaky clean as everyone is making him out to be. and in one episode of the series, one of the writers mentions a super-brief intimate exposition between simon and inara. and recall that inara was in support of the alliance before she got on board. and simon's brilliant and all, but when book (who seems to have a shady past of his own) mentions simon's penchant for dastardly scheming, simon replies "i'm thinking of growing a mustache. i'm a traditionalist." interesting deflection.

remember this is joss whedon. absolutely nothing is what it appears. i suspect a double-cross someday by mr. tam.

there are some spoilers i would love to discuss (well, really, one, and fans know which one i am talking about), but i'm not sure when will be a sufficient time to elapse so those who wish to see it will have done so. there are some significant areas that are easy to spoil.

It's made from PEOPLE!