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Serenity Opens Today
joemite writes "As every Browncoat knows, Serenity, the motion picture based on the Firefly series opened today. For the uninitiated, Serenity is based on the short-lived Fox television show Firefly (created by Joss Whedon, [Buffy the Vampire Slayer]), which follows a group of outlaws in a unique space-western universe. While there are no aliens or temporal anomalies, the stage is set for our group of heros to out-wit and out-strategize the giant and evil Alliance. Go out and watch the movie this weekend and see why the Firefly series is an Amazon.com best seller." If you're on the fence, reviews available at SFGate, Wired, the Seattle Times, and IGN.
Serenity now?
I was just searching for the Serenity post, because I'd thought I missed it. But I come back three minutes later and here it is! I'll be heading to see it in a few hours, I'm excited.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/serenity/
Currently 83% fresh!
Saw it this morning. I never go to the theater, either. Props to Marcus Theaters in Gurnee. Great sound, great visual focus. Benefit of missing Navy pay day by a day.
Serenity has great Free Market plot lines, just as Firefly did. My "beloved" LRC has some good insight here andhere.
Even the theme song is freedom loving:
Take my love.
Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don't care, I'm still free.
You can't take the sky from me.
Take me out
to the black.
Tell 'em I ain't comin' back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can't take the sky from me.
Have no place
I can be
Since I found Serenity.
To bad Whedon's a socialist. Weird.
Maybe we can change that. I'm ready to pay Joss Whedon a nice annual subscription to have him bring Firefly back (web based video, high quality codec) to an online format. Fuck ox and Cable producers. Anyone know of a way to contact him about the idea?
FWIW the movie does feel TV-ish. I'd like to know what it was filmed on and edited on.
This movie is going to be awesome, wether you're a fan of the series or not. My biggest hope is that if the movie does well, Sci-Fi Channel will pick it up and make it a part of their friday night (or maybe wednesday night) lineup. I must have more!
Government's view of the economy: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
I went to a preview screening and I can say with all confidence that this movie pwns. A lot of people in the theater had never seen the show, and they were all blown away. Granted, they may have been fantasy/sci-fi fans, but I still think this movie has great crossover potential.
Also, don't forget that MWG has put out a very shiny RPS for Serenity. Check it out here: http://www.serenityrpg.com/.
Save Sam and Max!
Too Busy Seeing Movie 80 Million Times.
I never got to see the series, but I've heard great things about it, so I'm definitely checking it out tonight with the little lady. I've heard good things from those that got to see the advance screenings, so I'm hoping it won't be terrible (isn't it bad when that's how our expectations for movies come out these days?).
I know nothing
I watched the Firefly pilot when it aired a few years back, and I'm sure I'm going to get some flack for this, but I prefer the clean, art-deco look of Star Trek.
I will go see it, however.
Ignore Alien Orders
i've been waiting for a while to see this, finally a good movie this year
For the uninitiated, Serenity is based on the short-lived Fox television show Firefly
If you're that uninitiated, you'll need to know this-- Slashdot is a "Web Site" where we talk about geeky things.
Surely, if anyone on Slashdot hasn't heard of Serenity, it would cause a quantum singularity and we would all get sucked into a blackhole.
Not to get all Treky or anything.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I'll be heading out to see serenity in about an hour. I have never seen firefly, despite trying for the past three weeks (curse my stupid computer for not recording). What do I need to know in order to better understand and enjoy the movie (other than what is in the trailer).
I heard all along that it was another sci-fi show that was from the creator of Buffy.
I left it alone because "another hit show from the writer of XYZ" is usually a steaming pile of bumpoo. This kind of hype is like a one hit wonder from the music charts trying to get his 2nd song sold.
I don't care who wrote it, I wanna know how good it is.
I'm currently half way through the dvd episodes and I'm hooked.
Why the hell didn't anyone tell me it was this good on its own merits?
Hope the movie is as good.
ps, even after my rant, how exactly do you hype a series about a rag tag group of cowboys flying around in a spaceship getting into scrapes? I've never been able to describe it to my friends properly.
liqbase
Serenity now !
Yet another Fox series undeservingly cancelled. They saw the error of their ways with Family Guy, but there are lots of shows that are good enough to be brought back. Firefly being one of them.
End transmission.
"Go out and watch the movie this weekend "
And support all those MPAA lawsuits you keep hearing about on Slashdot! Nothing gets people to stop what they're doing by giving them more money!
I'd like to see the movie. I'd really like to see the movie. But I'm not supporting an MPAA member. I haven't even bought the Firefly DVDs for the same reason.
If you're pissed at somebody, y'all should try showing it for once.
Cried, Laughed, Enjoyed...
I hope to see it come back (via Sci-Fi) as a new series...
--E--
Our entire team went to the first showing today. Shiny!
Faithful to the TV series and fills in many details.
GO SEE IT.
It seems to me that this year has been a re-defining year in the movies. I think that in 5 years, we'll be able to point to this year as the year things changed.
The reason I say this is that what this summer proved is that movies now need more than pretty scenery and special effects to turn a profit in the box office. "Batman" had a deep story, and "War of the Worlds" was a remake of a classic. "Wedding Crashers" was hilarious. The movies that stunk, like "Stealth" and "The Island", didn't have anything more than special effects and good looking girls.
But "Cry_Wolf", a movie without any special effects, made it's money back 5-fold. It is possible that the same sort of thing will happen with Serenity. So if it does well, that may get us not only sequels, but movies with more plot and story and atmosphere, which would be great for us, as more sophisticated movie watchers.
Mal: Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
:)
Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir.
Who cares about Serenity when Star Wreck VI is finally available for download?
Coral cache of the site
Torrent
Art Deco world of Star Trek ?!?
Well, someone failed Art History.
See Wiki.
I saw the 12:01am showing at the Sony Metreon last night. I couldn't wait until today.
No spoilers: It was fantastic!
-Chris
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
*ducks*
Good bye, karma. I barely knew you.
In the UK this is being marketed as a comedy... I've never seen the show, but heard it mentioned in the same breath as other intelligent adult sci-fi shows. Surely, it's not some dumb space comedy, right?
That is all.
Got to the theatre a hour and a half before it was scheduled to start. There was already a line around the block. Stood in line for an hour and DID NOT GET IN!! It was that packed. Can't wait to finally see it today.
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You know, if you were a subscriber, you could have seen it earlier, before you wasted those three minutes. I mean, think about it. Three minutes a day looking for an article that hasn't been posted. That's 21 minutes a week. Assuming you get paid ~$21/hr, that's ~$7/week (~$28/month!) you waste looking for stories that you could have if you were a subscriber. Now, say it costs $5/month for a Slashdot subscription. That's $23 savings each month! That's $276 savings each year! Become a subscriber today!
In case you didn't realize, 12:01 am was today. Just wanted to clarify.
End transmission.
"Serenity is so like TV that it ought to come with a clicker so we can switch over to the next movie at the multiplex."
-- Kyle Smith, NEW YORK POST
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Joss Whedon's feature-film debut, the science-fiction western "Serenity," is beautifully made, written with more wit and intelligence than we get from most contemporary movies of any genre, and features an ensemble of actors whose rhythms are almost supernaturally in tune. There's only one problem with "Serenity": It's not "Firefly," the TV show that first gave these characters, and this story, life in autumn 2002 on the Fox network.
Both "Firefly" (which is available on DVD) and this new movie incarnation of it detail the adventures and tribulations of a loner-rebel named Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the ragtag crew of his space vessel, Serenity. Their story unfolds in a future world -- the 26th century, to be exact -- in which humans have left an uninhabitable earth to populate a new-old, way-out-there solar system. More Sam Peckinpah than "Star Trek," this isn't a shiny, sleek vision of the future: For one thing, the various planets in this new world have been recently divided by a brutal civil war, and the winning side -- the Alliance -- is now trying to gather all the outlying hoi polloi planets under its rule. Many of these planets are hardscrabble frontiers whose citizens still ride horses, use old-time firearms, and even, occasionally, wear sunbonnets. The idea isn't just that civilization as we know it has largely disappeared, but that people have been so buffeted by hardship that they've had to start practically from scratch.
The "Firefly" episodes burn slowly at first, but their emotional heat intensifies as you learn to live, and breathe, with the show's characters. That's an ancient narrative strategy, and one that Whedon had clearly mastered with his earlier series, the magnificent "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its less resonant but still deeply enjoyable spinoff, "Angel." But apparently, this newfangled mode of storytelling intimidated Fox executives. They pulled the plug on "Firefly" after airing only 10 of the 14 episodes Whedon and his cast had completed -- and broadcasting them out of sequence. "Firefly" was seen by almost no one when it aired, partly because even those who desperately wanted to watch it -- namely, the many fans Whedon had earned with his previous series -- couldn't even find it when they turned on their TVs at the appointed time: The episodes were shown in fits and starts, several of them having been preempted by the World Series.
That's probably the worst thing you could do to a Whedon show, considering that he builds his narratives with the dramatic precision of 19th century novels. They don't always grab you with the first episode -- they're not made that way. Whedon prefers to reel us in gently, first setting the scene and then, week by week, drawing us into a web of complex character relationships that become a kind of home for us. Fans of Whedon's shows are the modern-day equivalents of those readers who so long ago got hooked on Dickens, people who would wait on American docks for the next installments of his newspaper serials to arrive on these Godforsaken shores. (Dickens biographer Edgar Johnson recounts how "waiting crowds at a New York pier shouted to an incoming vessel, 'Is Little Nell dead?'")
That's how it should have worked with "Firefly." The show finally did find its audience when it was released on DVD in late 2003, and Whedon, who had never given up on the show and its extraordinarily well-matched cast, sought ways to spin its posthumous success into another project. And almost against all odds, a major movie studio, Universal, put its money (perhaps not a whole lot, but enough) on a show that had earned lots of love but not a whole lot of cash.
"Serenity" -- which Whedon wrote as well as directed -- is both a primer on "Firefly" and an extension of it, a picture carefully calibrated to satisfy fans without leaving newcomers stranded. Whedon sets up the back story neatly at the beginning, introducing all of his characters in a few fleet scenes. Their dialogue comes off as casual, but it's really tightly scripted, a compr
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
Serenity [...] follows a group of outlaws in a unique space-western universe. While there are no aliens or temporal anomalies, the stage is set for our group of heros to out-wit and out-strategize the giant and evil Alliance.
So basically live-action Cowboy Bebop minus the bounty hunting?
This sig rocks the casbah.
I'll be brief about the movie, it's excellent and much more so if you have watched the show.
With that out of the way I figured I would comment on this constant Whedon people versus non-Whedon fans. If you don't like anything he has done and think he is a hack, fine. I don't really care. What troubles me is not people who dislike Whedon or don't think that this movie going experience can compare to a late 50's Goddard film. What troubles me is that it seems a lot of those who continually put down his work don't follow up with what they feel is superb in the realm of cinema or TV and when they do it is usually the most testosterone driven, mindless drivel. I know it's a crime to say this but Star Wars is terrible. I am not just talking about Episode 1: Jar Jar's hijinx, I am talking about all of them. I have begun to think that what really gets to people on sites like this and AICN is the gender role reversals that regularly pop up in Whedon's work as this type of hegelian master/slave status switching makes this movie (as well as the show) an impossible vehicle for all of our masturbatory jingoist fantasies.
So, if you dislike Whedon but actually a brain resting inside your cranium then I salute you with the whole of my heart.
On the other hand if you enjoy all the forms of art that encourage passive participation and little to no critical analysis or thinking then please go back to watching some tits bounce around your TV screen.
./revolution
Next week in the UK. Lucky we had the world premiere and a few more screenings already.
I watched it this afternoon at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. Great movie. There were a couple of plot points that surprised me, like the very nasty surprise after the crash landing.
They do a segment at the beginning to help flesh out the River/Simon Tam backstory. There's some set up to show what's happened to a few characters since the show ended, and an answer to at least one of the show's major questions.
About the venue. The Alamo Drafthouse is a chain of theaters started in Austin. They have a full lunch/dinner menu, full bar, and good seats. It served very well this afternoon, since I was able to drop my car off for it's annual inspection, (Damn government and all their rules. They shouldn't meddle! Okay, that's my inner Browncoat getting out.) walk accross the street, and enjoy a beer and a pizza while I watched the movie.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
We're screening at the office twice tonight. Woot!
I caught a preview showing on monday here in Portland, OR. The crowd there very much enjoyed the show and there was a standing ovation at the end. While I did cheer with the rest of them and did enjoy the movie overall, I have to only give it 4 out of 5 stars. I won't spoil it for anyone and go into detail, but I was dissapointed with a couple things that seemed to detract from the flow of the movie so that's what knocked off a star. But there were plenty of good quotable lines, a decent plot, and quite a bit revealed about the FireFly universe that we didn't previously know about. I hope it does extreemly well in theatres and the actors come back and do another movie (the cast already signed a contract to do another movie if this one does well).
I haven't heard a thing about it, anywhere.
To save time searching for reviews (if that's what you're looking for), here you go. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/serenity
Because teenage pranks are fun when you're about to die!
The biggest change people will notice, is the near-complete abandonment of the western theme. They still strap on their six-shooters, but that's about it. There's not a horse in sight. And finally, there's the Buffyication of the character of River. There's no indication in the series that she had been turned into the ultimate killing machine (no spoiler that, it's all over the trailers). But Riverbuffy goes on a couple of killing sprees that would look right at home at Sunnydale High.
I saw a sneak preview of this Tuesday night and loved it so much I saw the 12:01am showing this morning. It lives up to repeat viewings very well.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
Julian Sanchez, over at http://www.reason.com/ has an interesting article about the Camus and Sartre influence in Serenitty.
*Warning MEGA Spoilers* *Warning MEGA Spoilers* *Warning MEGA Spoilers*An excerpt: (full text behind this link.)
Last Tuesday, Universal Studios invited me down to North Miami to see a special 'blogger invite only' version of the show. Apparently it was co-sponsored by the local Clearchanel hip hop station, and I had to sit through their corporate whoring for a bit, but after that was done, I saw the movie, and liked what I saw. I posted a review on my blog (http://www.rizzn.com/2005/09/migratory-patterns-o f-soccerballs-and.asp). I can't say enough goood things about the flick. Very enjoyable, possibly one of the top 5 or 10 of the year (not that's saying much this year).
goto http://rizzn.com
You need to know nothing. I never watched "firefly" and I got it. It takes a little bit to come together but it does.
The male residents of Kashyyyk are probably just as disappointed that Jewel Staite looks nothing like a Wookiee.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Anyone know when/where its opening in trinidad????
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
If the "Troll" moding doesn't show the hypocrisy and self-delusion around here? Nothing will.
"And support all those MPAA lawsuits you keep hearing about on Slashdot!"
Yes or No? Does your ticket money go to an MPAA member?
"Nothing gets people to stop what they're doing by giving them more money!"
Most haven't made the mental connection between cause (their actions) and effect (increasing loss of fair use rights)
"If you're pissed at somebody, y'all should try showing it for once."
Maybe you got a troll rating because you implied that everyones trying, but somehow they just couldn't have the desired effect?*
*I can't imagine how not giving people money, or not possessing something of theirs wouldn't have an effect. Guess it must be magic keeping them going?
"Bright butt beetle"
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Saw two shows back to back....gotta say it's a great movie. Anybody who loved the TV series won't be disappointed, and anybody looking for something a little different is going to find *exactly* what they were looking for.
Good turnout too, both shows a good 150-200 people. If this holds solid throughout the country Josh has got a respectible hit on his hands.
Great movie. Plan to see it again tomorrow.
Ferretman
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
This is an attempt to gather together where people are gathering to see Serenity in various cities.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Seriously, Joss Whedon pulls no punches, Serenity crewmembers and friends drop off like flies. *SPLAT*
O UDIESNINITHISVMOVIEEBYRJOSSSWHEDONE
REMOVEBTHEOWORDSOTHATKYOUWCANAREADSTOHFINDMOUTRWH
But at least we find out where Reavers come from. Mmmmm.. Reavers.
XviD rip of DVD screener out already!! The timestamp has been fuzzed out but its not a big deal.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Will I still enjoy Serenity if I've never seen Firefly? Please reply after you've seen the movie so I'll know if I want to see it or not.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
I am going to see this movie tonight for one reason:
To vote with my $$ so that Hollywood suits can see that non-Trek SciFi can be suce$$full. My real motivation for this is Babylon5: The Memory of Shadows.
I am hoping that if Serenity can earn real money then perhaps TMoS will rise again.
I have tried watching Firefly, I don't like the whole cowboys in space angle. The entire technology needed to travel interstellar distances, should be 'good-enough' to produce laser-pistols, not 6-shooters!
Hauling cattle from one planet to another? Nah, I just can't suspend my disbelief.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
I give it four out of five stars as it lost a star because it wasn't longer. Something this good deserved to be at least 2 1/2 hours. :)
10:30pm showing at Century Eastport 16 (4040 SE 82nd Ave - 503-775-0000)
They apparently also have a ""Big Damn Pre-show Dinner" at Grand Buffet 4410 SE 82nd Ave (503) 788-8000 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm."
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
I consider myself a reasonably discriminating movie enthusiast, and I abhorred the "War of the Worlds" remake and enjoyed "The Island" (also a remake, btw). Of course, I was expecting "War of the Worlds" to be good and "The Island" to be bad, from their respective previews. Cry_Wolf looked so bad I'm basing a parody submission for a trailer contest on it.
But to get back on-topic, I'm totally looking forward to Serenity (loved the series on DVD, not on Fox), but I have to admit the trailers make it look pretty dumb. Unfortunately, I'm not expecting much from the movie (hopefully it will wow me!), and I don't expect it will have a particularly awesome opening weekend, not only because of the trailers but because, frankly, who is going to want to watch a movie called "Serenity"? Sure, the title makes sense from the series, but isn't the whole point of any movie to have some sort of conflict? "Serenity" sounds like a sleeper, literally. Maybe it's a marketing snafu on Joss' part, or perhaps it's genius, if the movie is also genius. Sure, only an ignoramus will judge a book by its cover, but considering our current president, ignorance currently has majority representation in the US.
There's no indication in the series that she had been turned into the ultimate killing machine
;) Sort of like Vegeta, or *Super* Vegeta. Heck, at least we know the difference between Mario and Super Mario. He doubles in size. :D
Uh...so when they're busting in to save Mal from being tortured, and River whips out a gun and *while blindfolded* blows away a run of guards, that doesn't scream "ultimate killing machine"?
So at what point is the threshold between killing machine and "ultimate" killing machine anyway?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I feel like I'm the only geek in the world who doesn't like this show/movie. I watched numerous episodes including the entire pilot and was completely unimpressed. It looked to me just like every other average sci-fi show that the sci-fi channel produces. Granted, I was never a fan of this kind of sci-fi. I like Star Wars, but I hate Star Trek with a passion. Firefly/Serenty I don't really hate, there was just nothing great about it. It's "bleh" to me.
Am I alone here? I mean seriously, how much of the liking of this show is because of the show and how much is because of the hype and mystique surrounding it?
I guess it doesn't really matter. But it's frustrating for my friends and I because I can't understand at all why they think this thing is so great. And they can't understand at all why I don't think it's the best thing since sliced bread.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Haha. Very funny. You all thought it was OK when the latest Star Wars leaked (whaa! he's making too much money), but when it's something you like? Then getting it through alternative channels makes one a troll. Keep it up slashdot. The preponderance of evidence will catch up with you sooner or later.
BTW You all missed one
There's 14 episodes including the pilot.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour Isaiah 3:5
I saw it today at noon, and I was blown away. I'll admit that I am a fan of the tv show. After hearing about it all over the internet (especially /.), I finally broke down and grabbed the torrent, and not long after found out just why it has such a following.
But that won't stop you from loving the movie. Whedon pulls off a nice trick I can't recall anyone else doing: he introduces the world and the characters at the beginning in a way that manages to engage new viewers without talking down to old fans. And while there are things you won't quite understand, jokes you won't quite get, and important things you won't quite feel, it's still all there, and very well done.
See the series first if you can-- but if you can't, the movie's damn good, and you can love the hell out of it whether you've seen the series or not.
Wohoo. Now we get to duplicate that FAQ about /.ers giving money to the MPAA for a movie that takes prescidence over common slashdot opinions for bad IP laws.
I have no reason to see it. Of course I have only seen the first episode. It wasn't bad but nothing special either. I taped it's reruns on NBC to see it there. I just don't know if it will be in order. It's wasn't on SCI-FI.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
Art deco is anything but sleek.
As a fan of the series, it's a great movie. Whedon did a great job of taking what I assume was several seasons of plot lines and collapsing them into a two hour movie. The result flowed well and didn't feel too rushed. I do suspect that spreading many of the developments over the course of many episodes would have made the important revelations all the more significant. As closure for the series, I'm very satisfied.
However, I'm pessimistic for people who haven't seen the series. Whedon does an admirable job providing a Cliff's Notes of the series. He even does so in a way that doesn't bug me as a fan; indeed several minor details that were never expounded upon in the series were cleared up. However much of power of the series was the attachment you formed to the characters. That's something that takes hours. You can't do it in a movie.
So I suspect the movie will do well in the short term as the fans flock to it, then it will quietly fade away. This will be the end of the series; it will remain with a cult fandom, but nothing more. (That said, I'm surprised at the positive reviews it's getting from people I doubt are fans.)
Search 2010 Gen Con events
Link anybody?
Seriously.
No, Seriously.
My boss took the team out to see it during lunch. The plot was not deep, but it was damn funny and a real hoot to watch. There is a real hacker element to it that I have not been able to put my finger on yet.
Hmm. I have never watched the TV show, so I don't really know what it means, but to me the term "browncoat" calls to mind the Nazi "brownshirts" more than anything else. I wince when I see it used to identify a group.
Does anyone else feel that way?
I yearn for you tragically. A. T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.
Recommended by 83% critics on the web, 93% users.
This isn't slashdot material.
Blog: http://richardrandomrants.blogspot.com/
I havent watched the firefly series, but enjoyed the movie very much. Highly recommend it.
Sri
Amy I the only one who has noticed that Firefly is just a bad mashup of Battle Star Galactica (the origional) and Cowboy Bebop? WTF? Wow, Josh can copy other peoples origional ideas.
Ideally, freedom is freedom. Socialism (or any of its leftists variants propped up by control freaks) is as far away from freedom as you can get!
Freedom to let people starve.
Freedom to raze the environment for short-term profit.
Freedom to let people without care when they need it and can't afford it.
Those are the kinds of freedoms that the left want to do away with.
You can't take the sky from me...
Just saw it at the Paramount at 600 Burrard Street.
What is quite remarkable is that even though Serenity has been pre-screened what, 100 times? since May, you don't see cam torrents floating around. The restraint of the fan base from leaking spoilers and cams says a lot about their loyalty. Contrast that with say, the Hulk or Revenge of the Sith.
Here's hoping for the sequels.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Don't continue reading it if you haven't seen it...
Anyone else thing toward the end that what Joss was doing is cutting off any chance of a continuation of the series? Or maybe it's just his unconventional thinking. Either way it had some great moments when people in the theater went from laughing to gasping in shock. Pretty neat effect if you happened to be lucky and get to see it at midnight with nothing but fans of the show.
I wonder what the specifics of Joss's Fox agreement are? One commenter in my blog noted that Joss may be contractually barred from making further TV shows, but surely there is a way.
is to tell people it was cancelled by fox. That means it's good.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
I just got back from a matinee. I have three things to convey.
First, as a thirty-something father who remembers seeing the original Star Wars with my father back when I was age 7 or so, and as a fan of Farscape and Galactica (but not Trek), my reaction to this movie went like this: "Oh my God, that was breathtakingly good!" Joss Whedon has balls. He's willing to rip apart his own creation if it'll make a great movie. And I think it is seriously great. I'd see it five more times and not be satiated.
Second, my wife's reaction to the movie, as a thirty-something mom who loved LotR and Signs but could care less about sci-fi in general, was this: "yeah, it was good. A little too violent. I don't imagine I'd ever see it again, but I'm glad I got to see it once." I suspect her more level reaction is the reaction most non-geeks will have, and that leads me to point #3.
And point #3 is: I don't see this being a blockbuster. No geeks took off work to line up early. The women that were there expressed no interest in seeing the TV show resurrected, even after enjoying what I thought was an amazing movie. It doesn't resonate with general audiences. And I hate that. I soooooo wish it did. Even now, I'm hoping that I am terribly wrong in my impression. I hope it creams History of Violence this weekend, and comes out a slam-dunk for more investment. Because I'd like to hear more of the story. A lot lot more.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
Today is not Today until you have woken up inside of it. That's just how it is.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For aggregated reviews, see the serenity page on.
74/100 is very good on the traditionally stingy Metacritic.
From San Francisco Chronicle's: "As challenging as it must have been to pilot Joss Whedon's space opera from the TV junk pile to the big screen, the finished product is a triumph."
To LA Weekly's: "It's the zippy chatter among the Serenity's wised-up space pirates that gives the film most of its punch, but with only serviceable action sequences and largely cookie-cutter effects, you can still sense the void just outside."
You be the judge... or really, let them be the judge, and then you be the meta judge, judging all the judges that already made their judgments. Then take Famous Reinholds for $1000.
There are laster pistols in the Serentiy universe. It's just that they are illegal for civlillians to own. In one of the episodes not aired someone uses one on the crew who are defending a house... One of the other episodes (Trash, also unaired) hinges around trying to steal the Lassiter, one of the first Laser pistols made and an antique.
If you think about it if in real life blasters actually come to be, is the government really going to let just anyone own one?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
and boy does this movie look BAD
I like to consider myself a relatively aware TV viewer. I know who Buffy is. I even know who the major actors in MASH are and who Jay Leno and Conan are. But I don't have a friggen clue as to who you are talking about. Your audience has to be pretty small.
Well worth the wait and the full price tickets!
Joss at his best.
Enjoy!
You must be new around here. ... wait, 5 digit UID? You have no excuse. Please turn in your geek card now.
I bought a TV tuner which I plug my cable into, so I can watch TV on my computer monitor even as I do other things on the computer, and I can record shows to my hard drive and do whatever I wish with them. It's great.
~CGameProgrammer( );
Yeehaw!
Reading is passive entertainment. Don't you do that? Maybe you just get an adrenaline rush from turning pages, which admittedly TV lacks.
~CGameProgrammer( );
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/25438/
> i believe the ideal socialist world would involve a non corrupt centralized authority (super computer or something).
you haven't seen the dystopian film 'code 46' have you?
nobody, no one, no thing, can plan your life for you better than you can figure it out for yourself.
> in a perfect world, the state should treat everyone equally. libertarians (rightly in this day in age) dont trust the system
no, in a perfect world there would be no state. that's the point behind 'firefly'.
I have played a Role Playing Game known as Traveller since 1984. We have been in situations like the crew of Serenity get into, only our plans work better, and we are not as gentle as their crew.
We considered ourselves to be gentlemen of opportunity, and wore many hats as the situation presented itself.
Sometimes we were heroes, pirates, smugglers, mercinaries, spies, bounty hunters, body guards, repo men, merchants, or any other vocation as long as someone was willing to pay, or we profited from it somehow.
Orion Blastar is the name of a Merchant turned Space Pirate that I played. He makes Malcom Reynolds look like little Suzy Sunshine. In one campaign we nuked two planets to make off with billions of credits from robbing banks after hitting the planets with nuclear missiles, and using normal missiles to blow open bank vaults. It was a 1970's/1960's technology planet for both planets, with an ultra-fascist government run by The Imperium, who are actually worse than The Alliance.
I run a MegaTraveller Yahoo Group where we discuss such things, and we have been waiting for the Firefly based movie to come out for a long time now.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Keep on Flying!
Was a bad day today, as I'm no longer employed, but a good day as I saw the
1:30pm showing.
I've gotta say "WOW". Great movie, some real Laugh Out Loud moments, and fantastic action sequences.
The intensity of both action and emotion had my adrenalin levels up to about those of a medium-hard Quake3 deathmatch. Took me about 45mins to get back to a relaxed state of being.
What really sucked (or was a "major bummer", to put it mildly) was the killing off of characters.
Only question: WHAT/WHY TF, Joss?
Going to see it again this weekend with the boy, damned if I don't need a day or two break from that rocket propelled emotional rollercoaster.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
I'm more of a Star Wars fan and I watched a few episodes of ST: TNG back when it was on sysndication a few years ago, but I really liked the dialogue and western feel of "Firefly". Typical Fox mishandling of a fan favorite series.
...because, from these pictures of Jewel Staite, it's not would I, but how often would I. Serenity indeed.
I can't blame this Mr. [Matt] Anderson for being so happy. I wish her and the hotness-stealing bastard^W^W^Wgentleman luck.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
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Just saw it...the Salon.com review was on the money. A solid sci-fi action/drama with a lot of twinkles of Whedon's genius, but if I hadn't seen the series, I would have probably been put off by the chemistry between the characters due to the backstory I wouldn't have known about, and sure as hell wouldn't have responded as strongly to the movie!
I only wish I hadn't seen the recently made indie-move "Rx" before this. I was so happy to see one of my favorite actors from Firefly in a totally different type of role (in which he was fabulous). If I only knew...
I really like the show, I never did like Buffy much or really listen to the hype. I owned the DVD set for about a year before on a whime I decided to finally watch it a month ago...
I really liked it right from the start. I can't say why it had such a draw on me, but honestly it's had about an equal pull on an astounding number of people I've loaned the DVD to - old (like 30-50 year old) and young alike.
I don't know what about it would not appeal to you but I have never seen a thing with as broad a range of appeal. My SO's 60 year old mother went to a midnight showing with us!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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Serenity came out in Australia last week. It was a pretty sweet change of the usual order of things.
Makes me wonder if Rupert Murdoch is a closet Firefly fan.
Classical Liberalism: All your base are belong to you.
Budget: ~$55 million or so. Add in about 3-4 million for promotion (clearly they didn't go out too much). Totals to $58-59 million. Which is about Trek Nemesis.
... ten million dollars.
Sales of Firefly DVDs: 1 million units.
So, you're looking at about $10 million box office (hardly anyone who's not a Joss geek is going to see this, ALL the Joss geeks will). Maybe add another $2 million or so. Make Box Office $12 million. DVD sales are likely the same as Firefly DVDS; about 1 million units at wholesale margin of $10 ea. That's
Total revenues (excluding foreign sales): 22 million dollars.
Conclusion: Universal is taking a bath. Hence the "viral marketing" aka "we're not throwing any money away and just want to recover as much of our sunk costs as possible on this dog."
Note: extreme violence and PG-13 rating is going to make parents/families pissed off. Jodie Foster's big budget film only did $24 million opening weekend and already has a boycott going (flight attendants are ticked off at their portrayal).
Note this goes to money making only. But no Universal is dumping this movie. If they thought it would make money they would have scheduled it during Summer.
I'm just guessing here, so feel free to correct me, but I get the feeling you want to have about 10,000 of Mr. Whedon's babies.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
http://homepage.mac.com/merussell/iblog/B835531044 /C1592678312/E20050916182427/index.html
Section II, first question.
More of the same (not evil) later in the interview.-CZ
Book Dies! Those fuckers. So does that black chicks husband, big whoop.
I thought Slashdot had a "no linking to Amazon" policy. Is this the end of it?
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Seeing "Serenity" without having first seen the Firefly series would be surprisingly like watching Star Trek: Generations without having first seen TNG or TOS. It would still be an entertaining movie for a sci-fi buff, but you'd not get even half as much from it. Plus, due to certain events in Serenity, watching it before watching the series would significantly detract from both of them. I'm still mourning the loss of one of my favorite characters.
How are committees inherently bad?
IMHO, Firefly/Serenity is the Star Wars of our generation; there's no question of this in my mind. All I can do is curse Fox one more time, and hope that Whedon keeps on with the franchise - another movie or a continuation of the series on TV would be absolutely wonderful. Way to go, Joss! Thanks for the fantastic film, and here's hoping you'll have plenty of opportunities to express your creative genius in the future!
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Wow, thanks Slashdot.
Can I press "5" on my keypad to order tickets with my credit card now?
Everything you say is more or less true in theory, but the thing most people fail to grasp is that faster than light travel is actually time travel. Lightspeed is actually *instantaneous*... from the photon's point of view. If you could accelerate to just under lightspeed you could go anywhere in the universe almost instantly from YOUR point of view, though most of the universe around you would "disagree" and to them it would seem as though many, many years (or centuries or millenia) had passed. These are all very basic concepts in relativity that Einstein proved 100 years ago... it's a crying shame that most highschool science classes don't explain it better (if they even mention it at all.)
The "faster than light" travel you see in Sci-Fi is not really an attempt to get around the speed barrier, because lightspeed travel is already fast enough for the traveler (instantaneous.) It is an attempt to get around the TIME barrier--that which is imposed by Special Relativity. Writing a story where everyone in your universe experiences the flow of time at different rates is challenging to say the least (though many have tried, some quite successfully), so most "soft" Sci-Fi authors simply do away with the problem with those things you mentioned--wormholes, warp drive, hyperspace, etc. Unfortunately, these devices things actually create more problems than they solve.
You can't get around time dialation. It's built into both Special Relativity and General Relativity, and there's no tricking or cheating way around it. If you travel faster than light, whether through speed or through gravitational distortion or a combination of the two, THEN YOU ARE TRAVELING FASTER THAN INSTANTANEOUS TRAVEL. What's faster than instantaneous travel, you say? Well... time travel. If you somehow beat the lightspeed barrier, then you've just managed to travel back in time. If you don't believe me, I suggest you read Stephen Hawking's The History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell. Also, a good book that concentrates on explaining Relativity probably wouldn't hurt.
The only exception I can possibly see to this MIGHT be hyperspace. If one can make use of another spacial dimension, then one might be able to appear to be moving faster than the speed of light even though one really isn't. To any observer capable of seeing all the dimensions of the universe, you would still appear to be moving slower than light.
But I'm not sure if that's even possible. The explanations I've seen describe the other (4-11+) spacial dimensions as being "curled up", i.e. there's not nearly as much wiggle room in them as there is in the first 3 spacial dimensions, so I kinda doubt that they're big enough to have any practical benefit.
But FLT warp drive and wormholes definitely definitely DEFINITELY break Relativity by involving time travel. This might be physically possible, but it goes beyond the confines of Relativity and we don't really understand how it works. Seriously, what happens when some contrary/curious bastard goes back in time and kills his grandfather? Or better yet, goes back in time and destroys the time machine before anyone can use it? Either the time traveler must enter a parallel universe, or he must be prevented (at the most basic quantum physical level) from altering the past in any way, shape, or form.
In conclusion, hyperspace may or may not be OK, but for someone who takes science and reality seriously, wormholes and warp drive are either outright impossible or more trouble than they're worth.
Attendance was fairly low at the theater when I went this evening. I talked with the manager (who I know through a mutual friend). After chatting a bit, he told me that the peak attendance was only 71 people in a 250-seat auditorium for Serenity today (opening day). I really hope it does well, but this is not a good sign =(
I think a lot of this has to do with how Firefly is spreading so slowly by word-of-mouth, especially outside the geek community. The only way I even knew of Firefly was by accidently catching it on Sci-Fi channel, and deciding to leave it on and give it a chance since I recalled some friends mentioning it.
I really hope more people give this movie a chance. I can't see how anyone who enjoys science fiction could walk away from the theater unhappy with their ticket purchase for Serenity. If you're waiting to watch the series first, don't -- you don't need to see the series to enjoy the movie. And if you wait too long, it may be too late if these attendance numbers (in my limited sample) are any indication.
I'm going to see it again tomorrow. I'm going to be quite sad if the most enjoyable sci-fi I've seen in years goes out with such a disappointing opening weekend.
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By the Emperor maybe, but not by the movie itself.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
That is why libertarians think people can be left alone and will still help each other without needing a central authority that operates by force. In fact, as human beings go, the people who make up the government (politicians and bureaucrats) tend to be the worst.
Perhaps. But let's say that you Libertarians get to set up the nation the way you want and abolish most rules and regulations. What do you think will happen to those people? Will they disappear in a puff of smoke? Will they undergo a conversion and magically start helping their fellow men? I don't think so. Instead, they'll grab power, and since you just abolished all those pesky little rules that force people to behave in minimally decent ways towards one another, they will be unhampered in that grab for power.
We've had libertarian government on-and-off for millennia, but it usually doesn't last very long. Some kinds of autocracy and feudalism are libertarian, namely when the power is acquired legitimately according to libertarian principles. Libertarianism is like Communism: it makes unrealistic assumptions about human behavior and its consequences.
Democratic government is the best compromise we have found so far; it does indeed impose a lot of rules on everybody, but at least it's rules that the majority of people have agreed to, and it works better than the alternatives.
This is the movie of the year easily, great acting, story and pacing. I cant wait to see it again, even my girlfriend liked it. Alot of unexpected things happen and they tie up loose ends the show left behind as well as open new story lines, go see this movie!!!!
3.9M Friday opening estimation (www.showbizdata.com)
I know its just an estimate, but how close it may be from actual data if anybody knows showbiz's predictions?
Also, is this a good start or not?
Some Fox employee was running the projector. He showed baseball game before the film and then played the reels out of order. Oh well, I guess I'll wait for it to come out on DVD.
In a world that is Free and Open, who needs Windows and Gates?
Cowboy Bebop + more characters + more character dev - sticks up asses - cigarettes - Mr. Cool.
According to:0 930.html
http://www.the-numbers.com/charts/daily/2005/2005
it did $4,200,000 over 2,188 cinemas, for an average of $1,920 at each.
Not bad for the first day out, I guess. It's recouped about 10% of the cost to make it. There are three new releases reported. Serenity is doing best, by a wide margin.
Disclaimer: I know nada about the movie biz, historical accuracy of data provided by the-numbers.com, etc. I was just curious, and Googling around.
What you do with a computer does not constitute the whole of computing.
Originally, (based on the initial firefly series trailer) Firefly seemed to be a Outlaw Star http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw_Star from the mid-90's rip-off. Wikipedia has a mention of Outlaw Star in the notes section of Firefly's entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(television_s eries)
The original trailer looked like essentially a live-action version of the anime Outlaw Star. Both were space westerns with a cowboylike guntoting lead who were outlaws and had a ship and discovered (in the trailer) a naked girl in a box. There were also other lesser similarities.
However, it seems that some of thise things seen in the trailer never materialied in the series and overall the series seemed to take on it's own character despite any initial similiarities.
EIther way, both are great series, and i look forward to seeing Serenity this weekend... and it wouldn't be the first time in hollywood that someone got thier idea from an anime...
I was just wondering about the Battlestar Gallactica connection.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
If anyone in the UK wants a copy of the Firefly DVDs, Virgin Megastores are selling the Firefly DVD set for £19.99, vs. £26.99 at Amazon UK (with a 2-week wait). No relation to VM, except as a satisfied customer. :)
Got my copy on Thursday night and I've been slowly working my way through the episodes. I'm hooked
But isn't it funny how all the really worst dictators used marxist-socialist principles as a wedge? Come to think of it, I can't think of a single dictator that wasn't a socialist since the mid 19th century.
How you go from economics to theology is a mystery. Clearly logic isn't one of your strong suits.
_Serenity_ hit two out of three of those momentary audio-visual SF cliches that over the years have popped up on my annoyance radar (nothing really big, just minor peeves -- science fiction versions of the old film adage, "every bag of groceries will have a loaf of french bread and the leafy tops of carrots sticking out of it.")
1) Every hologram in the 'verse will have scan lines and occasional picture jumpiness.
I kinda get it's a hologram when you can see through it. It would be nice if *some* Universe perfected them. In this case, the recording is being played back locally, too. It was cool in _Star Wars_, but then everyone jumped onto it.
2) Big-space-things go whooooooooosh (zooming past a planetary system).
It always sounds like the same show-off-the-THX-Audio, overly loud, whooooosh to my ears.
To my recollection, I don't think they hit the third of the three that have hit my annoyance threshold (and it annoys me the most): The Squishy Noise.
If an earthworm were invented for science fiction, it would make The Squishy Noise every time it moved. Now, if there's anything that looks slimy or shiny or sticky and small, you get a noise that sounds like they stuck a microphone into a bowl of jelly and stuck their hand in and smooshed it around.
A friend commented that the quality of Firefly episodes was such that a full-fledged motion picture would just seem like a really long episode.
That friend was wrong, and I'm really glad.
That was a lot more than an episode.
Wil Langford - opinionated bastard - Linux rules
Go out and pick up A Brief History of Time. Hawking says that he has mathematically proved that if a wormhole allows one to go faster than light (I don't mean literally; I mean able to traverse a length of space faster than light) then it can also transport one back in time. If you disagree, then I suggest you take it up with him. Me, I tend to believe him over Wikipedia.
You don't seem to understand that compressing space DOES NOT FREE YOU FROM TIME DILATION. Time in a gravity well slows down just like time on a fast-moving vessel. Thus, it does not matter if you try to get around the lightspeed barrier via "compressing spacetime"--note the TIME part of "spacetime." You CANNOT mess with one without messing with the other. If you manage to warp SPACE enough to traverse a given distance faster than light could, then you have also warped TIME enough to allow time travel.
scientists speed up/slow down light
C is a constant, an absolute. The actual perceived speed of light can be changed but from what I've seen, it amounts to quantum trickery. No one has truly been able to make anything travel faster than C (e.g. the "leading edge" of the faster-than-light light still travels at C. Thus, you CANNOT use it to send a signal at speeds greater than C.) That wikipedia article you sent me is indeed interesting, but since it goes against everything I've read (including Hawking's proof), I'm inclined to believe that it is incorrect.
I'm curious if anyone has heard if Sci-FI is going to pick up Firefly and Resurrect the Series? I have heard that the Movie leaves the possibility of a series open?
I can't wait to see it!
Opened last week. Is a great film, but of course more of the series would've been better.
--- Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit? | Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?