I suspect the hardcore Whedon fans will love this, but others will be left cold. CHUD.com had an early review of a test screening, hardcore Whedon fans loved it, those who didn't know him from Adam (most of the universe) thought the movie was "Star Trek Motion Picture Bad."
Actually you're distorting the facts. The article in question at CHUD wasn't a review at all, just an article commenting on the test screening reviews showing up at Ain't It Cool News (FYI: all positive). It was never referred to as "Star Trek Motion Picture Bad". The author of the article, Devin Faraci, commented that he heard from a couple of people he knew in the industry that thought "it was more Star Trek: The Motion Picture than Wrath Of Khan". Prior to that he had been down on Serenity box office chances and conveniently, he never backed up those statements any further, even when pressed for more details on Chud's message boards. Bottom line is, Serenity has been getting killer reviews, yes, from fans but also quite a few people who are unfamiliar with Firefly. Hell, reportedly, even Kevin Smith attended one of the screenings and was impressed.
How is this news? They do preview screenings all the time.
Also, this makes real sense from a business perspective. This is an unknown property, valliantly held onto by a raving group of internet fanboys. If they did a Enterprise movie, dont you think they'd show it to some test audiences of trekkies to see if it could sell any tickets?
Yes, but there have already been like six or seven test screenings in LA, two in London and one in Australia. Many who attended the various screenings were fans but quite a few were not. I've been following various test screening reviews of Serenity and have seen quite a few good reviews from non-fans.
Slashdot Mirror
Test Screening-Early Reviews
Another Serenity Review
Some links of interest:
Serenity: The Official Movie Website
FireFlyFans.net
http://forums.prospero.com/foxfirefly/start
Test Screening-Early Reviews
Another Serenity Review
Serenity: The Official Movie Website
FireFlyFans.net
http://forums.prospero.com/foxfirefly/start
Test Screening-Early Reviews
Another Serenity Review
WonderCon Clip 128k.mov
WonderCon Clip 300k.mov
WonderCon Clip 700k.mov
WonderCon Clip 128k_wmv.asx
WonderCon Clip 300k_wmv.asx
WonderCon Clip 700k_wmv.asx