EPMC#2: Serenity

[Heradel]

Confused? Got a better name than EP Movie Club? See here: http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=1476.0

————————

Serenity

Serenity is a 2005 space western film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It follows on from the canceled Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place about two months after the events of the final episode.[1] Set 510 years in the future, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a transport and cargo ship. The captain and first mate are veterans of the Unification War, having fought on the losing side. Their lives of petty crime are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbors a dangerous secret.
The film was released in North America on September 30, 2005 by Universal Pictures. It received generally positive reviews and opened at number two, taking in $10.1 million its first weekend, spending two weeks in the top ten, and totaling a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million and a foreign box office gross of $13.3 million.[2] Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005[3] and FilmFocus.[4] It also won IGN Film's Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie.[5] It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script for 2005, the 7th annual 'User Tomato Awards' for best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes, the 2006 viewers choice Spacey Award for favorite movie, the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form[6] and the 2006 Prometheus Special Award.
— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_%28film%29

Links:
Amazon:$12 (Widescreen), $20 (Collector's edition)
Netflix
IMDB

————————

For next week (Thread goes up Monday the 14th):
The Truman Show
" The film is set in a hypothetical world, called Seahaven, where an entire town is dedicated to a continually running television show. All of the participants are actors, except the central character, Truman Burbank, who is unaware that he lives in a constructed reality for the entertainment of those outside. " — Wikipedia.
Links:
Amazon:$8 (Collector's edition)
Netflix
IMDB

Let me know if the links are broken.

Also, please post suggestions for future movies with your posts.

[Chodon]

Never heard of it.

[Bdoomed]

yea me neither.  whats a serenity?  sounds like some kind of soup.

[Heradel]

Oh Hardy Har har.

I liked it, but it didn't match Firefly at it's best. Then again, Whedon's more of a long-format storyteller, and he was definitely crunching a bunch of episodes into one two-hour movie. The set did feel kind of alien, they definitely killed most of the warm tones — which wasn't a bad thing. It was a much colder movie. I did wish they'd kept the same leather suspenders though.

[Bdoomed]

I really cant say much about this movie.  I never saw the original Firefly series, so i wouldnt know how it compares.  But i can say that i definately enjoyed this movie!

[Russell Nash]

The sad part about this movie was the way Whedon was jetisoning ideas.  Miranda was probably at the end of a three season arc originally.  We wouldn't have seen what River had really become for at least that amount of time.  But I did have a warm feeling getting back into the feel of the series again.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

I probably shouldn't have, but I watched the movie immediately after finishing the series.  As I've explained elsewhere, I wasn't expecting to like the series so much; it's the first time I can ever recall a series in which every episode really blew me away!  So, when I finished the last episode, I just had to get the movie.

I tried to wait, but couldn't resist.  And I think I was destined to be disappointed.

Speaking generally (so's not to bust the spoiler cherry):
*I did NOT like what happened with Wash.
*I really missed the theme song (I know... that's probably silly of me)
*I wanted to learn more about Jayne than we did
*The resolution of Shepherd Book's tale felt right, but would have been more satisfying played out over a larger story arc

The tone of the film was much colder than the series (as Heradel mentioned), and while that in itself wasn't "bad" (it did suit the story) it seemed unnecessarily gloomy to me at the time.  The series had an "old worn, comfortable boot" kind of feel to it, while the film was more tense, stretched, and (unavoidably) compressed.

In the end, it just highlighted the folly of cancelling the series, instead of letting it unfold over time as it was meant to do.  I'll be looking for the later seasons if an "Impossible Dreams" ever opens near me.

[Russell Nash]

I'll be looking for the later seasons if an "Impossible Dreams" ever opens near me.

Whatever the price just buy them for me.  I'll pay you back.

[Heradel]

I'll be looking for the later seasons if an "Impossible Dreams" ever opens near me.

Whatever the price just buy them for me.  I'll pay you back.

But you know it's going to show up in ten years on an HD-DVD disk, and you'll be spending the rest of your life trying to track down one of those.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

I'll be looking for the later seasons if an "Impossible Dreams" ever opens near me.

Whatever the price just buy them for me.  I'll pay you back.

But you know it's going to show up in ten years on an HD-DVD disk, and you'll be spending the rest of your life trying to track down one of those.

Or Whedon will wait 20 years or so and come out with Episode One: The Blue Handed Menace.   

[Thaurismunths]

First off, I have to say that Firefly is the first and only TV series where I've caught myself wondering what kind of future episodes would have happened. Actually wondering "I wonder if they'd ever do a 'dream sequence' one, or maybe a running gag where Wash is trying to tell a joke and get interrupted...."
So the movie, a little bit of a letdown. It would have made a GREAT season finale, but was only an OK movie. Things like the conclusion of River's story arc were both a little to abrupt, and a little too soon. There was a lot more to be done with the characters than what had been done, but trying to accomplish as much as Whedon was in what little time he had mad things too protracted.

[sirana]

I watch it every christmas to see how much it still hurts...

[williamjamesw]

I'm still unsure which hurts more; the losses of Book & Wash, or the way Serenity herself was torn up in that landing.  Every time I've watched the movie, I get a tightness in my chest and nearly start to tear up with all the tearing, scraping metal, and It just seems so painful. 

Then again, I tend to be more attached to the mechanical characters than I am with organic ones. 

[Darwinist]

I missed the series but I saw the movie in the theaters at the recommendation of a friend prior.  I thought the movie was excellent so I went and got the series DVD's.  It was neat to watch the movie again after watching the series and knowing more background of the characters.  Like williamsjamesw said, it was even more of a bummer watching the movie for the second time seeing the ship get torn up and characters die. 

[Russell Nash]

Who's backstory would you like to know the most about?

1) Mal:  How did he end up fighting as a browncoat?
2) Zoe:  Same as Mal, How did he really earn her loyalty?  Was it over years or was there one defining event?
3) Wash:  Why did he become a pilot?  If he was so good, why did he end up on Serenity?
4) Book:  How did he end up as a Shepard and what was he before?
5) River/Simon:  Is there anything else we need to know?
6) Jayne:  I don't know if there are any questions, but there has got to be some good stories.
7) Kaylee:  We got a little of her backstory, but is there something we don't know?
Inara:  What was a companion of her quality really doing out there "in the black"?

Since BSG is entering its last season, I wonder if someone could get SciFi to make more of Firefly.  I doubt it, but I have a better chance of that than I do of finding the "Impossible Dreams" video store.

[Thaurismunths]

Who's backstory would you like to know the most about?

1) Mal:  How did he end up fighting as a browncoat?
2) Zoe:  Same as Mal, How did he really earn her loyalty?  Was it over years or was there one defining event?
3) Wash:  Why did he become a pilot?  If he was so good, why did he end up on Serenity?
4) Book:  How did he end up as a Shepard and what was he before?
5) River/Simon:  Is there anything else we need to know?
6) Jayne:  I don't know if there are any questions, but there has got to be some good stories.
7) Kaylee:  We got a little of her backstory, but is there something we don't know?
Inara:  What was a companion of her quality really doing out there "in the black"?

Since BSG is entering its last season, I wonder if someone could get SciFi to make more of Firefly.  I doubt it, but I have a better chance of that than I do of finding the "Impossible Dreams" video store.

Book. Hands down.  I think I have his history pegged, and I'd really like to see if I'm right, what his former life was like, and how he came to be what he is.

First runner up is Badger: totally overlooked, but probably one of the most interesting characters on the show.

In no particular order:
Mal: I'd like to know what his beef is with the alliance because it's SO personal. I'd guess it was either multiple events (systematic destruction of all the towns on his planet) or some act of unusual cruelty (burning his mother's new caravan, with her in it).
Jayne: To see his family life, where he came from, and why he's so damn good at fighting.
Inra: How she became a companion, space-hooker boot camp, and why she's so eager to be on the Alliance's fringes.
The Tams: To get a better view of life in Alliance space.

Other:
Zoe: Not so terribly interested in her back story, but she makes a great straight-man for the whole crew. I'd like to see the "Secret Life of Zoe." the one where she dreams of becoming, I dunno, a mime, or a ballet dancer. Something totally incongruent. 
Wash: Again, not terribly interested in his back story, but I would like to see inside his head. A whole episode of dino-therapy.