Serenity (2005) (1 Viewer)

[Romier S]

Well, Flightplan didn't do much better with 4.5 million, and Serenity beat Flightplan with the theater average

Flightplan is also in it's second week of release. Not it's opening weekend which drew in close to 25 million in box office money.

I'll be seeing Serenity tommorrow. I loved the show and I really look forward to seeing the film!

Lance, I might also suggest you spoiler those character names you listed. The Serenity character deaths are allowed in this thread, but there are no doubt a few folks that may be interested in watching Angel and Buffy, and you've all but ruined every major death on both shows for any unsuspecting reader of this thread.

 

[Lance Nichols]

It has been done... never thought of that.. just assumed by this time Joss fans would have seen all

 

[todd s]

I enjoyed it. I did like at the very beginning how they explain what happened with Earth and how all the worlds are set up. I remember discussions when the show was on. Wondering if their are different systems or one big system. This answered the question.

Accepted Shepard's death ok. Not thrilled with Wash's.

Also, I thought when the ship got totaled on the planet. I thought of another Trek moment. Where they destroy one ship...to bring in another. I figured at the end they would get a new ship.

And finally I hope Joss(who is doing the Wonder Woman movie) casts Morena Baccarin to play WW. I know he is looking at her.

 

[David Rosen]

I too loved the beginning, especially how we finally get to see Simon's rescue of River. In the TV show it always sounded like Simon had a secondary role in getting River, and the movie showed just how determined he was to rescue his sister by going into the stronghold himself.

Oh- Lance, you forgot my most devastating Joss Whedon death:

Cordelia- a great episode that redeemed the character only to end in her death. Also, the death was the most underdone of the ones you mention, so it really had the chance to sink in

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

And finally I hope Joss(who is doing the Wonder Woman movie) casts Morena Baccarin to play WW.

I don't. I've had enough of this casting people who don't naturally resemble the characters they're playing, and then trying to make them look more like the characters artificially by dying their hair or giving them coloured contact lenses (ie Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four, and Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, who both get blue contact lenses).
Why can't people do casting like the kind that picked Christopher Reeve for Superman and Lynda Carter for Wonder Woman? I know those were special individuals and it's not easy to find people like that who naturally look like they were born to play the part AND are good actors, but it's a big world with a lot of actors in it, and finding those types isn't impossible. And by the way, yes, I am aware of how shallow and fanboyish that sounded.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The overboard action sequences (kick ass action, but too much), the fact that a season's worth of plot was crammed into two hours, and stuff like that just made it feel very different than the show. That's to be expected, it's for a different audience in a different format with different expectations, but I still missed the slower, more expansive feel of the show.

This was my primary complaint as well (the thing that kept me from giving the film a full four stars). The one scene that I felt really captured the feel of the show was at the very end, when Mal enters the bridge to lift off the newly-patched up ship. From the way the camera lingers on Wash's empty chair to the way the rest of the scene is just River and Mal talking, saying nothing but meaning everything, that nailed the feel of the show at its best. The sequel, if there is one, won't have the burden of this exposition so hopefully it'll have time for more scenes like that one. It was probably the most moving in the entire film for me.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I really enjoyed it. Packed theatre too. I agree with the tone change. One of the things that made Firefly is the intimacy of the characters and with the TV to Big Screen movie much of that is lost.

Kaylee gets the best lines, " I want to Live."

Much better than the prequel Star Wars trilogy but unfortunatly won't do nearly as good.

There is no justice.

 

[Tony-M]

Josh did great with this movie. I will miss Shepard and his taunts at the captains conscience, soul, Moral, etc... Plus as stated before his past. There could of been so much more done with that character. Wash's best line in the movie and series was the leaf statement. I thought that was his best acting yet in the show. Only Joss can brake your heart in killing characters you grow to love(Jenny,anya,Wesly) to name a few.

I think it's great that the fans are making a difference with T. V. shows. (Farscape)

 

[Chad R]

At Dragon*Con the actors revealed tht for universal to greenlight a sequel the film had to earn $80 million worldwide. These numbers are entirely encouraging towards that end.

However, I'm very satisfied that this movie has filled that emptiness one feels after watching the final episode of the series. If this is the end of Firefly, I feel a sense of completion.

 

[Malcolm R]

Not quite, considering the film was budgeted at $45 million. So, considering the split with theater owners, it needs probably close to $100 million before it breaks even (but, as noted above, Universal is looking for a worldwide gross of around $80M, since they know it'll probably make a killing on DVD too).

 

[Phil Florian]

I've had enough of this casting people who don't naturally resemble the characters they're playing

Yeah, and that Baccarin is normally a 4'2" with short blond hair and...wait a minute, that's her real hair?? :-D She is already kind of playing a stately woman with a lot of self control yet can kick ass at a moment's notice...sounds like the Amazon of my dreams, baby. Unless she is always in costume after Firefly, she looks pretty much how I would expect WW to look when I have seen in her non-movie photos. I think she has the chops for both the serious and funny (which is a prerequisite for a Whedon movie) and will still be "unknown" enough to still be fresh to moviegoers.

Granted, the perfect WW might be auditioning right now but until then, I think our Inara would do just fine.

 

[Lance Nichols]

David Rosen - you are right, I totaly missed

Cordilia - WHY!!!!!


Her last episode was just SO well done... I loved seeing her, and then that last scene between her and Angel.



Cordilia: "oh hell... one for the road"

*crosses room kisses Angel passionately*

*phone rings*

Angel: "I...ah... I... I don't need to get that"

Cordilia: "That..."*sighs* "That, you have to get"

Cordilia: "Oh, and your welcome"

*Angel answers, argues with other side shocked, hurt expresion, lets phone drop from his ear, brings it back up*

Angel: "I'm sorry, when did she die?... Did she, uhm.... She never did wake up? I... see"

*slowly hangs up phone*

*tears*

Angel: "Thank you"



*me chokes STILL*

 

[ThomasC]

In the TV show it always sounded like Simon had a secondary role in getting River

 

[David Rosen]

One more thought-

Did anyone else feel like the Serenity crew were a lot less afraid of the Reavers in the movie than they were in the show? My friend noticed that when we watched it, and after watching the episode of Firefly that had the Reavers, I tend to agree with her.

 

[Phil Florian]

Re: Simon and River escape. I think the movie can synch up with the show just fine. He never says he wasn't directly involved...only that they helped him get her out. This happens in the teaser of the film as it required a ship to get him out in the end. And we can only assume that the weapon, his cover and so on were provided by these other people.

Re: Fear of reavers. I don't know, they seemed pretty scared to me. The opening scene they barely paused to get a handful of gold and got out of Dodge very quickly. They didn't stay to fight or anything. In the finale, they were just as frightened but they weren't fighting for their lives. They were fighting for a Cause. They had no illusions of survival at that point, just buying time. I thought the fear was pretty palpable. Not as much as the show ("Jayne, you're scaring the women"- still one of my favorite lines) but then again, they had an entire episode about the Reavers without ever showing one. They had to be more scared. You could say the same thing about Alien and Aliens. The fear of the alien creature is substantially reduced and changed to something else when there is more of them. One alien=horror movie. More than one=war movie. Same with this show. They established that Reavers were worse than death, to the point where shooting a man is better than leaving him to live. I didn't need to see them wetting themselves the rest of the movie to know that.

IMHO, of course.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I had to scratch my head, wondering if Whedon had any inkling that Baccarin would come up as a candidate as WW given that her garb in the final stanza had her outfitted in a tight top, reminiscent of WW's top portion of her costume, and had her shooting a bow and arrow as her weapon (an Amazon's weapon - with their name, "a mazon" derived from having one breast removed so they could shot their bow and arrows without the string catching one of their breasts during releasing of the string).

 

[Chris S]

Weekend estimates care of BoxOfficeMojo
1Flightplan $15,038,000
2 Serenity $10,141,000
3 Tim Burton's Corpse Bride $9,755,000
Lets hope word of mouth stays good. I'm hoping for a theaterical run along the lines of "There's Something About Mary". Good word of mouth with continual solid numbers but never hitting the #1 spot. In any event I'm seeing it atleast once more before the end of next week.

 

[todd s]

I don't. I've had enough of this casting people who don't naturally resemble the characters they're playing, and then trying to make them look more like the characters artificially by dying their hair or giving them coloured contact lenses (ie Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four, and Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, who both get blue contact lenses).

Why can't people do casting like the kind that picked Christopher Reeve for Superman and Lynda Carter for Wonder Woman? I know those were special individuals and it's not easy to find people like that who naturally look like they were born to play the part AND are good actors, but it's a big world with a lot of actors in it, and finding those types isn't impossible. And by the way, yes, I am aware of how shallow and fanboyish that sounded.

I can't understand what you are saying regarding Morena looks more Greek than Lynda Carter...which is what WW's background is supposed to be.

 

[Will_B]

River is supposed to be 17?

 

[Henry Gale]

I'm not usually around on opening weekend, too many people, too much left to chance. But, hell, it's Serenity and I haven't seen the film in nearly 5 months.
The multiplex also has A History of Violence so I let the numbers decide.
I asked the manager,"Which movie has less people in it?"
He tells me that it's pretty close but due to a bigger room Serenity has more open seats. That settles it.
The back row is already pretty full so I make my best choice with what's left. Of course, I choose wrong. :frowning:
He's about my age (OK he's 10 years younger) and he's probably watched the DVD set. So, he obviously needs to explain lots of important stuff to the woman sitting to his left. They're in front of me, off to the right abit so I'm hearing him. He's having to shout over the movie during the action bits.
You know how it is, you waited a long time to see this movie, you've driven a long way and...
Hell, looking back, I was really lucky. I don't think there was a child in the theater.
But, this guy was going at every 30 seconds of so, it was gonna ruin the movie.
Why am I always the only one to say anything? Why not the guy right behind them? Anyone else?
No.
I leaned forward and just told him what was on my mind, "Why am I sitting here trying to think of a nice way to tell you to shut up?"
He turned and let loose with some sarcastic version of, "OH, Excuse Me,I'm Sorry."
I let it go, it can't be fun having a stranger admonish your behavior in front of your girl.
But, it worked, he didn't make another sound.
I loved Serenity!
It was just so satisfying for it to be as intense as it was.
Not a guilty pleasure, just a ripping good yarn even if you'd never heard of Firefly.
Wish I had a better memory of everything I saw and heard at the preview last May but it was more involving in its completed form.
When I left the room the only other credit reader turned to me and said, "It's better the second time!" I asked him when he saw it the first time.
"Yesterday."
I'll be going back tomorrow or Tuesday. Wanna make sure there's a sequel or two.
AP WIRE
"The science-fiction tale “Serenity,” a continuation of writer-director Joss Whedon’s cult TV series “Firefly,” debuted in second place with $10.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday."