It's good and available via amazon and play, but it's status is enhanced artifically by it's martyrdom so don't get your expectations too high...
Firefly and Serenity
- Thread starter Sarcastic Chimp
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I saw the whole series online at Hulu.com if you're not sure you can watch them there for free and then if you really fall in love with it buy the series for yourself.
I personaly was NOT a Joss Whedon fan; hated Buffy, hated Angel (no one believes me but I didn't watch them). What struck me about Firefly and in turn Serenity is that it seemed more mature. There was no trashy pop culture sewage, no annoying teenagers, no "witty" Juno-isms (even though this was WAY before Juno). It was a western set in space, with falable 3-d characters, and an interesting story. You actually CARED about the crew, and the ship, and this family they created for themselves; or at least I did. And since Serenity was a way to reconnect with those characters I followed it.
I still hate Buffy, and Angel but i'm not so quick to judge Joss Whedon now as "oh I hate him." Firefly was the beginning and Dr. Horrible gave him even more of an edge.
Now Dollhouse...we'll see....
I personaly was NOT a Joss Whedon fan; hated Buffy, hated Angel (no one believes me but I didn't watch them). What struck me about Firefly and in turn Serenity is that it seemed more mature. There was no trashy pop culture sewage, no annoying teenagers, no "witty" Juno-isms (even though this was WAY before Juno). It was a western set in space, with falable 3-d characters, and an interesting story. You actually CARED about the crew, and the ship, and this family they created for themselves; or at least I did. And since Serenity was a way to reconnect with those characters I followed it.
I still hate Buffy, and Angel but i'm not so quick to judge Joss Whedon now as "oh I hate him." Firefly was the beginning and Dr. Horrible gave him even more of an edge.
Now Dollhouse...we'll see....
Did we watch the same movie? Serenity had the same cast and writing that made Firefly amazing, with the added bonus of being a feature-length film. The only difference was that Serenity had a linear plotline, rather than simply following the lives of nine people on a spaceship.cleverlymadeup said:
Yeah, going by the money...that's a good argument. Let's put aside the fact that Firefly was basically a cult series that only ran for one season rather than five previous feature films, and was therefore not guaranteed to have thousands of slavering fans camping the ticket line and that Episode III was. I'll admit it: I was really excited to see how Lucasfilms wrapped up the prequel trilogy, and I thought it was a pretty good movie at the time. I like to call it "fanboyitis". From that perspective, yeah, sure the movie is great. Looking at it from an objective standpoint, the dialogue in Episode III is simply a device to move the cameras from one special-effects-ridden action sequence to the next, whereas in Serenity it tells a story, laden with dry wit and - heaven forfend - emotion behind the lines being said. I want you to watch a scene - any scene - from Episode III, then watch a scene - again, any scene - from Serenity. When that's done, I want you to compare Hayden Christiansen's acting to Nathan Fillion's and get back to me. You can lather/rinse/repeat with any actors from either movie.
The story in Episode III is a joke, and not even a funny one. It looks like something a high-school indy project could come up with. It takes almost three hours to describe in detail how Anakin is seduced by the dark side based on a 10-second dream sequence, then, once we've established that his fear of losing her is his reason for turning, shits all over itself when he chokes her at the end. Pass on that, please. Serenity is a little clichéd, it's true: secret government project gone wrong, an intrepid group of heroes has to get the word out to the masses so that history can't repeat itself. At least it's delivered well.
This point I'll agree with you onhbomb said:
Serenity wasn't quite as good as Firefly; the premise works better as a serial opus. The hard sell for me was that it had the action sequences that Firefly lacked.
yeah kinda sux that Star Wars has a very rich story full on intrigue and is praised by many a film and literary critic for being very well writtingBasicMojo said:
yeah cause Hayden is the ONLY person in the film, hey why not some horrid acting on Sean Maher's part? or compare Nathan Fillion to Ewan Macgregor OR Sir Christopher Lee (who has more acting talent and stage/screen presence in his little pinky than most actors do)
frankly ANY movie has dialogue in between the big special effects and action scenes, hey Serenity had that too. even the original trilogy is like that, sure cheesy effects HOWEVER they were groundbreaking at the time
actually the story for Episode III much like the other 5 episodes is a rather good one with a lot of interweaving of plots and characters, a lot of Lucas' movies are studied in film school for his story telling abilities and Joss' have fanboys/fangirls fawning over it and saying how super awesome they are
the thing about the prequels is they were released after the original trilogy and more than 20 years after the originals so they allowed ppl to formulate their own ideas of what Lucas intended for the story lines and of course it's all his fault that it didn't live up to what ppl thought in their own minds
i could easily write tons on how ppl got the whole idea of what Lucas had in mind for the Star Wars saga.
Just watch out for overhype, kind of like you're seeing on this thread. After two solid years of hearing friends go "OMFG FIERFLY IZ TEH BEST SERIESESES EVAR!!!!!!!" and "OMFG SERNTYI IZ GUNA B TEH BEST MOVEI EVAR!!!!!" (I honestly wish I was exaggerating) and similar things, I was extremely let down when I watched both.
The series was annoying (especially that damned opening song), and the movie was all right but still pretty meh, and probably filled with inside jokes that I didn't pick up on.
But you're not me. You might like it.
The series was annoying (especially that damned opening song), and the movie was all right but still pretty meh, and probably filled with inside jokes that I didn't pick up on.
But you're not me. You might like it.
And I'd like to be the king of all Londonium and wear a shiny hat. This is clearly devolving into Fanboy vs. Fanboy combat, and I'd like to think that this forum is more intelligent than that. This tripe belongs on GameFAQs, or some such. Without a doubt we could each provide some other compelling arguments as to why our pick is superior to the other's, but frankly, that'd be a huge waste of time as we're not changing any minds. Let's just agree to disagree, shall we?cleverlymadeup said:
funnily enough i'm not a Star Wars or Firefly fanboy, although i did watch and like both, it's mostly the Star Wars fanboys that complain about how bad the prequels are, so unless you're fighting with yourself, it's not fanboy vs fanboy, i'm just simply pointing out lots of holes in your theoriesBasicMojo said:
Buy it, its worth it.
cleverlymadeup, how can you say that Firefly is worse than Star wars Ep III? Yes Firefly didn't make much money (it ran at a loss if I remember) but thats not a good way to judge most things.
cleverlymadeup, how can you say that Firefly is worse than Star wars Ep III? Yes Firefly didn't make much money (it ran at a loss if I remember) but thats not a good way to judge most things.
For that price, OP? Definitely buy it. I did for a great deal more and don't regret it one bit.
I was a little uncertain until somewhere around episode three (I think my mind was made up for me when Mal kicked the thug into the turbine in "Train Job.") but ended up really digging it. I'm not a huge Whedon fan, but Firefly was definitely good stuff.
I was a little uncertain until somewhere around episode three (I think my mind was made up for me when Mal kicked the thug into the turbine in "Train Job.") but ended up really digging it. I'm not a huge Whedon fan, but Firefly was definitely good stuff.
very easily cause episode iii had a better story with many more elements that make it actual good writing, the issue mostly facing it is we knew the outcome, look at the series as whole and pay attention to various elements that it has, it's got as many different literary devices as a Shakespeare playKnight Templar said:
firefly for the most part was mostly one off shows that were loosely tied together, the movie honestly was a quick tie up job of all the loose ends and to give some closure to the series
Well, here's my piece:Sarcastic Chimp said:
Firefly is a sci-fi/western story about a crew of freelancers piloting a "Firefly" Class spaceship who are just trying to have a little adventure while making money.
The crew of nine is quite a diverse cast of characters, each with their own interesting quirks and personalities with competent actors who brought out each with memorable performances, and their actions carry most of the series.
The other things that really made the show(to me) were the sense of mystery behind the antagonistic Allied Imperial government's motives(the source of the heroes' plight), and the overall tone of togetherness of the characters.
A lot of sci-fi nuts love the fact that the show has a more realistic approach to the genre, with only commercial spaceships and the odd laser gun breaking that approach on occasion. Otherwise, the weapons are all firearms with bullets, there's not an alien in sight, and there's absolutely no sound while in space. I personally don't care that these things are absent, but that's just me.
Other highlights include Joss Whedon's unique style of dialog, and his other screenwriters following suit for the episodes, and the music consisting of western-style adventure jaunts and intense pursuit scores. Add that with some entertaining gun combat, and you've got quite a nice chase epic going.
Unfortunately, it ends at a mere 14 episodes(Whedon originally intended it to last for seven seasons...which would've kicked unprecedented amounts of ass).
Then the film Serenity was released as a conclusion to the series. To say the least, it contains just about everything that made Firefly so popular, and rounded off the end with almost all the loose ends tied off.
Indeed, watch this ONLY after watching Firefly, as certain "events" occur that could detract from the emotion of series.
The biggest flaw I saw with the film was that several of the scenes that were deleted contained just about all of the character development pertaining to the character, Inara. So her involvement with the movie is drastically undercut. Otherwise, it is a compelling action movie with an engaging story and some of the greatest action scenes I believe I've ever seen.
And if you liked these two media, then you might also like the two short volumes of graphic novels that tie-in to the story, each written by Whedon himself so it loses none of the mood. There are two volumes, Serenity: Those Left Behind, which links the series to the film, and Serenity: Better Days, another tale of when the whole crew was together. Most would agree the comics could have been better, but with a few more volumes intended to be released(in order to tie up further loose ends), they are still a good read.
Hope this helps you. And yes, that is a terrific price. I whole-heartedly recommend it.
Fixed. Thanks.Starnerf said:
Right, like the "hole" you pointed out when you cited Sir Christopher Lee (who incidentally got killed off after about six seconds of screen time) despite the point that I said "You can lather/rinse/repeat with any actors from either movie." And the fact that I was praising the dialogue in Serenity rather than complaining how it stagnated the film, like Episode III. And hey, I can quote literary journals and film critics right back at you about Serenity. And all of this is overlooking the fact that these are opinions, not theories, like this is some sort of science experiment.cleverlymadeup said:
Buy it. Buy it now. And if you're feeling a bit masochistic, offer them an extra five bucks. They deserve it.
There's something I've learned about Firefly recently, that as long as you enjoy the occasional non-nudity sex scene, ANYONE can enjoy it. Even people that don't normally enjoy sci-fi.
Plus, it has the best chemistry between the cast members I've seen in anything save for House.
There's something I've learned about Firefly recently, that as long as you enjoy the occasional non-nudity sex scene, ANYONE can enjoy it. Even people that don't normally enjoy sci-fi.
Plus, it has the best chemistry between the cast members I've seen in anything save for House.
Hell yes. It's the best thing Joss Wheadon ever did. Keep an eye out for Nathan Fillion in "Castle" on ABC!Sarcastic Chimp said:
Best Line Ever:
Wash: A psychic? Isn't that like Science Fiction?
Zoe: Honey, we live in a spaceship.
And yes, the show was far more realistic about design and physics than almost any other sci-fi show, which I personally love.
Wash: A psychic? Isn't that like Science Fiction?
Zoe: Honey, we live in a spaceship.
And yes, the show was far more realistic about design and physics than almost any other sci-fi show, which I personally love.