The
British think that Serenity, the movie based on the short-lived Firefly series, was pretty damn good.
Good enough, in fact, that they voted it among the top movies of the year in a poll for Channel 4. It comes in at
Number 3.The station's website says "the excitement and spectacular set-pieces are in place, but they are balanced by strong characterisation, distinctive dialogue and effective performances." Yes, that is a rather tempered way of saying "we love these guys!" I know it was my favorite movie-going experience of the year because 1) I went on opening night with a bunch of Firefly fans who cheered throughout the movie and then freaked out when a certain character met up with a certain toothpick the size of a telephone pole, and 2) I love those those guys!
Here are the Top 5 movies according to the Channel 4 poll:
5. Crash
4. King Kong
3. Serenity
2. Batman Begins
1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
That number one pick is a real shocker, eh?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-08-2006 @ 1:44PM
JimK said...
Serenity suffers from Firefly bleed-over. We're all such huge fans of Firefly that we either won't or don't see how weak Serenity was as a film.
It's Resident Evil meets Hackers, with the cast of Firefly. The sets looked wrong, the stylized dialogue was watered down, the ship was cold steel and blue lighting...Joss gave up too much control to the studio and they made it generic.
Watch the show straight through them watch teh film. It doesn't hold up. And yet it's still better than 95% of the crap the studios put out this year though.
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1-08-2006 @ 2:17PM
Dymnos said...
Telephone size toothpick /cry They picked the wrong one.
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1-08-2006 @ 2:51PM
doc said...
I think this poll says more about the Whedon/Firefly fans than it does about the actual popularity of the movie. The Whedon/Firefly fandom is small, but loud and very wired. That inflates their standing in any online poll. Out of curiousity, I looked up the box office numbers for the movies on the list. Numbers in rounded millions.
Crash 7 budget - 80 boxoffice
King Kong 207 budget - 465 boxoffice
Serenity 39 budget - 39 boxoffice
Batman Begins 150 budget - 371 boxoffice
Goblet of Fire - 150 budget - 850 boxoffice
That's not to say that boxoffice numbers equate to movie quality, but if we play which one doesn't belong, only one movie is losing money on that list.
To me, the problem with Serenity is that Joss Whedon never decided what movie he was making. Was it a movie for the new fan, or a movie for people that had seen the series? He tried to please them all and in the end didn't capture a huge new audience, while annoying a section of the fans of the series.
I understand what you mean about the movie going experience. I saw it on the first round of pre screenings in a sold out Seattle theater. Being a prescreening that was announced on the Serenity site, almost everyone there was a huge fan. When Adam Baldwin ran down the aisle to introduce the movie the place went crazy. It was going to see a rock concert.
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1-08-2006 @ 8:26PM
wakey said...
Its easy to state that it acheived this result because of the fans but unlike the Film2005 poll you cant pin that arguement to this poll. I dont know how Channel4 conducted the poll but it certainly wasnt hyjacked by the fans as the first any of the usual fans haunts heard about it was the results being posted. The results are those of genuine UK movie goers and not a small but vocal internet fanbase
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1-10-2006 @ 4:00PM
Emily said...
I didn't watch Firefly first time around but noticed it playing on SciFi a week or so ago and have in on Tivo. I probably wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been for the aricles here on TVSquad.
Do you think the movie (and perhaps the tv show) would have done better if it had a different title? My husband completely walked by it at the video store thinking it was a chick-flick by only glancing at the title and not even picking it up.
I enjoyed the movie and look forward to watching the tv shows when I get the chance.
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