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Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating buying the box
DVD, I'm curious as to what others think of it?

Just read the following on "Serenity", the -- uh -- "movie spinoff",
over at Yahoo:

"The film centers on a veteran captain of a galactic war, who, with a
small crew, rents out his ship, Serenity, for the purposes of
transport-for-hire and pulling off small crimes.

When the captain takes on two new passengers, he soon learns that they
are hotly pursued fugitives from the coalition controlling the universe.

A whole host of trouble follows for the captain and his fearless crew,
as they find themselves the prey of evil "

Gee...replace "Millenium Falcon" with "Sereniity", and you basically
have the plot of this little 1977 movie....how novel! <g>

Peter Briggs <pete@DIESPAMDIE!cinescribe.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating buying the
> box DVD, I'm curious as to what others think of it?

It's a great show. I loved it while it was on TV, and it's
even better when viewed on DVD, in the proper
episode order and in the proper aspect ratio. The
DVD set itself is a finely produced set worthy of any
TV show. The 14 episodes are all entertaining, with
a few of them being some of the best TV ever produced.
Since the series was cut short by the cancellation by FOX,
the show does leave you hanging regarding some long-running
plot threads, but hopefully the new movie will answer some,
while still remaining accessable to those unfamiliar with the
show.

> Just read the following on "Serenity", the -- uh -- "movie spinoff",
> over at Yahoo:
>
> "The film centers on a veteran captain of a galactic war, who, with a
> small crew, rents out his ship, Serenity, for the purposes of
> transport-for-hire and pulling off small crimes.
>
> When the captain takes on two new passengers, he soon learns that they
> are hotly pursued fugitives from the coalition controlling the
> universe.
>
> A whole host of trouble follows for the captain and his fearless crew,
> as they find themselves the prey of evil "
>
> Gee...replace "Millenium Falcon" with "Sereniity", and you basically
> have the plot of this little 1977 movie....how novel! <g>

Joss Whedon, the creator of the show, said the idea for the show
came when he was reading "Killer Angels," and thinking about
how to create a show about the people history just kinda walked
over. Then he thought "Millenium Falcon." So Star Wars was
definately an influence. However, Lucas has stated that Star
Wars was inspired by Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS,
and a similarly vauge plot outline of that film could paint Star
Wars as a straight ripoff. In reality, Firefly and Star Wars
differ wildly from their inspirations.

The one thing the captains of Serenity and Millenium Falcon
do have in common though, is that both would shoot Greebo
first.

-Jay

"Peter Briggs" <pete@DIESPAMDIE!cinescribe.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1ga4dq8.1npn86l1ydb1a8N%pete@DIESPAMDIE!cines cribe.demon.co.uk...
> Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating buying the
box
> DVD, I'm curious as to what others think of it?

Knowing that you aren't fond of any of Whedon's other works, I'd say
it's a risky proposition from your perspective.

> Gee...replace "Millenium Falcon" with "Sereniity", and you basically
> have the plot of this little 1977 movie....how novel! <g>

Yeah, the show has blatant influences like that, but it's really much
more a Western than Star Wars.

Full review here:

http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi...7/firefly.html

Peter Briggs wrote on [Thu, 4 Mar 2004 10:44:50 +0000]:
> Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating buying the box
> DVD, I'm curious as to what others think of it?

I liked it. In broadcast order it was a little strange, but in the
correct order it's much better. Of course, our tastes differ.


> Gee...replace "Millenium Falcon" with "Sereniity", and you basically
> have the plot of this little 1977 movie....how novel! <g>

Yeah, as a vague outline, sure. Of course, it's not exactly like Star
Wars was an original concept.

> Knowing that you aren't fond of any of Whedon's other works, I'd say
> it's a risky proposition from your perspective.
>
Doesn't apply to me. I'm not into Buffy or any of its associates, but I love
Firefly.

pete@DIESPAMDIE!cinescribe.demon.co.uk (Peter Briggs) wrote:

> Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating
> buying the box DVD, I'm curious as to what others think
> of it?

I love it. But you and I disagree on a lot of things, so
you might take this with a grain of salt. Basically, though,
you need to look beyond it's SF/Western fusion milieu, and
pay attention to its thematic strengths.

> Just read the following on "Serenity", the -- uh -- "movie
> spinoff", over at Yahoo:
>
> "The film centers on a veteran captain of a galactic war,
> who, with a small crew, rents out his ship, Serenity, for
> the purposes of transport-for-hire and pulling off small
> crimes.
>
> When the captain takes on two new passengers, he soon
> learns that they are hotly pursued fugitives from the
> coalition controlling the universe.
>
> A whole host of trouble follows for the captain and his
> fearless crew, as they find themselves the prey of evil "
>
> Gee...replace "Millenium Falcon" with "Sereniity", and
> you basically have the plot of this little 1977 movie....
> how novel! <g>

Sure, you can come up with a plot description that makes
it sound like STAR WARS. But in execution, it's very much
different.

As an analogy, here's a plot description for another movie
that was released in 1977:

"An ordinary working-class man has an encounter with an
unearthly visitation, which drives him in an obsessive
search for the truth about his visions. In the process,
he alienates his family and friends, who all think he's
become unhinged. In the end, however, he's proven right."

Oh, and his wife is played by Teri Garr.

Now...would you like to claim that CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE
THIRD KIND and OH, GOD! are at all alike?

-- jayembee

It was a great TV show that Fox totally screwed up with it's quirky
scheduling. I got the box set right when it came out. The only problem:
there is no ending or explanations because Fox cancelled it way to soon. I
still recommend it.

jayembee <> wrote:

> As an analogy, here's a plot description for another movie
> that was released in 1977:
>
> "An ordinary working-class man has an encounter with an
> unearthly visitation, which drives him in an obsessive
> search for the truth about his visions. In the process,
> he alienates his family and friends, who all think he's
> become unhinged. In the end, however, he's proven right."
>
> Oh, and his wife is played by Teri Garr.
>
> Now...would you like to claim that CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE
> THIRD KIND and OH, GOD! are at all alike?

Well, there are really only 10 plots in the world... <g>

"Peter Briggs" <pete@DIESPAMDIE!cinescribe.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1ga4dq8.1npn86l1ydb1a8N%pete@DIESPAMDIE!cines cribe.demon.co.uk...
> Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating buying the box
> DVD, I'm curious as to what others think of it?

I recently watched the box set and it blew me away. I tried one episode when
it aired and sort of bounced off of it; I believe that had I seen the pilot
first, as presented in the box set, I would have become a devotee from the
start, especially had they then aired the episode in order, which they
didn't.

I never watched Buffy, but having liked Firefly so much I borrowed the Buffy
boxes from a friend who's been urging me to try them. I'm enjoying them
too -- more as the series matures in Seasons 2 and 3 -- but Firefly is very
different, and I think whether you like one or the other has less to do with
being a "Whedon fan" than with the merits of the series themselves.

IMO, Firefly was killed by Fox with malice and intent. It didn't fail
because of its quality or content. At that point the network had seen what
far less than Firefly's $2 million a week could buy them, and we've seen the
results in the endless parade of increasingly mind-numbingly stupid
surreality programming.

I don't know if I'm excited about the movie or not. After all, it won't
really be a continuation of the series; it will have to cover old ground and
make other narrative compromises to fit the stand-alone 2-hour format. On
the other hand, Whedon hasn't had a shot at a theatrical feature since he's
matured as a writer/director, and it'll be cool to see what he can do with a
decent budget and creative control.

I don't believe you'll regret investing in the Firefly box.

RichC

pete@DIESPAMDIE!cinescribe.demon.co.uk (Peter Briggs) wrote in
news:1ga4dq8.1npn86l1ydb1a8N%pete@DIESPAMDIE!cines cribe.demon.co.uk:

> Having not seen a frame of the TV show, and contemplating buying the box
> DVD, I'm curious as to what others think of it?

I have the box set of the series and was less then impressed, I will give
the movie a miss.

--
Trevor S


"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
-Albert Einstein