New movie "Serenity"

[Bigshadow]

Last night my son and I went to the movies and watched Serenity. It is a pretty good Sci-Fi action movie that evidently is a spin off of Firefly(?). It had many elements I have seen in other "great IMHO" movies such as Resident Evil, Lord of the Rings, and even Sixth Sense. There is also the 1984 INSOC element as well.

I am not going to try and summarize what the movie was about, my interest in posting this is the recognizable difference of fight scenes.

*Here is the part that is hard to describe*
There was a character in the movie who is an assasin. Anyway, I noticed that the choreographers must have done a "little bit" more work to tie the fictional character to some form Hollywood reality. The things I noticed about the character which I haven't seen in other movies was the implied connection to the samurai and the bushido code. There was also what appeared to be an attempt to portray the assasin as using koppojutsu and Kyusho in the fight scenes. The reason it stands out to me is that it appears there was a shift in fight scene styles in this movie compared to other similar movies. Of course there are other scenes with other characters where it is more kung fu like (as far as my untrained kung fu eyes can tell).

Overall, it was a good movie, story line and *some* good special effects.

If anyone else has seen it, let me know what you thought of it.

 

[BrandiJo]

i thought the movie was awesome. I dont go out to them much ( money nad college budget) but this was on my bf and something i wouldnt mind paying to see when it comes out on DVD

 

[michaeledward]

Joss Whedon spent seven years working on those fight scenes. A lot of the moves by River were first done by Buffy.

A fun movie ... the language is a bit difficult at times.

My wife, who is the big fan of this show, has pointed out that those words you can't understand, are often swear words in Mandarin.

 

[Gemini]

I was tempted to try this one, being it's the kind of movie I like, but wasn't completely sold by the trailer. I'm glad oi hear it was decent. Maybe I'll give it a try. Trailers aren't everything.

 

[arnisador]

We hope to see it tomorrow! My wife is a big fan of Firefly too.

 

[Cryozombie]

Joss Whedon spent seven years working on those fight scenes. A lot of the moves by River were first done by Buffy.

A fun movie ... the language is a bit difficult at times.

My wife, who is the big fan of this show, has pointed out that those words you can't understand, are often swear words in Mandarin.

I though the old-skool southern "dialect" sounded really forced too.

I always referred to the original firefly series as "Hicks in Space" but they really kind of forced it in the movie I felt.

 

[Sapper6]

My wife, who is the big fan of this show, has pointed out that those words you can't understand, are often swear words in Mandarin.

does your wife speak chinese (cantonese or mandarin)...?

if so, can she read/translate as well? if so, could use some help.

 

[Ping898]

I liked the movie a lot. I felt it tied in good as a continuation to the series. Some of those fight scenes were pretty nice too, you could tell a lot of work went into them.

 

[michaeledward]

does your wife speak chinese (cantonese or mandarin)...?

if so, can she read/translate as well? if so, could use some help.

No, she doesn't. It's just some information she has picked up from the Joss Whedon message boards and fanfic sites. The whole family was pretty rabid Buffy and Angel fans. I never watched Firefly, but she did.

Apparently, the pronounciation of the Mandarin is pretty poor ... and that is intentional. Other than that ... don't know much.

It is a clever way to get past the censors (Kinda like 'fraq' in Battlestar Galactica).

 

[Xequat]

I love Angel and Buffy, but I haven't really had much chance to watch Firefly yet...hopefully I'll get the DVD's for Christmas. Do you need to see the whole show before the movie? I have seen the pilot episode, which I think was actually titled Serenity.

 

[arnisador]

We saw it today. It was pretty good!

 

[goshawk]

I love Angel and Buffy, but I haven't really had much chance to watch Firefly yet...hopefully I'll get the DVD's for Christmas. Do you need to see the whole show before the movie? I have seen the pilot episode, which I think was actually titled Serenity.

Well, first I should say that I own the DVDs and my roommate and I are both massive fans of the series, and that we've already seen Serenity twice. And we absolutely and unequivocally loved it (obviously, what with the "saw it twice" thing").

I don't think you need to know the series to enjoy it, but it does lose somethibg without that background. What made it a strong series is what made it a difficult movie; you come to know and love the characters through a slow, subtle process of observing their everyday interactions and quirks. Thus, knowing the series, the impact of the movie (especially the emotional impact) is at least ten times as great as for someone coming in cold.

As a "fan" (gods I hate that word, irrational I know), I would say to watch the season before the movie, just because that's the way to do it right. But I'm known as somewhat OCD about seeing series/reading books in their proper order, for the same reason.

So. If you're not too fussed about it, go watch the movie. You'll have fun. If you want the experience entire, see the series first, and proceed to have your heart ripped out by the movie.

 

[Jelik]

Thanks for your review!

 

[arnisador]

I don't think you need to know the series to enjoy it

I agree--I think they did a surprisingly good job of that.

 

[Blindside]

The only episode of Firefly that I saw was the first one, and that helped alot. I thought it was interesting how they downplayed (as in forgot to mention) what exactly a Companion is and what her career entails. I like Joss Whedon's dialogue, but things in this movie felt a bit forced. As a sci-fi fan the instant jumping to other planets was an annoyance, the "oh that star system is over there with all that Reaver territory in between, and the next scene is them approaching the low earth orbit of the planet. I'm hoping there are alot of scenes that were left on the cutting room floor that will be added in for a LOTR-style extended version.

Lamont

 

[arnisador]

There were lots of similarlities to other sci-fi shows and movies. The Reaver zone made me think of Star Trek's neutral zone.

 

[AceHBK]

I tried to get itnot he movie due to the rave reviews I heard from friends and people at blockbuster but I couldn't. I didnt enjoy it at all.

On the opposite end, I enjoyed Equilibrum tho.