The film "Serenity." Dislike it very much. It is corny TV-worthy crap.

Why did respected liberal bloggers, among others, endorse this hackneyed hunk-o-junk?

Oh the corn: how it aches!

Sorry to be late to the party, but I just rented it and cannot believe how fully lame it is.

Just what this one was about? A brief summary, if you would.......

I don't remember it!

I do know it was NOT on my list of films to see....


Thanks....BTW, were you hit by the loss of power up there? I heard about it yesterday, and thought of you.

Hope you weren't!

:hi:

Here is one synopsis of Serenity from imdb.com:

River Tam and her brother Simon are hiding out from the totalitarian government that experimented with River's brain aboard the space-freighter Serenity. Captained by a down on his luck, no faith soldier, the crew of Serenity must take jobs (legal or not) while avoiding the Alliance, and keeping the Tams safe. But when things get out of hand with the true extent of River's powers, the Alliance sends a new Operative to make sure what River knows doesn't get out. How will the crew of Serenity deal with this new threat? And what exactly does River know that the Operative is willing to kill for?

corny. So I stayed away.

I wish I had seen the trailer.

I felt sorry for the actors on several occasions. They had an awful screenplay to regurgitate.

My filmwatching pal was reminded of Harrison Ford's words to George Lucas: "George, maybe you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can't say it!"

Glib generalizations don't fly.

WHY is it awful. How did it fail you?

Let's dig into this. Or is it more fun just to throw names just as how the three stooges threw pies at one another back in 1938?

Comparing Serenity to Star Wars is also a mistake... At least Serenity tries to be intellectual. SW is just pablum for toddlers by comparison...

I loved it, but I didn't go in expecting great art.

the actors were too pretty, but the characters were interesting and it was kind of a cool concept. Not sure if the film was a spin-off from that or the other way round. OTOH I am the type that likes pretty much anyone who tries to do sci-fi.

on edit, noted that the show was called Firefly....

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0322002/

Ron Glass has been around for a long while, though he took a break during the 1980s...

Never mind Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is one hell of an actor and has been around for 5 years in various projects.

Gina Torres is also a prime contender for the upcoming Wonder Woman film... and this no-name has been around since 1994.

Adam Baldwin, another no-name to some of the obviously blind, goes back to 1980. Quite a few roles under his belt too.

Sheesh. It's amazing how people don't bother to go to a movie just because they don't recognize the names of the actors?! My god, no wonder America has problems... One big petty status-symbol clique, is that it?!


And if I was to be prejudicial, folks like Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, et al, couldn't act to save their pansy-ass lives if they had to. :P :)

recognizing them, and the film looking cheezy in the trailer, too.

I can't evaluate this since I haven't seen it. I don't judge everything by past record either. Heath Ledger mainly played teen hunk roles but he has the performance of a generation in "Brokeback Mountain" which I just got back from seeing tonight, who'da thunk it?

as soap opera......

Am I close? I don't think I'd enjoy it either.....

Sorry you endured it.

And I'm glad you were not hit by the power outage....

I applaud you, yet again.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/

edit: okay serenity not serendipity. It is time for me to get my eyes checked

but I like corn, just not when it is popped.
What kind of movies do you like?

I like a lot of different types of movies.

I like these:

Goodfellas
Mildred Pierce
The Big Lebowski
Blue Velvet
Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More
Desperate Living
Female Trouble
The King of Comedy
Stranger than Paradise
Bad Santa
The Exorcist
Mickey One
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
La Dolce Vita
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Friday
Office Space
Eraserhead

and many more.

What kind of movies do you like?

although I obviously am aware of some of them - office space, goodfellas, exorcist, and the Big Lebowski. The last one being, I believe by the Coen brothers, and I follow them since I took an economics course from their dad.
Looking at my shelf I see John Q, Superman, War Games, Pump up the volume, Short Circuit, Billy Jack, the Matrix, Galaxy Quest.

I lost my copy a few moves back. Samantha Mathis is still one of my favorite female actresses.

As for Serenity, I loved it so much I went out and bought the Firefly series. I liked the cheesy set and the anachronisms.

:hi:

ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4482906&mesg_id=4482906

Fair enough.

I guess hypnotoad and I won't be having any movie dates any time soon.

Your argument, so far, is less than compelling; not to mention it's hardly convincing. :D

But I am all ears and would love to debate with you; and there's a scene or two I'm not so keen on either...

I don't see grounds for debate.

I'm glad you enjoy the film.

We'll see how long before I get asked the same questions.

That might be interesting. O8)

And, since your post speaks volumes, I am choosing to drop this subject here and now. You disliked the movie, fine. You want to tell the world you hate it without adding any reasoning behind your emotional reactions to it, fine. It speaks volumes in more ways than one...

It's also no wonder people prefer sequels and remakes...

Some can't stand him

Some (like me) think its just okay.

i was almost sucked in.

And another one that is my all-time favorite is the original "The Thing" from the early 1950s.

i laughed i cried i ate popcorn...it fullfulled it's function...the kids loved it too!

And the whole idea behind Firefly is to be a little corny, and have some bad-but-good humor, while still telling a great fucking story.

If you never saw Firefly, though, I would imagine a person wouldn't not necessarily find anything of much value in Serenity.

I hadn't bought the clue on the prerequisite TV series.

I will say that I did like the patently foul Serenity more than I liked the save-the-whale Star Trek movie.

And I guess that's sayin' somethin'.

I'd heard that Joss Wheadon did his damndest to make the film coherent to people who weren't familiar with the television show, but once I saw it, I couldn't imagine trying to watch it without knowing all the backstory, so I suspect he failed in that respect.

Spoilers follow in white text, highlight the 'graf below to read it all:
For example, when the pilot gets killed - he's a very funny, perhaps even beloved character in the television series, but by my reckoning there's not enough of him in the film to make anyone give a shit when he dies. The "Haven" sequences with Ron Glass' character would probably seem right out of nowhere to newbies as well, since the film gives no background whatsoever on the character or his importance. His death, I think, probably wouldn't register much either.

So yeah, there were major flaws necessarily built right in to the flim's construction.

I hadn't bought the clue on the prerequisite TV series.

I will say that I did like the patently foul Serenity more than I liked the save-the-whale Star Trek movie.

And I guess that's sayin' somethin'.

There are no new stories, it's been said, but the crackling Whedon dialogue (I'm a huge Buffy fan) and the fine acting swayed me. I deliberately boycott FOX, and so had never seen the series, but I'm going to dig up a used copy soon.

but contained elements of worth with respect to production values & shards of a story-line that required frequent resuscitation...talk about a 'han solo' rip off, it played like an some extended version of 'farscape' but there it is which, by the by, i had many other problems with. i did, however, want to kick everybody OUT of the ship and live in there so there's that

?

Have spaceship, will make crap film.

I thought Barbarella was top-flight though, eh?

:grr:

I loved it, and I really enjoyed it. Was it Citizen Kane in Space? No, of course not. But it was better than most of the shit Hollywood shovels these days.

I saw King Kong today (it worked as an adventure movie, a surprise since it was yet another remake. I particularly enjoyed the trailers. Miami Vie: The Movie. Mission Impossible Part Three. Generic Computer Animation Part Four.

The other day I heard that they were in seriosu talks to remake the A-Team. Compared to an A-Team remake, how bad could Serenity possibly be? At least it was semi-original.

That's setting the bar high.

on edit:

Full dislosure: one of the highlights of 1983 was meeting Mr. T as his limo pulled up outside a Mrs. Fields Cookies joint on Connecticut Ave. in Washington, DC. My friend Dennis was beside himself at Mr. T's alleged repugnance, but I was and am still fully Pro-T. The A Team was still on the air, and in its prime, and T was in DC filming the ill-starred DC Cab.

So snaps to TV's The A Team. I won't be seeing any theatrical remakes any time soon.

I'd figured out the plot of every single episode , both past and future, by the age of ten. I can't even imagine anything more formulaic.

Though -- and perhaps this says something about my taste in movies -- I actually enjoyed DC Cab, and still do if it's on cable and have nothing better to do. After Rocky III, Mr. T was like a God to us, and I still think he's the dope shit. Did you hear about the time a couple of years ago when he cut down a tree in his own front yard in a rich neighborhood of Chicago? Sure it was against the HOA bylaws and not very attractive, but my argument was: how could Mr. Fucking T, a man who has done so much for so many, possibly do wrong by cutting down a freaking tree?

But the movie Serentiy is still a better than any remake of THe A-Team could possibly be, and I resent the "setting the bar high" remark. Now that I think about it, Dirk Benedict was cool as hell, and I always liked the opening credits where he looks at a Battlestar Galactica robot and doea a doubletake.

The COMPLETE A-Team song, btw, is available on the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack.

I'm going to see it again and again.

The sci-fi fan in me wasn't fully satisfied, but as far as a good story, good characters, enjoyable experience that I expected out of it, I got. Of course, having seen the reruns of the series, I knew exactly what to expect .
Part of the enthusiasm for this is due to the fact that a Faux cancelled series by a beloved creator (Joss Whedon), managed - by the sheer support of the fans to make its way to the big screen. It was a "take that, Fox! moment and it felt good.

And, while from your list of movies I can see why this one is not your think, the "lame" qualifier was undeserved.

P.S. Joss Whedon was a Clark supporter in early primaries then very actively supported Kerry.

Some movies are too complex for the hoi polloi.

:eyes:

Even the Christian beauty
Defects -- after Samothrace;
We see to kalon
Decreed in the market place.

...is bound to suck the Pope's nuts.

I shall take that maxim to heart in making my future movie choices.

Great story told briskly with a lot of character work going on. Good, near great, film IMO.

Being a Sci-fi Western it's not surprising that people would either love it or hate it. Were you completely unfamiliar with the TV series going in? I know some people think it can stand on its own, but I don't agree. I'm quite glad that I watched the series before the movie.

It's VERY Joss Whedon-ish. I could see someone not in tune with his style hating it.

I bought Firefly as a blind buy, though I'm not a big sci-fi fan. I've found it enjoyable popcorn. The Jayne character seemed to be played a bit on the goofy side. I haven't finished the series, but so far there have been a couple episodes firing broadsides at the fundies. I guess that's why Faux cancelled the series as not to offend their drooling base audience. So I'll eventually watch Serenity.

The dialouge was bad but the action was good.