Serenity (sort of a review)
 

Last week I saw all of the series Firefly which I thought was very good.

Last night I saw the movie Serenity. I was really excited about it. I enjoyed the movie, mainly because I love the characters after watching the series, but I have to admit, the re are several flaws in the plot.

First, let me mention what the movie is about without spoilers:
It is the future. Humans have settled in many worlds. About 7 years ago some of the outer rim planets fought in a war for independence but lost. The Alliance controls everybody. They run some tests on prodigys to make them psychics and fit for battle. The main one gets saved by her brother (he was very wealthy and had good contacts).
The Alliance wants to track her down because she knows secrets. They send their best killer.
She and her brother are part of the Firefly crew, led by a sargeant who was in the war (battle of Serenity Valley). The sargeant was part of the independents. Now he lives out of thievery (smuggling and stuff).
The movie is about them fleeing from Alliance. Other things pop up.

SPOILER ALERT:
The big secret was that the Alliance in an experiment to submit a rebel planet, gave them some medicine to get them less rebellious. Instead of making them submissive, it made them not do anything and they died of inaction. But 10% of the people reacted the opposite way becoming "Reavers". Which are people that eat other people.

My problem with this is that the Alliance with all of their resources could have easily killed the Reavers and destroyed the secret. It seems like killing the girl postpones the secret, but killing the Reavers would have helped.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

if only it were that simple, enrique. the real problem with the movie is that it's fairly worthless compared to the series, which should not have been cancelled...bastards.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

they want to kill river because she was in the room with lots of top alliance leaders, as a psychic this gave her access to lots of secrets and such...the one you cited was just one secret that she could have had access to...but yeah, i guess killing the reavers would have helped...

awesome series, good movie...

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

I didn't like the changes they make to the character's personalities in the movie (or at least total lack of depth of most of them).

Too bad the TV got axed, Joss Whedon really knows his way around ensemble shows with interesting story arcs.

<<< massive crush on Kailey

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

I enjoyed this film - only saw it a week ago myself. However, it did change the characters a little too much for my own tastes (they seems to go from cowboy types to Oakies/the Waltons in the way they spoke), and it jarred a little.

I thought it was an interesting plot explaining the Reavers at least, and yes, it did have plot holes you could fly an Imperial Star Destroyer through.

The series was much better as characters etc, and I'm guessing this movie was actually the intended story arc for several seasons....

But man, whatever he's in, you gotta love Jayne.

**** spoiler *****

I really,really enjoyed the bit where Serenity come out of the energy cloud and the Alliance were smugly waiting, and a whole fleet of Reavers appeared behind them!

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

Edit: Post contains big spoilers for the movie.


The movie had some big flaws but this isn't one of them. The Alliance didn't destroy the reavers because they wanted them there! The planet Miranda was a failure and the Alliance wanted it covered up.

Since they didn't have a death star with planet destroying ray they just left the reavers swarming around and near it. This ensured no one ever visited Miranda and found out the truth. If they had eradicated the reavers people would have discovered the truth about Miranda.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]

Since they didn't have a death star with planet destroying ray they just left the reavers swarming around and near it. This ensured no one ever visited Miranda and found out the truth. If they had eradicated the reavers people would have discovered the truth about Miranda.

[/ QUOTE ]

Also, I would imagine fear of the Reavers helped the Alliance, because they were protection. Plus, if the series had gone on, who knows if the Alliance found some other uses for the Reavers?

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Since they didn't have a death star with planet destroying ray they just left the reavers swarming around and near it. This ensured no one ever visited Miranda and found out the truth. If they had eradicated the reavers people would have discovered the truth about Miranda.

[/ QUOTE ]

Another explanation I came up with is that the Alliance had been in power for only 7 years. The Miranda thing was during their process to get power. So maybe they just had many other things to focus on first.

Also, I would imagine fear of the Reavers helped the Alliance, because they were protection. Plus, if the series had gone on, who knows if the Alliance found some other uses for the Reavers?

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
if only it were that simple, enrique. the real problem with the movie is that it's fairly worthless compared to the series, which should not have been cancelled...bastards.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I am quite sad that the series is gone. It had some great episodes. My favorites were "Out of Gas", "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash". Honorable mention to "Jaynestown".

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
they want to kill river because she was in the room with lots of top alliance leaders, as a psychic this gave her access to lots of secrets and such...the one you cited was just one secret that she could have had access to...but yeah, i guess killing the reavers would have helped...

awesome series, good movie...

[/ QUOTE ]

It makes sense. There are probably a lot of other stuff the Alliance has to cover up, so exterminating the reavers was not one of them.
As another person pointed up, keeping the reavers help keep some secrets, so it made sense.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

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The movie had some big flaws but this isn't one of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

You make good arguments.
What big flaws did you find?

Spoiler Alert:
One that still has me thinking was when Wash is killed. They kill him through a window. Yet the crew wasn't shown leaving the room and sealing it or something. It was just assumed that nobody was going in through the cracked window. I can understand reavers being stupid, but if they already opened up that hole and saw everybody there, it makes sense to think they might come in through that window.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
<<< massive crush on Kailey

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand the massive crush on Kailee for several reasons: 1) She's very cheerful, 2) She's cute, 3) She knows about engines, 4) She likes sex.

But I like Inara more. Beautiful, exotic, intelligent, independent. She's awesome.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

Keeping the Reavers also propogated fear throughout the known systems. This would favour those in power.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
<<< massive crush on Kailey

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand the massive crush on Kailee for several reasons: 1) She's very cheerful, 2) She's cute, 3) She knows about engines, 4) She likes sex.

But I like Inara more. Beautiful, exotic, intelligent, independent. She's awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]

Inara >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>> Kaylee

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

spoilers

i liked the movie but agree that you just have to ignore the holes. i thought another hole was the fact that sending out a message stating the alliance accidentally made the reavers wouldn't do [censored] to hurt the alliance. i mean, the alliance knows how to spin [censored] better than the whitehouse. they could handle something like this no problem.

edit - and the alliance would be attacking the problem on two fronts. one would be to eliminate river, and the second would be mounting a massive propoganda campaign that was ready to go as soon as they knew this [censored] was coming out.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The movie had some big flaws but this isn't one of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

You make good arguments.
What big flaws did you find?

Spoiler Alert:
One that still has me thinking was when Wash is killed. They kill him through a window. Yet the crew wasn't shown leaving the room and sealing it or something. It was just assumed that nobody was going in through the cracked window. I can understand reavers being stupid, but if they already opened up that hole and saw everybody there, it makes sense to think they might come in through that window.

[/ QUOTE ]

The cockpit has a sealed door which is nearly impossible to get through quickly as seen in the episodde Our Mrs Reynolds. This isn't at all relevant since they were on the planet before the reavers and left the ship pretty much straight away.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

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Keeping the Reavers also propogated fear throughout the known systems. This would favour those in power.

[/ QUOTE ]

db, that's just stupid. i challenge you to name even a single modern-day example of a government cultivating a culture of fear to subdue the population.

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The movie had some big flaws but this isn't one of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

You make good arguments.
What big flaws did you find?

Spoiler Alert:
One that still has me thinking was when Wash is killed. They kill him through a window. Yet the crew wasn't shown leaving the room and sealing it or something. It was just assumed that nobody was going in through the cracked window. I can understand reavers being stupid, but if they already opened up that hole and saw everybody there, it makes sense to think they might come in through that window.

[/ QUOTE ]

The cockpit has a sealed door which is nearly impossible to get through quickly as seen in the episodde Our Mrs Reynolds. This isn't at all relevant since they were on the planet before the reavers and left the ship pretty much straight away.

[/ QUOTE ]

then, what killed Wash?

Re: Serenity (sort of a review)
 

[ QUOTE ]
spoilers

i liked the movie but agree that you just have to ignore the holes. i thought another hole was the fact that sending out a message stating the alliance accidentally made the reavers wouldn't do [censored] to hurt the alliance. i mean, the alliance knows how to spin [censored] better than the whitehouse. they could handle something like this no problem.

edit - and the alliance would be attacking the problem on two fronts. one would be to eliminate river, and the second would be mounting a massive propoganda campaign that was ready to go as soon as they knew this [censored] was coming out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that the message could be spun. So Mal was being optimistic and not realistic, but that was part of the idea behind the movie, following your beliefs.

Either way, the Alliance could not really do the media preparation for the reaver thing. River has many state secrets (in theory), Miranda was one of them, not all.

I guess after she said "Miranda" in that video they could start their preparation. But why do that (which could be seen by the public as weird) if the odds of people passing through the reavers is infinitesimal.
The reavers were part of their protection. They didn't count on Mal's cleverness.