Serenity (sort of a review)

[Enrique]

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.

[rothko]

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.

[thirddan]

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...

[BigPoppa]

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

[diebitter]

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!

[evil twin]

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.

[disjunction]

[ 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?

[Enrique]

[ 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 ]

[Enrique]

[ 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".

[Enrique]

[ 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.