Whedonesque : Comments on 10099 : First review of Serenity on HD-DVD.

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April 18 2006

First review of Serenity on HD-DVD. "...given the grungy look of the film, it is not really prime demo material". There's also another review at TechLiving. And The Digital Bits - "It's just utterly clean and clear without being too crisp or edgy - a very natural looking and extremely pleasing image".

gossi | Firefly&Serenity | 18:43 CET | 26 comments total | tags: serenity hd-dvd

" Another batch of supplements ported directly from the standard DVD release of the film"

Boo!

eddy | April 18, 18:49 CET

I wasn't entirely impressed with the review; seems like it needs a bit of fact checking. He called Serenity Joss Whedon's "first high-profile flop," a dubious honor I would have awarded to the Buffy movie. And other small stuff like that.

TychoCelchuuu | April 18, 19:08 CET

Yeah, what about,"The show only ran for a few episodes on The WB back in 2004". Not much with the fact checking.

My first post, yeah :)

mei_mei | April 18, 19:14 CET

So the only thing that's really new here, besides the high-def transfer, is the trailer? Umm, yeah, not really gonna inspire me to make the $500 investment in hardware. Me, I'm happy with the DVD. Except for the cover art, and the HD-DVD version certainly isn't an improvement in that department.

MaryQue | April 18, 19:21 CET

I guess once I can afford a HDtv, and a HD player, that I'll just wait for the SUPER SHINY SPECIAL EDITION ~~Blu-Ray~~HD-DVD version?

eddy | April 18, 19:25 CET

He called Serenity Joss Whedon's "first high-profile flop,"

How dare he? How can someone forget Buffy, the Vampire Slayer the Movie. And there's also Alien Ressurrection and Titan A.E.

"Gypsies.... "spit""

Numfar PTB | April 18, 19:28 CET

Well, I'd say Serenity is the first motion picture project Joss has properly put his name to. As in, the first one where somebody hasn't made a mess of it. I'm not sure I agree with flop, except maybe from a financial film point. All said and done, it's still my favourite film of 2005.

gossi | April 18, 19:32 CET

Ditto on that favorite film of 2005 part gossi.

Numfar PTB | April 18, 19:38 CET

To me, a high profile flop is "Cleopatra," "Ishtar," "Town and Country," -- big budget, big stars, low b.o. It helps if it almost sinks a studio. That's a long way from "Serenity."

bobster | April 18, 20:30 CET

It depends how you define it, bobster. Answers.com defines a box office flop as.. "If a film recoups production and marketing costs, then it can be considered a success; otherwise, if it fails to do so by a significant margin, it is referred to as a box office bomb, even though international distribution, sales to television syndication, and home video releases often mean some films considered flops in North America eventually make a profit for their studios."

Answers.com also includes Serenity on their list of box office bombs, which I hadn't noticed before :o(

(Although, it has to be said when you look at that list, you realise the gap with Serenity's box office isn't actually that bad, compared to the rest)

[ edited by gossi on 2006-04-18 18:40 ]

gossi | April 18, 20:35 CET

Despite his eloquent final assertion that Serenity is a "fun flick," whoever wrote this obviously came into the viewing experience with an ax to grind with our mastermind. Combine the opening paragraph with the factual errors and you come out with a pretty useless review.

As far as the whole flop issue...DVD, DVD, DVD! I know MANY lazy former theater goers who are discovering the 'verse at home and are head over heels for it. Serenity was never going to be Star Wars...and we can all be glad for that on multiple levels, even if we would've liked to see similar box office receipts. I have a sneaking suspicion Joss and Co. will both work again in this town and continue to put food, perhaps even high-end organic produce, on the table for their families.

MrArg | April 18, 20:55 CET

I've added gilesno1fan's link to this one to save on space on the front page.

Simon | April 18, 20:57 CET

Gossi, the Answers.com page you pointed to is simply a rebranded copy of this Wikipedia entry, which can be edited by literally anyone. So I wouldn't necessarily attach much weight to its definition of a box office bomb, nor to the inclusion of Serenity as an example.

bovik | April 18, 21:10 CET

And although it is a box office flop, High profile??? I didnt even think Serenity entered the radar of the common people. In terms of recent memory , the title of "high profile box office flop" should go to Gigli(did anyone see that?).

ETA: I looked through the review, and it is quite good. With the exception of the bitter beginning, it sounded like the guy had a vendetta against Joss Whedon and the fandom, he/she seemed to enjoy the movie. Maybe it will convince Whedon-haters to check out the film.

[ edited by kurya on 2006-04-18 19:34 ]

kurya | April 18, 21:25 CET

Just check this:

The initial four HD-DVD disc offerings from supporting studios have also already breached Amazon.com's top sales rankings. VB reports that on Monday, the online retailers top HD-DVD seller was Universal's 'Serenity, which ranked No. 321 amongst all DVD releases for the day, followed by Warner's 'Last Samurai' at No. 802, 'Phantom of the Opera' at No. 1,524, and 'Million Dollar Baby' at No. 3,708.

Angel TheVampire | April 18, 21:30 CET

Its hard to believe anyone put 100+ million dolars into some of those movies and expected it to make half of that?

eddy | April 18, 22:25 CET

I read it as a good review. Yes, he is put off a bit by the fandom. (How dare he suggest Joss isn't the second coming!) But watching the movie he is greatly impressed by it. And by Joss. I think he played fair with the review.

Lioness | April 18, 22:41 CET

Incidentally, globally Serenity was one of the top 100 grossing movies of 2005! That said, it was either in the 60s to 90s (it was in the last column of some table that ran in Variety that I came across) and that doesn't really count for much when you consider the range of the numbers (going from stuff like Star Wars down to... Beauty Shop which our BDM surpassed/equalled in B.O.).

Nevertheless, we can at least bandy around that statistic!

orangewaxlion | April 18, 22:43 CET

Guess I should have capitilized the "high profile" part. Of course, if "Serenity" HAD been high profile, we might have a whole different situation on our hands.

bobster | April 18, 23:09 CET

I just noticed yesterday that the normal dvd version of Serenity was back among the top 10 sellers in a downtown store here in Victoria, BC. So I'm sure Serenity is not gathering dust at the back of any Blockbusters or whatever just yet.

[ edited by bigsofty on 2006-04-18 23:01 ]

bigsofty | April 18, 23:46 CET

Does the statistic from Angel the Vampire mean that "Serenity is the best-selling HD-DVD ever"? Of course this would mean nothing as there are only 4 films released yet, but is still very cool to say to friends (especially those who think Serenity flopped).

Has anyone here already seen the HD-DVD version? I would like to hear how they think the movie looks.

Celebithil | April 19, 00:18 CET

So the Filmmaker's Journey documentary is missing? All of Europe and the UK had it, and we STILL don't? What an obvious extra to expand the high-def release with. Who DIDN'T assume it would be on it? Yikes.

As for the review, the review also failed to mention if the menu system is the same as the DVD, or if they took advantage of the new features available to these new formats. I'll assume his lack of mentioning it means it is the same.

Sounds like this omission is good reason to wait until Universal gets the hang of it. Plus their generic packaging is terrible; that "beer can" template won't last. They'll eventually re-release it with a proper cover (if the format flies).

will.bueche | April 19, 02:44 CET

The Digital Bits' review of the Serenity HD-DVD is more technically informed. That link will change in 24 hours; it is valid for Tuesday only.

will.bueche | April 19, 02:50 CET

Cool deal, thanks for the heads up, willbueche!

zeitgeist | April 19, 02:59 CET

Serenity's finally managed a #1 opening. Yay :)

The Dark Shape | April 19, 04:12 CET

It did that twice in the UK, The Dark Shape ;)

gossi | April 19, 13:18 CET

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