Yikes! Maybe I'm being too nit-picky...but...
We do? I thought I heard the teacher say pretty much that the Earth had been used up because there were so many of us.
Mayhaps the reviewer is thinking that the explosions in the very opening were bombs instead of ships blasting off?
And I think referring to The Operative as a "sociopath" completely misses the mark.
He's not a sociopath. Sociopaths hate people. The Operative is working for "...a better world; Better worlds."
And Mal and the crew didn't help Simon rescue River. They did, however offer them sanctuary.
There are a few other things that made me wonder "Where'd he get that idea?"...but all in all, it seems to be a decent review.
: )

AmazonGirl | September 23, 05:28 CET

I disagree. I don't think it was decent at all. To call Zoe Wash's wife and first mate was silly. She is first mate, always, and then Wash's wife.

And to call Kaylee a horny mechanic is offensive to me. Yeah, she might seem horny but after all, it's been a year. And aren't we all that way sometimes? If he didn't see that Kaylee is an honest loving down-to-earth woman, he wasn't paying attention. Let's just lump her into a catagory because he was too lazy to watch the series before forming an opinion.

I'm sorry but it's reviews like this that do the damage that has been done. They don't do their homework, or they just don't care. And Serenity suffers for it.

madmolly | September 23, 06:39 CET

And what the hell is a "pillow Geisha"?!?

UnderTheDark | September 23, 07:15 CET

I dunno, but can I have one?

pat32082 | September 23, 07:27 CET

Isn't it not that sociopaths hate other people, but are indifferent to them? Regardless, The Operative wasn't a sociopath anyway.

The reviewer just didn't see Firefly beforehand, that's all. Some of his assumptions make sense from a movie-only viewer's point of view. During the holographic flashback, you could easily misinterpret that it was Serenity that rescued Simon and River, not the underground [resistance?] group Simon mentioned in the pilot "Serenity". And a flippant reviewer categorizing Kaylee as the horny mechanic is...pretty much all anyone would glean of her from two of her biggest/funniest lines in the film.

He's reviewing this DVD, he's not obligated to watch the Firefly beforehand (just as the film didn't require all the theatre-goers and renters to view the show eitehr--even though we wish they all would).

Kris | September 23, 07:38 CET

I always thought a sociopath was someone who went out and murdered people for stupid reasons, or is that psychopath? Although I am sure I have used that word in the wrong sense and I am sure the same must be said of the reviewer. I mean so what the reviewer didnt gleam every detail, and get certain parts wrong, usually the details I found would take multiple viewings to extract, and after so many viewings one can find extra details etc.

Anyways he gives a pretty great review(especially for someone who is NOT a fan), so I think we should keep that in mind before jumping on him like that.

Its not doing "fannish stunts" and dressing up or sending letters to Universal that makes the fandom scary, it is the occurance of hatemail a reviewer might get, even if giving a fairly postivie review. Which did happen for the San Francisco Chronicle review when the movie came out I believe. I am not targetting this comment to the commenters above who I am sure are not the types to do that. I am just saying to people in general who may be reading this and tempted to send some mail to "rectify" some errors, to have a little patience and understanding for those that are not obsessed as the fans.

Keep in mind also that a review is meant to give in as little detail as possible how good or bad the movie is. One can't give the whole plot and explain each character fully, one does not have space, and it kind of ruins the experience of watching the movie. I am sure he meant to put things in concise and accessible terms so people who have no knowledge can have a rough idea of the movie and whether it is worth their time to check out.

Just wanted to add that I did not use any sexualized statements in this comment :P I am able do that from time to time :P

[ edited by kurya on 2006-09-23 06:26 ]

[ edited by kurya on 2006-09-23 06:27 ]

kurya | September 23, 08:21 CET

I like the comparison to the CGI work in Battlestar Galactica...The unsteadiness of the camera and rough zooming. Might be time for him to watch Firefly. Thought I read that some of the CGI folks from Firefly now work on Battlestar, would explain a little of that.

CobbCrony | September 23, 10:07 CET

Yup CobbCrony, Zoic does indeed do the special effects for BSG. If you watch the miniseries for BSG they give a nice nod to Firefly. You can spot a Firefly ship through the window when Laura is at the doctor's office.

Firefly Flanatic | September 23, 10:59 CET

It's reviews like this that often represent how theatre goers see the movie, to be honest. Kaylee in the movie *is* a horny mechanic. And that works because, you know, it's funny.

I remember RachVG seeing the movie with somebody who thought Mal had snot down himself when he was talking to Inara for the first time. I lot of the random people I've come across who've seen the movie - quite a few at work, actually - didn't even know there was a TV series behind it. Other comments I've heard: Inara is Mal's ex-girlfriend, the movie was rubbish because Mal didn't shoot the bad guy in the face when he had chance yadada.

Whatever the case, I'm not bothered by reviews like this as the person essentially liked it.

By the way, Serenity in HD looks bloody *lovely*. The scenes on Miranda in particular, and the scenes on Serenity at the beginning. Using the HD version I've noticed there's actually a Reaver in a suit - a white office tshirt - with a gun. No, really. I should screen cap it. I've no idea how or why there's an office worker Reaver.

gossi | September 23, 14:32 CET

Good luck screen-capping it. I took the HD DVD drive out of my HD-D1 and tried it in my tower, but my monitor isn't HDCP compatible :(

The Dark Shape | September 23, 16:37 CET

The copy I have is already ripped from HD-DVD, TDS. I don't actually have a HD-DVD player (or TV).

gossi | September 23, 16:43 CET

I have one friend who considered Kayle to be a fairly dimwitted, horny mechanic. Watching it again with that in mind, I can see where she got that from. Kaylee doesn't have a lot to say and some it is things like "I don't understand".

Lioness | September 23, 18:12 CET

Someone ripped an HD DVD? Oi. That'll piss the studios off. Are you sure it's not just the HBO/Cinemax HD broadcast? I have HD Star Wars III from that source.

The Dark Shape | September 23, 19:31 CET

Uhm, I don't honestly know.

I can say these things about it;

- It looks very pretty.
- There is a Reaver in an office shirt in it firing a machine gun (I haven't been so happy since I saw Predator to see that).
- It looks very pretty. Again.

gossi | September 23, 19:36 CET

On the subject of Earth That Was . . . we know what the Alliance teaches about the reasons humanity went to colonize another star system, but is it possible that the Alliance version is prettified, sanitized, a myth designed to hide . . . what *really* happened? I'm wondering if Joss ever planned to send the Big Damn Heroes back to Earth That Was. It could make for some interesting meditations on humanity's self-destruction.

I seem to recall that in one of his versions of Alien: Resurrection, Ripley went back to earth for the climax. Trivia: "Five by five" and "terraform" both come from the Alien movies.

[ edited by Pointy on 2006-09-23 18:32 for semblance of coherence ]

[ edited by Pointy on 2006-09-23 18:34 ]

Pointy | September 23, 20:21 CET

I can give some trivia on Alien from Joss! Ripley lands back on earth and there's an Alien smackdown in a forrest, I seem to recall. But it was too expensive, or some such, so it became blob sucked through air decompression with appauling special effects(tm).

It's funny watching Alien 4 now. There's Jayne, there's River the 'is she a danger to them?', there's an illegal salvage ship yadada.

gossi | September 23, 20:34 CET

Okay, gossi, I'm updating my Netflix q now.

;-)

Pointy | September 23, 20:58 CET

Gossi, there's a pretty easy way to tell. Is your HD version the original 2.35:1 ratio, or cropped 1.78:1?

The Dark Shape | September 23, 21:52 CET

You just answered your own comment. He called her horny. That's because she IS horny. We all know how long it's been that she's "...had anything 'twixt her nethers weren't run on bat'ries."
Hmmm...I don't know about you, but to me? That spells H-O-R-N-Y. Period.
But I don't think he was saying that this is ALL she is.
She's a mechanic who's twitterpated over Simon, and sweet, and caring as anyone who sees the film finds out. "Dimwitted"? Jeeze! Where'd that come from?
And regarding Zoe: She IS Wash's wife, and the first mate. We can only guess that in what order depends on the situation. Not being in Zoe's mind at any given time, there's no way we can say.


Yes, it's possible. But there's nowhere in canon that says anything about people leaving Earth because of a nuclear war or accident or anything other than there being too many people.
The only mention of a War is the Civil War between the Alliance and everyone who was against them.
And there's nothing in the movie except for the rockets taking off from planet Earth.

Anyway...Wish I could see Serenity in HD.
Must be nice to have it like that.
*sigh*

[ edited by AmazonGirl on 2006-09-23 20:55 ]

AmazonGirl | September 23, 22:51 CET

Um, what?

Wikipedia says Terraforming dates to 1942, which seems correct to me--use in sci-fi literature definitely predates the use in the movies.

Ditto with five by five, which dates from approximately the same era, but with a more mundane, if still technological, origin.

Or did you mean something else?

jclemens | September 23, 23:03 CET

What I meant was the way the writer wrote the sentence, it made it sound like Zoe was Wash's wife and first mate. As in, Wash's first mate.

It context to the story, it should have been written the other way around.

That's all.

madmolly | September 23, 23:30 CET

News to me, jclemens, thank you!

ETA: Those articles were neat!

ET further A: I bet Faith picked up "five by five" from the Alien movies. I bet she was totally into Ripley.

[ edited by Pointy on 2006-09-23 21:40 ]

Pointy | September 23, 23:34 CET

original 2.35:1 ratio

It is, Dark Shape. I've got Slither in the same format, too. I think the studio has a leak.

gossi | September 24, 00:33 CET

Then he needs to hook me up! That said, I love having spiffy-looking cases on my shelf, so I'm not much of a bootlegger :(

The Dark Shape | September 24, 00:40 CET

And for people who do pick up HD DVD, don't expect to have any easy time with normal discs again. It's not even the improved picture/sound quality. I popped Serenity into a friend's DVD player the other day and was frustrated by the fact I couldn't just bring up the menu during the movie and pick which scene I wanted to go to.

The Dark Shape | September 24, 00:41 CET

Still, too high of a price for most folks to buy...

kurya | September 24, 01:34 CET

In Best Buy (electronic store) they show a clip of Serenity in HD on a demo HD player. I see it when I go there during lunch hour. The scene is the one where the crew lands Serenity after the ship was hit during the big fight between Alliance and Reavers(they cut the scene before Walsh, well, you know). It looks wonderful, and makes me want to get an HD player but it is just too expensive, especially with having to rebuy movies, that I already own, at $25 a piece.

Passion | September 24, 14:42 CET

Passion, I was tickled to see the Serenity clips at Best Buy a few weeks ago.

It was a totally positive review, especially considering it was written by a several-times-self-proclaimed nonfan. No need to whine if you disagree. Dude liked it. Period. Even though the movie was released a year ago, I don't tire of reading positive reviews and I especially appreciate the ones written by nonfans. And he probably called Kaylee a horny mechanic because she's a horny mechanic.

April | September 25, 02:26 CET