Serenity

[Deleted]

Thanks slanderous, that was pretty funny.

[realitybug]

maddiemoo said:

And the film tanked

Number 2 at the box office ain't tanking, yo. That means it did better than every other movie out there with the exception of one.

It did ten million dollars. That's not all that good. Same goes for Flight Plan.

[hamhock]

I saw it last weekend. It was ok. At least I saw it at an afternoon matinee. Otherwise, it shoulda been a rental.
But it was ok.

[spiderwyman]

The film has been decreasing its numbers every single day for the last 5 days, and yesterday its gross went down again from the previous day.
It was the only film in the top ten to decrease its tallly, while also moving down in rank from 2 to 4 and also decreasing the per-screen-average.
That doesn't sound good, when all other films on the list, older films, actually move up the chart and pass you, and increase their box office while a newer film just goes down.
And even the horrible Into The Blue, which got awful reviews , increased its box office Tuesday.

Not sad about it, though.
Joss Whedon sounds like a pompous arse...he even chastised some online-blogger guy who condemned the film's box office prospects, even though the guy loved the film, but was just being realistic about its appeal to the masses.

[slanderous]

Since someone on another board stated that persons who didn't see the movie (or who didn't like it) were "stupid and tasteless," I'm not sorry that it's falling behind either. Maybe it just didn't hit the right notes for some people, myself included; don't condescendingly suggest to me I'm tone-deaf because of it.

[mostlyharmless]

I have no problem with people who don't like a movie. I think it's great, and many critics love it, but movies are a personal thing, there's no one who can say "Movie X is 17% better than Movie Z" or whatever. I love it, it's sci-fi with a plot. There's a political metaphor if you want and lot's of explosions and stunts if you want that.

And I think Joss has a great sense of humor. On this board one of the biggest points people dislike Tom Cruise for is his lack of sense of humor, he takes himself too seriously and can't take a joke. I have no doubt Joss Whedon believes he is talented and succesful but he has the decency and confidence to be able to make jokes about himself. If you ask him a serious question about his work he is willing to give a serious answer about the messages and metaphors in his work, but he's also happy to joke that he "Has to go and watch Charmed so he can steal their storylines for Buffy".

Tom Cruise control freak serious or Joss Whedon self mocking humor? I know which I respect more. The day Whedon starts telling people they shouldn't use certain medication and should join a cult that turns people into zombified slaves I'll call him on it. As long as he makes exciting, funny, thoughtful movies and shows and get's on well with his fans then I'll cheer him on.

[slanderous]

But what does Tom Cruise have to do with Joss Whedon? It's not like they're the only choices; opposing Tom Cruise to Joss Whedon is a strawman argument that forces a person to chose the not-batshit insane one, but not necessarily out of respect or admiration. It's like asking me if I'd like a turd sandwich or a beef and cheese enchilada. A qualified "much better than a turd sandwich" is not a reason to decide that I love beef and cheese enchiladas after all. I think I can despise Tom Cruise and strongly dislike Joss Whedon for different reasons and still prefer other cultural producers and pop culture objects over either of them.

[mostlyharmless]

I take your point Slanderous, and I apologise for generalising. There are so many posts here that it's very difficult to remember who said what but a common TC comment is his lack of ability to take a joke, to laugh at and about himself. I have also seen from several people ( and again I am not saying they are the same people) that they dislike Whedon making jokes about himself where he "obviously" thinks highly about himself.

Given a choice between the two, if you had to, I find Whedon way more sincere.

The comments he made about the blogger were because he made after that guy said "Whedon should stick to TV" and blamed the fans for scaring off the general public by being too crazy. The blogger has a right to post his comments and opinions. Whedon has a right to post his reaction. He did this in public, and put his name to it. Again "some celebs" would set the lawyers on the guy. Whedon had the decency to say what he thought.

I am a fan of Joss Whedon, I think most of the TV work he's done is great. But I don't worship him, I've never read any of his comics, never been to a convention and the only merchandise I've ever bought is a Buffy coffee mug. If I thought Serenity was bad I'd say so. But I loved it. YMMV.

[spiderwyman]

slanderous said:

Since someone on another board stated that persons who didn't see the movie (or who didn't like it) were "stupid and tasteless," I'm not sorry that it's falling behind either. Maybe it just didn't hit the right notes for some people, myself included; don't condescendingly suggest to me I'm tone-deaf because of it.

I have seen that all over the net.
Anytime anyone even implies that the film was lees that FANTASTIC, the fans start dismissing him/her and the words bandied about are usually "dumb" "stupid", or "idiot"
It's like a clique of people that have this attitude of "If you don't like the film, then you must be dumb"..."you don't get the film, that's why you don't like it" etc.

In fact, this is the actual reply someone got at the Serenity forum at IMDB.com when he/she asked as to why would a film like Flight Plan could be making so much more money than Serenity:

"because the majority of the filmgoing public is as stupid and inbred as you are..."

And even Whedon has complained about his critics...


I personally found the film boring. I am so glad that I didn't have to pay for it...

[Deleted]

I liked it, but I can totally understand people not liking it. The biggest problem for me was that it felt like a TV show - and I was barely aware of the existance of Firefly, never mind ever watched it before seeing the movie. The acting is nothing special and the characters were mostly only so-so. (Did anyone else want to kill Kaylee with their bare hands?) On the other hand, I thought the story was good and well paced. If JW could manage to dip into the talented pool of actors and work on creating characters that show depth within a two hour span, he could become a really good film director.