Lesse, first weekend and it’s already made back a quarter of it’s budget. And this isn’t even factoring in international box office or eventual dvd sales. Revenge of the Sith made more than doubled its box office when overseas box office was factored in.
I think we can expect a sequel!! 
So… when they were landing in Haven, there was this weird shot in which they flew past a lot of stonework with the name “Haven” written on it, which I thought implied that they were flying into a tunnel, so I thought Haven was underground, but then it wasn’t. What was that shot?
Just came back from seeing it this afternoon with 2 non-series viewers (they both loved it and they’re tough customers) … I was really pleased, I thought it was just great. Can I just say that* nobody* can direct women fighting like Joss Whedon! Summer Glau was amazing and River was probably my least favorite character in the series, so that’s saying something.
A few comments (and I truly apologize if they’ve been mentioned before, but this thread is 5 pages long and growing by the second and I’m not going to have a chance to read thru it all til after dinner at least):
Did anybody else think that Mr. Universe’s bride was a not-so-subtle “Fuck You” to Sarah Michelle Gellar? I mean, with the Buffybot episode and the resemblance, it sure seemed that way to me.
I thought Mr. Universe, in general, was a very sweet shout-out to the Browncoats far and wide, and kind of enjoyed rolling the various symbolic implications of that around in my head for awhile.
I thought Simon’s character was much improved by a slight testosterone injection. He read so much better on the big screen than on the little one.
Even though Wash’s death pained me, I saw it as an eventual improvement to Zoe’s character arc. She’s much too devoted a soldier to have a husband on board. It’s almost like a luxury neither she nor Mal can afford.
The first couple of minutes of the movie and the cast dialog seemed clunky to me and I was very much relieved when things improved.
I also liked Joss’s implication that the most dangerous thing in the 'verse can be an ideologue…
I wanted more Inarra. But then I always want more Inarra 
Anyway, smells like my dinner’s done and all I’ve eaten today is popcorn, but I thought I’d weigh in…
I noticed that too. I figured that is was a hangar of some sort.
Wasn’t it 10% of the population that reacted adversely to the Pax? So that’d be three million Reavers. I’m betting that’s equivalent to or more than the number of Vikings in Europe or Huns in Asia during their heights of powers and look at the empires they built and havoc they wreaked despite being similarly brutish.
I very seriously doubt that. I could see Lucas doing something like that but not Whedon. I imagine he just changed the story and either doesn’t care that others have noticed or hopes they don’t. He did the same thing in Buffy when he changed Spike’s sire to Dru instead of Angel.
Four: Angel, Spike, Illyria, and a mortally wounded Gunn.
Even with Slayers at their back, it would seem unlikely that all three (Gunn’s gone) would survive. I could see Illyria or whichever the Champion winds up being (I prefer Angel) making it but not both as that looked like it truly was Armageddon.
I agree that Mal expected the Alliance to be at Mr. Universe’s planet, and deliberately brought the Reavers along to take out the Alliance fleet. I also agree that there was a pretty big hole in Mal’s plan, namely that the Alliance could be expected to destroy or take control of the broadcast facilities. Remember, he waved Mr. Universe and let him know they’d be coming, and of course Mr. Universe says “Sure, come on”; then we pull back and see the Alliance troops already there. This was essentially the same thing the Operative had already done with Inara; at this point I think Mal has gotten a pretty good grasp of the way the Operative thinks.
So, there’s a big hole in the captain’s plan, and things only work out because of some great strokes of luck (and they don’t work out at all for Wash). I am reminded of this exchange, from “Safe”.
Zoe: “Captain’ll come up with a plan.”
Kaylee: “That’s good. Right?”
Zoe: “Possibly you’re not recalling some of his previous plans.”
These are great characters, but they certainly aren’t perfect human beings–they have flaws and make bad decisions, and they make the best decisions they can under very difficult circumstances.
A question: Early in the movie, before the vault heist, the captain and Simon are arguing about Mal’s decision to take River along on the job; as they argue, they end up in the infirmary, where Simon injects Mal with something. What was that injection for?
I’d like to see Ilyria (who, during season 5, I dubbed "blue girl group) and Spike survive. I like Gunn, too. Angel would either have to perish completely, or tell the gang he’s decided to change professions and he’s going into legitmate law enforcement, he wants to work in homicide 
But Gunn doesn’t have the innate strength or healing powers, so yeah, he’d have to buy it.
I think she actually said, “A tenth of one percent of the population”, which would be more like 30,000 Reavers. I don’t think they are a self-sustaining population or anything like it. Just men drivien to hyper-violence and functional insanity. They don’t expect to live long, which is why they run their ships without core containment. They manage to organize just well enough to feel their blood-lust (which is a bit of a stretch), and that’s about it. They survive by eating other humans, and keep their fleet going by raiding other ships. In 50 years, they won’t exist any more.
Well, no, I don’t think they’re self-sustaining either but if my numbers are right (I honestly don’t remember if it was ten, one, or a tenth of one percent but am going with three million until proven wrong) then I don’t think they would have very much trouble doing everything they had been credited with, which was my only point and why I was comparing them with Vikings and Huns.
30,000 seems a little low for that, though.
I heard 1/10 of 1 percent, too.
Huh. An initial population of 30,000 seems woefully inadequate to’ve caused all the mayhem they’re supposedly responsible for.
I imagine a not-insignificant percentage would die within the first year from in-fighting alone. Then there’re the ensuing twelve years where another sizeable number would die from natural causes or being blown from the sky by trying to attack the wrong boat.
How so? If Reavers get some of their air and food from Miranda (when they don’t get enough from victims), they’d maintain a concentration of the chemical in their bodies, and anyone who came into contact with them and managed to live long enough would be affected. Perhaps the ones who get the “psychotic Reaver” version of the effect are triggered by lower concentration than those who get the usual “sit around and starve” version.
I’ve seen Serenity twice, and regarding the Reavers’ numbers, it’s a tenth of one percent, or 30,000. Seems low to me too.
One of the things I enjoyed about seeing it the second time was that I got to observe the reactions of other people in the audience. The guy behind me to my left kept going “Awesome!” any time something cool happened, and the lady behind me to my right gasped when Wash died.
Plus I picked up some stuff that I couldn’t have the first time around. Near the beginning of the movie, after they kill the Reaver that made it onboard Serenity after the payroll heist, River says something to the effect of “He won’t lay down, they never lay down” which was confusing because the Reaver was laying dead on the ground. But after seeing what happened to the other people on Miranda who did lay down after being exposed to Pax her comments made more sense.
Oh, and I meant to say this after the first time I saw it but forgot: What about Mal’s quickdraw showdown with The Operative near the end? He shot his gun right out of his hand. That was a classic western moment.
Also, I wouldn’t panic about ticket sales so far because, as has been pointed out, there’s still potential for word of mouth to increase sales, international sales haven’t been counted yet, and there’s still plenty of money to be made from DVD sales. And if they’re smart they’ll quickly pump out a bare bones DVD with a few extras and then a few months later a two/three disc geekfest for double the money; I’d vote with my wallet for a new Firefly movie by buying both. Right now we’re in a dark tunnel with regards to a potential sequel, but there’s a big fucking light at the end of it.
I’ll likely see it again on Wednesday because my girlfriend, who’s a big Firefly fan as well, hasn’t seen it yet because she’s been out of town. I’m going to try and drag my neighbors along since they’re big Buffy fans (who haven’t seen Firefly, shame on them).
That part made perfect sense to me – if they happened to be at work when the effect kicked in, they didn’t bother to go home.
makes sense to me
My friends and I went to a late afternoon showing, and the theatre was 2/3’s empty. I was very disappointed because I too am hoping for it to be big enough for the TV series to start up again, or for a sequel, or both for that matter.
But the next show, as we left, the line was 3 thick and out the door. I took that as a good sign.
The exact last words of Shepard Book, from the script, which is laying in front of me:
“I don’t care what you believe! Just…believe it. Whatever you have to…”
We’re going to see it again Monday, just because we loved it so. Wash’s death was painful, but perfect. Joss is the Master of Pain, and I am his bitch. As long as he doesn’t try to off Kaylee, that is!
Major error that I spotted: When The Operative was scrolling down Mal’s dossier, it said that he got a medal for the Battle of Serenity Valley. How is that possible? It was the last battle of the war, and Mal’s side lost. No medals.
That’s awesome.
Why not? I’m pretty sure that the South handed out medals after the American Civil War. Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, has a holiday in the south the last I checked.
Not sure I can add anything that hasn’t been said already, so I’ll just add my voice to the chorus saying that the movie was mostly great, and if for some reason no sequels are made, it makes an acceptable coda to the series.
It did seem to be a bit cliched overall, that is to say it had elements of a more conventional space opera, being in places more about wowing tyhe audience with the effects than carrying on the story. Also, some of the characters did get short shrift, due mainly, I think, to having to spend a lot of the screen time connecting the dots plotwise rather than just riffing on the characters’ personalities as the TV show did. There was still lots of great Whedony goodness, however, particulalry in the dialogue. Too bad I couldn’t actually hear some of the lines over all the various background noises; oh, well, I’ll likely go see it again in a few days and hopefully listen a bit better
The character deaths were what they were; I won’t get into any arguments over whether or not they were warranted by the story. And personally, I loved the much darker Mal of the movie; his behavior made more sense to me, considering the things he’s seen, than the wisecracking silly billy he sometimes was in the series.
He was also listed as a Captain (O3) instead of the Sergeant (E5) he said he was in the series.
I think the Battle of Serenity Valley dragged on for quite a while. He could have received some sort of battlefield commendation for his actions in the early stages of the battle. (I can imagine the Independents’ high command handing out commendations pretty freely–not to say Mal didn’t probably deserve one–on account of high command not having anything else to hand out, like rations, reinforcements, or ammunition.)