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Monday 10 October 2005, by Anonymous : You know, I hate to say it but Browncoats get on my nerves. I’m a huge Joss fan, loved Serenity but was secretly hoping the movie would tank. Not because I wanted Joss to not be successful.. but I wanted to see the Browncoats cry!Monday 10 October 2005, by Gloria : No article is 100% right. That isn’t to say I disagree with it. As an avid fan, I’m disappointed that it hasn’t performed as well as the film deserves. But part of that comes from the way the film was marketed. I feel, in a way, that the way the film was pushed by fans alienated the average viewer. Most of the people I encouraged to go see the movie weren’t interested because they thought they wouldn’t get the movie. The beauty in Serenity lies within its ability the engage the general public without having to send them home to watch the DVDs first. But most people think otherwise, and that, I believe, is what is hurting this magnificent film. Put on top of that a cast of Hollywood unknowns. Nowadays it is extremely hard to sell a movie without a familiar face. As incredibly talented as this cast may be, people don’t care unless they’ve seen them before. Don’t get me wrong—I’m glad Joss didn’t cast a big name to bring in an audience—that would’ve sold us all out, but indeed it has hurt us. And still, given the circumstances, the film didn’t perform bad at all. Not for the way it was marketed. I say, go us! We got our movie. And who’s to say we won’t get more? Serenity didn’t seem likely a coule of years ago. And here we are. Believe.Monday 10 October 2005, by anomymous : This guy is an idiot and quite possibly a hack as well. What he says about the film biz is a series of truisms (i.e. things that everyone, even browncoats, already knows). I dunno if I’m a browncoat b/c I joined the series,fairly late, only seeing it long after it was cancelled. But I did see the movie a couple times last week and yes I agree w/the Brownies that it’s the film of the year (as much because nearly everything else this year has stunk as because of the excellence of serenity). The author, however, seems to assume that people like me are so rabidly evangelical about our movie that we view everything through rose (or hype)-colored glasses, conflating what we want to happen with buying into "pre-marketing hype" for this movie. He additionally seems to assume that we don’t understand how the film biz works and then attempts to deflect our anger at his criticism of the fans and how he says he perceives our reaction to the film’s mediocre box office performance. For starters, what pre-marketing hype is he talking about? Does he mean critical acclaim? I’m sorry but at least the major critical reviews that have praised this film (the NY Times, the Washington post, the Village Voice, etc.) have done so on purely artistic grounds. I’m not aware of alot of corporate influence on these critics in terms of the reviews they write. If Roger Ebert doesn’t like "Into the Blue," he’ll come out and say why, no matter how many marketing execs and corporate sponsors of his show wet their pants at the site of Jessica Alba. Further, Serenity has not had that much marketing at all behind it. I’m not blaming Universal particularly for that, but this was never going to be an easy film to market (even though we probably have one of the prettiest casts of any film this year). Nothing about this series or the film has been easy and I don’t think Whedonites are under delusions in that regard. But the fact is, yes it was always going to be an uphill battle. Yes I admit I’m also hurt by the poor box office performance thus far. And no I didn’t drag people with me to see this film, even though I’ve been looking forward to it all year. But I’m not stunned. That’s more because of the nature of the film than because I’m either deluded or don’t understand the film biz. As Chud himself points out, however, this film was never supposed to be made in the first place. So it’ll turn a profit. That’s lovely. Is this the end? No not by a long shot. Why was this movie made? DVD sales, as we all know. It is very possible that the same thing could happen with this show. Joss’s projects have never been top rated tv shows in the states, again something we all know. They either aired on small networks (hence why they lasted so long) or were axed after half a season when they aired on a big network. Even though I have no doubt the movie biz is a different animal, as Jewel Staite put it last week, we are special. It isn’t naive to think that, it’s realistic because this is the most grassroots driven media project for the scifi/fantasy greatest writer/director of his generation. THE NORMAL RULES DO NOT APPLY BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE. This film was made on a popcorn budget for a major studio action film and we aren’t going away. And I am convinced that there is a much much larger audience out there for this project. 2 weeks doesn’t prove jack. I can’t say I know there’ll be a sequel, but that’s where I’d put my money. Monday 10 October 2005, by Pauline M : I Just want to say to all the cast (who I have met most of, who are truly inspiring ) and crew, "You all should be really proud of yourselves Who cares what everyone thinks from Browncoats to fans to crictics to people who are maybe sick to death of any thing to do with Serenity or Firefly( I am definately not one of the latter, I am a full blown fledged Browncoat and proud) who cares if the movie was a flop or a massive box office hit what should matter is how much you care about the work that you did and who you did it with". I can tell you now the cast that I have met from Firefly & Serenity are bigger fans of the Verse than the Browncoats themselves they loved the fact that us fans loved it that much too that they were able to get together again and make Serenity. As Mr Universe said " YOU CAN’T STOP THE SIGNAL" Sorry about spelling. Monday 10 October 2005, by Daniel Legg : All hail Devin Faraci’s roaring ego.Monday 10 October 2005, by Anonymous : I’m a huge Buffy fan who watched Firefly and thought it was okay, but if not for my friends who are rabid Firefly fans, I never would have thought about the show again. As someone who had a basic knowledge of the Firefly universe and regular contact with self-proclaimed Browncoats, I can say with all honesty I had ZERO interest in seeing this movie. It looked about as good as the show and since the show only mildly held my interest, why would I spend $10 to see it continued on the big screen? No amount of evangelizing from friends made me want to see it either - they already loved the show way more than I did in the first place, so of course they’d love the movie too. Which is fair enough, everyone likes different things to different degrees. But I found myself having to be cruel to be kind to some of these friends, telling them months ago, when the Serenity preview screenings first began, that this film was not going to lead to a Star Trek like franchise. I knew it back in May, and I was proved right this week. Firefly/Serenity is a cult phenomenon and that is all it is ever going to be. There is nothing wrong with that, but the desperation of some Browncoats to make Firefly/Serenity into a huge, cultural phenomenon strikes me as sad. For whatever reason - from mishandling by FOX during it original airing to the premise that is hard to explain - this is a universe with cult appeal, and nothing more. It was never, ever going to be huge. And Devin Faraci’s coverage of the entire Serenity situation has be spot on.Tuesday 11 October 2005, by sylvia ortiz domney : I know why I supported this film - one simple reason - I love films and I am utterly tired of all the really bad films that are being made, I am tired of Lousy TVland programs, I am tired of the film industry thinking that all they have to do is OFFER UP A BIG BEAUTIFUL MOVIE STAR and that is enough for the film viewers. I am tired of having something like War of the Worlds and The Island being made and the film industry thinking that people who view films are so dim witted as to think these films are "Good" and worthy of respect, not to mention our money. I support Serenity and the work of Joss Whedon for one reason and one reason only - I am not a fool and I don’t appreciate Hollywood or TVland thinking that I am or that I will swallow any stupid project they produce and that I will happily spend my money just to see them - Think, The Island. And, BTW, where were all these BROWNCOAT fanatics, I saw this film twice simply because I will gladly help encourage the production of Good Films, not because I am some crazed, I have no life without The Verse, fanatic - and I did not encounter one of these Crazy Browncoats you keeping talking about. Tuesday 11 October 2005, by sicklittlemonky : This guy seems like a prick, but I don’t think he’s wrong. He brings up some serious points about the author/audience relationship, as well as questions about the ethics of using your fan base as a marketing tool. You would expect the people who watch your movie to spread the word, but Joss has a tendency to look desperate, almost begging for help. I love the movie, saw it twice, but I’m not about to invest my money into promoting it, that’s Universal’s job. I’m disappointed that there likely won’t be a sequel, but I’m not going to let that ruin my appreciation for an above-average film that gave us some closure to the story and characters we love. Everybody needs to just chill and stop scaring the press! It’s just a movie...Tuesday 11 October 2005, by Saltygoodness : I’m a fan. Dyed in the wool. But even my love of all things Joss couldn’t conceal the fact that "Serenity" is a nice little movie. It isn’t Star Trek or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. I’m thrilled the fans got the movie. And, believably, it was enough.Tuesday 11 October 2005, by Dave : Hey. At least we got to see the movie.Saturday 15 October 2005, by Anonymous : I found this article informative and intelligent. I love sci fi and fantasy, action movies, and appreciate that others do also, and therefore can understand partially what drives fandom. However the angst over how many tickets this movie sold, or will sell, is not the point in my opinion. Thankfully just one movie does not make up the total creative contribution of an artist, such as JW. He’ll create much more. I celebrate that we all will have years of enjoying his future works. Here’s to the artists, be they comic book writers, special effects artists, actors, film writers, etc. The creative vision is varied, and always to some extent personal. And if nothing else, interesting, much like life don’t you think?Saturday 22 October 2005, by Soule : I am possibly the exception to alot of what this article says, as I never watched Firefly as a series, but was very curious about Serenity. I have to say I loved the film and on the back of the film I went and bought the firefly dvd series, and absolutely loved it. Now where I agree with this article is, I think because of the takings we will never see another film, but if dvd sales increase on the series due to the film, and then the film does well on dvd, I can see another series of Firefly on the books. Which if I am honest, I feel Firefly is much more of a series than a film, although the film was very good the series did the story alot more justice. My personal views on Serenity was that it tried too hard to be funny, the one liners especially at the beginning were very noticeably packed in there and in all honesty just not funny, where as the series was by far funnier without the very noticeable effort of the film. That said if all I can complain about is the oneliners I think this film is (for me) one of the best this year. These comments are an anwser to this article : "Serenity" Movie is out of gas - Chud.com Article
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