Serenity Trailer Finally Released

ShinyHat writes "Browncoats Rejoice! The trailer for Joss Whedon's Serenity, based on his unjustly cancelled Firefly television series, was released on the QuickTime Movie Trailers page. Thanks to its new September 30th release date it won't be completely overshadowed by Star Wars. Talk is, if the movie does well enough, Universal will pick it up for a second and third installment." (As promised.)

Holy Crap

[Golias]

That trailer makes the Star Wars III trailer look like a stupid cartoon.

I'm so jacked up to see this, I'll probably skip "Revenge of the Sith" entirely and see "Serenity" one extra time with the eight bucks I save!

This is why you should be excited.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are having trouble understanding the hype behind Serenity, then save yourself a lot of mindless opinioneering and just watch the show Firefly on DVD.

It is science fiction that never embarasses you for watching it.

The characters, the stories, the pacing, the dialogue, the delicious writing, and the utter commitment to quality are evident in every single scene of every single episode. Nobody's phoning anything in, and THAT is why Serenity is getting people excited. Not because George Lucas needs another burnished ivory walking stick.

That the special effects are the best ever gifted to a science fiction show (read: subtle, professional, photorealistic, and utterly seamless) is just icing on the cake.

Browncoats == brownshirts?

[bratboy]

I've never watched the TV show (although I've read a synopsis of the backstory), and the first thought I had when hearing that the rebels were called "browncoats" was that it was curious that they'd chosen a term with such loaded historical connotations (the "brownshirts" were the Sturmabteilung, i.e., the Storm troops, i.e., the private army of the Nazi party). My goal here isn't to be PC, but rather to ask those more steeped in the lore of the show whether there's been a discussion on why the show's creators chose this term.
-daniel

Screw Star Wars Episode 3

[MourningBlade]

With a big rubber dick. I'll wait until it comes out on DVD and I can rent it.

THIS, however, is something I want to see on opening night.

Re:uuuuuu...huh?

[-Harlequin-]

I think there is a fair chance that the sounds are just in the trailer. Trailers have to be flashy and exciting, and appeal to people who have never seen the show, and that means sound fx.

Once they're in the cinema watching the movie, THEN you have the time to introduce them to a world where space is silent and six-shooters go hand in hand with spaceships. Trying to do that in a trailer is risky. This is more of a USA thing, trailers elsewhere are a bit less action-focused. (The "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon DVD has the US trailer in addition to the normal trailer, watch them one after the other and you might think they're different movies :-)

Re:Interesting....

[kannibal_klown]

Definately see the series in some form or another before going to see the movie. The movie appears to deal with the whole back-story that was floating around since the first episode.

It's really a good series, but I know some that didn't like it. Personally I wasn't a big fan of it when it was first on TV, but I downloaded the first ep and got hooked. Bought the DVD boxed set the very next day.

Sounds in Space...

[Funksaw]

Okay, yes, the trailer implies that there are sounds in space in this version. 1) This is a trailer, not the final cut. There may be no sounds in space in the final version. 2) "No sounds in space" was more of a gimmick than anything else. Anyone who sees the reaver ship and Serenity passing each other extremely slowly - even though both ships would be moving extremely fast in order to get to a destination millions of miles away - knows that Firefly wasn't hard SF - I don't even think they established whether they had FTL tech or not. Ditching "no sounds in space" isn't a storybreaker. I mean, honestly, did you go and watch the original because it was silent? 3) Who is to say that the "space" scenes don't take place in some sort of atmosphere?

Re:Holy Crap

[harlows_monkeys]

That trailer makes the Star Wars III trailer look like a stupid cartoon

I noticed that. The sets and backgrounds in Serenity have striking contrasts and colors that make then visually interesting, yet they also seem believable in a way that few science fiction movies manage. Too often, things stand out as being different in order to look "futurey". Star Wars is full of this, especially the latest episodes.

Re:Holy Crap

[DavidTC]

Firefly isn't trying to be 'intelligent', if by intelligent you actually mean 'philosophical'.

Trust me, Joss has already gone there. He's out of philosophical points to make. He made them in his morality plays about good and evil called Buffy and Angel. Take a position on free will, on good and evil, on the nature of reality, on the ends justifying the means, on vengence vs. justice, on love, on death...and you will find something supportive of that position in Buffy or Angel, and something unsupportive of it.

Anf Firefly not particularly 'good' sci-fi, if by good sci-fi you mean 'hard'. Sure, his ships don't make sounds in space, but on the other hand, no explaination is given of where all these new worlds came from, and how far apart they are, or if ships go FTL, or even what their fuel is. There's no 'This is how the universe works', because none of the characters actually care about that, anymore than we care about how cars work. (Well, Kaylee, the mechanic, cares, but it's not like she'd have a reason to try to explain it.)

Firefly tries, and succeeds amazingly, at being good drama. With letter-perfect characterizations and amazing plots, and what was shaping up to be an interesting storyline before it was summarily canceled..

Firefly is perfect sci-fi, if you think sci-fi is 'drama set in a universe where differences in science affect the characters and how they act'. It's pretty crappy if your idea of sci-fi is Star Trek Technical Manuals. It's pretty crappy if you go too far the other way and your idea of good sci-fi is the ramifications of your entire life being a lie, aka, The Matrix. (If you want that from Whedon, the Buffy episodes are 'The Real Me' and 'Normal Again' and the entire Connor arc on Angel. And 'Superstar' on Buffy, but that's more a joke than a serious look at it.)

Don't believe the trailer. Three kinds of people are going to watch this movie: Those who've seen the shows, those who watch action movies, and those who watch every sci-fi movie. The first need no ads (Considering the amount of work it was to be a Firefly fan in the first place, they probably build a damn theater if one wasn't handy.) and the third you could show just a drawing of a space ship and say 'Come watch ship fly in space' as the ad copy. The trailer is aimed at the second group, who will get excited by the ad.

If you want to know if it will be worth it, download 'Serenity', the first episode, and watch it. Might want to start the second downloading while the first is coming in.

Re:Sound in Space?!

[larkost]

Sadly I did not see any evidence of the classic look from FireFly specifically:

• the color scheme is very "cool" (color temprature... more blue), verses the much warmer scheme used in the series (more like the pallet from a western)
• the series was famous for making special effect shots look like they were done with a hand-help camera: out of focus objects coming into focus, wild panning across the frame as if someone was trying to track with a moving object (rather than the perfect framing that is common), the point of view shaking with the "engine noise", etc..
• many more close-ups of the actors. The series usually tried to keep groups in frame.

I hope that the preview is not representative of the final work we will see in September in this regard... I liked those aspects of the series. In any case... I will be there.

Re:Holy Crap

[NanoGator]

"I'm so jacked up to see this, I'll probably skip "Revenge of the Sith" entirely and see "Serenity" one extra time with the eight bucks I save!"

Question: Is this trailer like a LOT more interesting if you watched the show?

I ask because I never caught it, and I'm not seeing the big whoop-de-fuck that everybody else is. As the trailer stands, it actually looks like mediochre sci-fi, to me.

I'm not posting this to troll. I'm just trying to understand what it is I'm missing that's preventing me from getting worked up like everybody else.

Re:Firefly is better than that ...

[Goose3254]

I heard that if this movie performs well, the studio will film the next two movies back-to-back or at the same time a la "The Matrix" sequels (only better I hope).

As far as a new series goes, although I really prefer that over a spread out movie series, I wouldn't look for that, at least until the movies play out, and then only with some drastic casting changes. Logically if these movies do really well, the cast will be properties considered too hot for series TV. One of the things I LIKED about "Firefly" was the fact that there was a careful "reveal" used on the characters. It definately left you wanting more. In a movie there isn't that much time, and you still have to include plot story and the obligitory "action", in order to make the movie stand on it's on merits. Another thing to look for is that if this movie is really successful, Joss himself will firmly movie into the "movie" realm, something that is kind of eluding him now.

It would ROCK if they used this series to bring back the old "serial" format and could crank out one every 6 or 8 months, or better yet, get picked up by HBO or Showtime for a monthly series, like "The Sopranos". Considering the attention to detail and quality for which HBO has been noted in it's series work, I think Joss would be in his element, and the abbreviated filming cycles would allow the actors plenty of time to work in other projects. AND the DVD marketing of the series episodes already have a proven path to market. The best of all worlds!

Re:Holy Crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Kaylee cares because, as the original engineer on the ship said... "Engines make her hot".
I agree with you about the trailer, and who it's aimed at. We know the "Firefly" fans will go as many times as they can afford (since it's been said that if the movie does well on its opening weekend, there will be at least two more movies). This wasn't a trailer for fans... most of the characters got no lines at all, and Book wasn't even seen. Most of the trailer was River kicking butt and catchy lines.
(Quoting David TC) "Well, Kaylee, the mechanic, cares, but it's not like she'd have a reason to try to explain it."
Another quote: "Don't believe the trailer. Three kinds of people are going to watch this movie: Those who've seen the shows, those who watch action movies, and those who watch every sci-fi movie. The first need no ads (Considering the amount of work it was to be a Firefly fan in the first place, they probably build a damn theater if one wasn't handy.) and the third you could show just a drawing of a space ship and say 'Come watch ship fly in space' as the ad copy. The trailer is aimed at the second group, who will get excited by the ad."

Re:Holy Crap

[RikF]

I thought the "we're all going to die" line was delivered beautifully. It's a very dry follow up to the previous 2 lines which went something like (I'm a work and I'll get odd looks if I pop my headphones on to check!)

"This could get interesting"
"Define interesting"
"oh god, oh god, we're all going to die"

so as a dry reply I think it works very well.

RikF

Details people, details!

[Scrameustache]

Sadly I did not see any evidence of the classic look from FireFly specifically:
the color scheme is very "cool" (color temprature... more blue), verses(sic) the much warmer scheme used in the series (more like the pallet from a western)

The outer planets have a warm colour tone.
The alliance planet have a cool, bluish hue: Rewatch "Ariel".

Same applies to the trailer, pay attention when a Reaver ship is chasing Mal and Jayne, and a Reaver shoots a circular saw at Mal, the colour tones are those of the outer planets: Warm, yellowish.

the series was famous for making special effect shots look like they were done with a hand-help camera: out of focus objects coming into focus, wild panning across the frame as if someone was trying to track with a moving object (rather than the perfect framing that is common), the point of view shaking with the "engine noise", etc..

Check out the shot of Serenity zooming above a blue planet during Mal's intro speech near the beginning of the trailer: The camera vibrates, the ship moves out of frame and the camera tracks it shakily... exactly like what you lament not seeing in the trailer.

many more close-ups of the actors. The series usually tried to keep groups in frame.

2 things: First of all, he's showing us fanboys closeup shots of our beloved characters (look folks: The gang's all here!).
Secondly, you have a very selective memory. Check out this site's excellent screenshot galleries [still-flying.net] to see that there were closeups of people all the time in the series. Why you erased that from your mind? I dunno.

I hope that the preview is not representative of the final work we will see in September in this regard... I liked those aspects of the series.

I hope the trailer is representative: I liked those aspects of the series and they're still there, if you look at what is actually shown in the trailer. Thank you.

Re:Holy Crap

[DavidTC]

No, I'm not confusing it, I'm responding to people who think 'The Matrix' was intelligent sci-fi, because, ooo, we're all really living in a computer simulation! Man, that really makes you think...if you've never had any exposure to real science fiction at all. ;) Hell, Red Dwarf did that.

I don't see your fourth point at all, I think it's actually the second point...morality and civility in a frontier.

And disagree with your third, I think the reason technology is 'ineffective' is because the government wants it to be so. The last time you let poor people have high tech, they started a war. From what little we've seen of the non-frontier, it looks like quite a lot of core problems have been solved. The core 'problem' is, in fact, the malcontents who refuse to fit in and instead 'head west'.

But, yes, there was a philosophical framework framework there. Interestingly enough, it isn't the same one as in Buffy and Angel, and that was obvious the second Mal threw that guy into their engine.

Although it somewhat hard to tell, because the viewpoint is completely different...people who are vigilantes against evil, vs. the losers in a war who aren't trying to do anything.

Re:DVD quality XVID version

[Gossi]

Incase anybody is wondering, serving this used 129gb of bandwidth in the first hour alone.