Watch the First 9 Minutes of Serenity 426
An anonymous reader writes "As reported on FireflyFans.net, Universal is attempting further promotion of the sci-fi action film Serenity by making the first 9 minutes of the movie available online. The clip contains the opening backstory that sets an Alliance assassin on the trail of the ship's crew; it's an effective hook. On Yahoo movies, Serenity is ranked as the number 1 film currently in theaters and is hanging in a top-ten spot in the highest rated movies of all time. Slashdot has previously covered Orson Scott Card's review, the film's opening, an interview with Joss Whedon, and much more. It's all out of love..."
Aftermath? (Score:4, Insightful)
As long as they're making Serenity available... (Score:3, Insightful)
Statistics, Internet fans and damn statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Good movie, but #10 all time movie? (Score:5, Insightful)
As with the majority of slashdot posters on here, I am a total sci-fi junkie, but does Serenity really qualify to be within the top 10 movies of all time? Granted, this is a yahoo poll and probably was saturated by people so desperate for anything with a futuristic theme they're willing to hump a movie which was written by a guy who make a witch turn lesbian in another show with declining ratings.
I seriously cannot understand what is so great and original about this movie. Sci-fi meets cowboy theme has already been stretched in 26 episodes (plus a movie) of Cowboy Bebop.
I don't even see Bladerunner on this Yahoo top 10 of all time list. Dune? Seriously, are you going to tell me Serenity is better than Bladerunner?
Aftermath?-Control (Score:0, Insightful)
That was the pirates argument. Not the MPAAs
"what will the MPAA's response be?"
Play by our rules, and everyone benefits.
"It only took them, what, ten years to realize the internet can help them?"
When "The Internet" played by it's rules, it didn't. When "The Internet " plays by the MPAA rules, then it does.
Re:Good movie, but #10 all time movie? (Score:1, Insightful)
Who cares what the setting is? Good movies are about ideas, not pretty scenery and CG.
Lots of the bad reviews I've read about Serenity point out and then dismiss upon its superficial qualities.
i never understood the joss whedon cult (Score:2, Insightful)
yeah, serenty is ok, but it's no alien or blade runner
you may now mod me into oblivion for not blindly stating my allegiance to the high school clique and mindlessly jumping on the hype machine
so sorry, pfffffft
Mod parent up please. (Score:1, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Trailer Review (Score:2, Insightful)
since its the first 9 minutes exactly as seen in the theatre, it doesn't give away any of the rest. Rest assured, there are many good bits to be given away!
I hope this becomes a more common practice in the future; I believe this is a far better hook than a trailer.
Impressive (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Site doesn't like Linux/Mozilla (Score:2, Insightful)
The nice thing about linux is that most distros come with the `file` utility. Just run it on the ".viv";
file
And it will tell you what kind of file you've got. Just change the extension...you know what, and I'm not in Linux right now to test, but most Linux movie players aren't dominated by file extention, unlike their Windows counterparts. If I were a betting man, I'd say you could probably double click and open with mplayer and it'd likely Just Work(TM)...
Re:STOP FREE ADVERTISING (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying you can't bitch, I'm just saying you're wasting your time, and unless you get some sort of thrill out of playing the down-modded martyr, in the end, it's not going to be worth it.
But, hey, do what you want.
Re:Meanwhile, in Universal HQ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Now, 10 years later, can we stop pointing that out! I'm tired of it!
Re:What the Heck (Score:3, Insightful)
Stupid: Target audience, and I can't play this. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm one of those people who reads slashdot regularly, runs linux on his computer, and has NOT watched the show Firefly and did NOT go see the movie the week it opened.
However, I do love sci-fi, I just never took the opportunity to get hooked on this show. (I have enough vices already!)
In any case, look: Advertising, after a movie has been released, is to encourage those who have not seen the movie or may not have been following it so closely but who _might_ be interested, to fork out the $10 and go check it out. I admit, the trailer was sort of interesting but nothing that really grabbed my attention. Mostly it's the hype I've read on this website that has kept me interested, and is what is making me want to go see it. I have no idea about the Firefly story, but since everyone seems to think it's so amazing I might be pursuaded to go see it, especially with a little enticement like showing me the first few minutes of the movie.
Now. I run linux. So I can't watch this "teaser". Let me repeat: I AM PRECISELY THE TARGET AUDIENCE for this advertisement, and yet the message I get when I actually make the effort of clicking on the link and going to the website to check it out is: You can't watch this, your operating system is not supported. This is not something that happens by accident. They are ACTIVELY dissuading linux users from watching the teaser. I had to click "view source" just to find the file, and I'm downloading it, but I realize it's very unlikely I'll be able to watch it. They are publishing in some stupid non-standard format. And for what reason? I can't think of a single one. They are giving it away for FREE, why would they be worried about copyright? At the VERY least, if you don't want to get into weird IP battles by using "frowned upon" formats like DivX (though I don't see the problem with OSS formats like Xvid), publish it in straight MPEG, even if it's low resolution, but my goodness, don't DENY your target audience the ability to watch it.
Whoever is in charge of marketing has no clue.
As it is, I still don't know if I'll bother going to see it, especially considering how expensive the theaters are these days and how little time I have.
If only I could watch the teaser...
It finished downloading by the time I typed this out. And look, mplayer and VLC are both out of luck.
Re:i never understood the joss whedon cult (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:i never understood the joss whedon cult (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Special 16 year old girls (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Good movie, but #10 all time movie? (Score:4, Insightful)
Serenity and Bladerunner are both great movies, but I don't think they reach the same goals as to be ranked on just one scale.
Re:Special 16 year old girls (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, as long as the woman is physically mature, I don't think the guy is a pedophile, and the obsession doesn't seem harmful to society -- as long as he can wait two years.
Re:What the Heck (Score:4, Insightful)
You probably meant the Windows version of Firefox. You see - I'm using a PC too. It runs Linux.
Re:No Linux support for this? (Score:3, Insightful)
But that still doesn't justify the extra expense. They went to all that trouble to write some kind of Java player or weird web thingie (and then put in extra code to "support" certain OSes), when all they had to do was not "support" any OS, and just link to Firefly.mpeg.
They couldn't handle a hyperlink. They could write code, but a link totally beyond them. It's one thing to tell potential customers to fuck off, but to spend money to tell people "we don't want your money" is pretty amazing. Maybe the fact no Hollywood movies ever make a profit, isn't really due to creative accounting after all.
Re:The beginning is good (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose it makes things a little better that these planets have many moons, all of which are terraformed and include artificial gravity (I know, hard to imagine - and all conveniently have the landscape of southern California). But there are laws of physics (maybe math, actually) about how close together planetary orbits may come in a stable solar system. There just can't be many orbits in the habitable zone. (Anything outside of the bands of Venus and Mars would not look like California no matter how good the terraforming is.) So why aren't the outer planets cold?
You're right, many other details are thought out, but Whedon is delinquent on giving us a map of the settled planets, or even a sketch. I imagine he wants to, but can't make it fit with the requirements of the narrative. What the narrative requires is something analogous to an archipelago on the sea - a space that is densely populated with many moons and planets. That's just not gonna happen; the more you say about it, the sillier it would sound, so Whedon just ingnores the subject. If I were him, I'd have been more direct about it up front, bit the bullet on superluminal travel, and made Serenity an interstellar ship. This would explain the huge interstellar migration you mention... The downside is that Serenity seems too crappy to be superluminal... but then again, the Millennium Falcon was also a piece of crap and nobody had problems picturing hyperdrive. But there is something weird about people who can afford an interstellar spaceship but still use revolvers to shoot each other. Yes, a quirk of the show.
So with the solar system thing, I think Whedon is digging himself deeper, and he should have worked out these things when he first conceived the show. Absent that, he just shouldn't address the issue. Anything he says about this will only make matters worse.