Serenity movie

[Skylark]

I kinda remember seeing one or two episodes, it looked more like a western than the movie. Didn't someone wear on old duster and bandoleros? Anyway, SciFi was unbearable to watch before I got TiVo and I never really got into their shows (way too many commercials). So, I will qualify myself as a 'virgin'. <br />I really enjoyed the movie. Lots of humor, sexual tension, good characters, loathsome enemies, and the battle scene between the Alliance and the Reavers got my adrenaline going. (Yes, I know there are no explosions in space, but I still really like to watch them <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />) I have recommended Serenity to all my friends, sci fi fans or not. Are they going to do another movie? I would definitely like to follow their further adventures (if the poor ship can handle it). <br />

 

[serak_the_preparer]

Wmdragon,<br /><br />***M*A*J*O*R***S*P*O*I*L*E*R*S***F*O*L*L*O*W***<br /><br />You're entirely correct that there are discrepancies. Whedon made sacrifices in order to get his movie made. Along the way, he gave up some pieces of the 'canon' of the series. According to the pilot of <i>Firefly</i>, Simon Tam did not rescue his sister from the Alliance facility where she was being held. He exhausted all his financial resources in order to secure the help of an unnamed underground 'movement' which has apparently risen in quiet opposition to the Alliance. These people are the ones who broke River out and turned her over to Simon. In the series, Simon has only the vaguest idea of what happened to River in that facility, or what the Alliance hoped to achieve by experimenting on River's brain. In the movie, obviously, things are otherwise.<br /><br />Excellent point about the Reavers. I believe Whedon originally conceived the origin of the Reavers as an extension of terraforming. If worlds could be remade through the action of organisms genetically engineered to alter the environment, as well as through the action of vast and powerful machines - why not people? When will morality step in to check the application of technology's transformative potential? This is hinted at in the episode immediately following the pilot, 'The Train Job.' The local sheriff offhandedly mentions a bit of commonplace knowledge widely understood in <i>Firefly</i>'s 'verse: Every terraformed world suffers unintended consequences, incidental penalties exacted on those born on them, direct side-effects of terraforming. The medicine Mal's crew steals is used to treat 'Bowden's Malady,' the omnipresent affliction cursing every inhabitant of Paradiso. Whatever it is which creates Reavers seems to be just as inevitable and contagious. In the movie, however, air processors pumped a neurotoxin into the atmosphere which damaged human brains. With the processors no longer operating, no new Reavers

 

[chriscdc]

For the purpose of not ruining the whole suspending disbelief thing you should stop that thought there. If you follow it on, it would lead to, how could a hundred thousand crazy psychopaths work together, let alone have organised fooed growth and distribution? <br />The only other alternative would be for them to move through the inhabited parts of the system, as a massive horde army, slaughtering entire worlds. The result would be that the Alliance would have wiped them out in a couple of years or would have been destroyed.

 

[wmdragon]

sort of like the movie 28 Days Later, the rabid infected people only went after those not infected <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#993366"><em>The only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.</em> <br /> --- James Clerk Maxwell</font></p> </div>

 

[chriscdc]

The other wierd thing with the reavers, is that they left the 90% of the population, who became docile. Now they may not be as fun to play with, but they still splash with red when hit with heavy objects, and still taste nice.

 

[wmdragon]

taste nice? I dont know, they looked pretty stale to me <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#993366"><em>The only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.</em> <br /> --- James Clerk Maxwell</font></p> </div>

 

[serak_the_preparer]

***S*P*O*I*L*E*R***A*L*E*R*T***<br /><br /><i>What do Reavers do in their 'off time' when they're not raping and pillaging? Needlepoint? Flower Arranging? Do they have Soccer Moms?</i><br /><br />ZeroGeezus,<br /><br />The Reavers wear the skins of those they kill and eat. Going to have to go with needlepoint.<br /><br /><i>If you follow it on, it would lead to, how could a hundred thousand crazy psychopaths work together, let alone have organised fooed growth and distribution?</i><br /><br />ChrisCDC,<br /><br />That question was also asked about the Huns. It was asked about the pirates (who still exist, believe it or not) and is asked about terrorists. The Reavers are the Hell's Angels of space - only worse.<br /><br /><i>The only other alternative would be for them to move through the inhabited parts of the system, as a massive horde army, slaughtering entire worlds. The result would be that the Alliance would have wiped them out in a couple of years or would have been destroyed.</i><br /><br />The Reavers are treated as nonexistant monsters by the bulk of the populace on Alliance worlds. Their numbers are not great enough for them to sweep through a solar system, laying waste to entire worlds. They are 1/10 of 1% of the population of a colony. They can prey on passing spaceships or land on remote settlements of outlying worlds to take what they want. They've only been in existence for about a decade.<br /><br /><i>The other wierd thing with the reavers, is that they left the 90% of the population, who became docile. Now they may not be as fun to play with, but they still splash with red when hit with heavy objects, and still taste nice.</i><br /><br />They like live prey. Because 99% of the population gave up on taking care of itself, most of them would have expired before the insane .1% of the population could get to them.<br /><br />The real plot problem here is that in the context of the series the implied origin of the Reavers was viral. In the movie, it's a toxin. A ge

 

[wmdragon]

"taste nice? I dont know, they looked pretty stale to me. Hmmm, maybe more like turkey jerky."<br /><br />good point <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#993366"><em>The only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.</em> <br /> --- James Clerk Maxwell</font></p> </div>

 

[chriscdc]

Yes but these are CRAZY psychopaths, the closest of your analogies is the Hun (thats why I used the term horde), but they had rigidly enforced command structures etc. Pirates were never crazy, it was a way of making money, for people who didn't have a choice or who had rather loose morals. Terrorists aren't crazy in the smash everyone nearby's skulls in way.<br /><br />The closest example would be the Lords resistance army of northern Uganda, who really are a bunch of psychopaths. I don't remember there being a reference for a virus being responsible for the reavers. I thought that as the guy who survived the reaver attack went crazy, it supported the view that it was some sort of self perpetuating meme, rather than a desease (and I thought a far scarier possibility).<br /><br />I'm sure the number of colonists, who went crazy, was around 10%, and it sounded random. They went off planet as well, therefore no farms, as a result they would actively be hunting people down, not preying on the occasional cargo ships, that get to close to Miranda. Also I would expect them, to use the local human food supply rather than planting crops.<br /><br />The first maxim of warfare is to fight concentrated, most of the colonies have small populations so they would be no difficulty for 100,000 reavers. Also there would be fewer than 1 billion people in the entire solar system, they would have a more difficult time fighting contemporary earth.<br /><br />This really is desending into one of those way too serious fan arguments.

 

[kdavis007]

I heard the DVD for the movie is coming out December 20th...

 

[spacefire]

so crazy animal-like psychopats can actually pilot spaceships?<br />maybe NASA's astronaut selection rules are too restrictive. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[serak_the_preparer]

Actually, yeah. They also drive cars and fly planes.