Reviews

I wasn't expecting very much from this film, but our son decided he really wanted to watch it and since Halle's hot, I didn't mind too much!

As others have said, the plot was very simple and characters were pretty simplistic, although I think some people were forgetting that they weren't supposed to be real people, it's a comic book license after all! I've certainly seen many much worse films with comic book licenses, and the plot while thin, wasn't cheesy like virtually any of the usual summer Hollywood blockbusters from Emmerich and the like.

The CGI wasn't nearly as bad as some people have said e.g. "The worst CGI I've ever seen" - oh come on! It was very obvious when they were using CGI and that was really my main complaint, but it was fairly well scripted with some interesting camera angles, was some times quite unique, and occasionally looked great (but not real).

There were also some very nice visual moments in the film that I really didn't expect from this kind of film. If you didn't see them, you were either too involved in slagging off the plot, or whining about how it wasn't the same as Batman's Catwoman, or just won't sit back and appreciate the good points that films can have. Suffice to say that the director Pitof was involved in the visual effects of Messenger, Alien Resurrection (again a dubious film, but it looked good) and The City of Lost Children, and that the Cinematographer usually works on Luc Besson's films.

So all in all, it was never going to be the best film in the world and I doubt too many of the moaners ever thought it would be when they entered the cinema. It was lame in places sure, but it was worth the money for entertainment and looked great in some places if you actually looked. Halle also looked great, and there were genuinely sexy moments in the film. Even my son (who can be a harsh film critic) sat still for the whole film (he hasn't for the Harry Potter films) and he gave it 20 out 10 which is a few points more than he gave Harry Potter :-)

First off I should say that I only watched this as I read it had replaced Dark Angel (which I kind of liked, first series anyway) and wanted to see if it was any good. Anyway, I've just finished watching the last episode of Firefly here in the UK, and I am thoroughly appalled that this series has been cancelled. The ONLY bad things I can say about it is that *occasionally* the western parts seemed a bit contrived, and that I never really got to identify with some characters much (Wash and Preacher mainly).

For the first point, it's not nearly as bad a mix of sci-fi and western as some people comment on. I suspect they haven't really watched it as it usually works very well. For the second point, I'm sure that I would have gotten to know the other characters better in the future as the story developed. The characters (and actors) in this series were fantastic as individuals and as a team. They are a real credit to Firefly and helped make it seem real, generate emotion, humour and occasionally despair. Nathan Fillion above all surprised me as I'd never seen him as an actor before (I've never watched Buffy much), and he's simply fantastic. Believable from the first episode and acts out Mal's great strengths and flaws of character perfectly. The rest of the cast support (and occasionally take the lead) very well.

As for the rest, the stories were very good and usually inventive despite staying in the supposedly cliched sci-fi and/or western domain, every episode has laughs, some have a few tears. The effects are generally not too bad (some bits really nice, others a bit ropey - nothing an improved budget wouldn't have fixed). Even the title music (by Whedon!) is fantastic. I watch most things recorded and normally fast forward past the titles (Babylon 5 excepted).

Bottom line is that above all it's a shame it was canned. It was a great series, had *real potential* to be a blockbuster (I doubt that many TV execs thought that a vampire hunting female would be so popular), and was easily the best debut series I've seen in the sci-fi/drama genre (even the mighty Babylon 5 took a while to get started). For it to have failed ratings means that people inside Fox need sacked for not doing their job properly, due to bad planning, bad promotion, and for being so stupid that they can't see a good show or even potential even if it is the best in the 'Verse.

The fact that Whedon thinks strongly enough of Firefly to do a film version (and can get the backing to do so) should be a wakeup call to the top level bosses that those under them aren't interested in quality or investing in potentially hit series, they are only reacting to immediate ratings despite the fact they influence them badly by getting their programming all wrong.

While I'm only too happy to see a film version, the production values of the series were so high that it's really just going to be a higher budget longer episode (albeit more polished), when all I (and many others) want to see is a new series. I really hope that the film springboards the series back, but I'm not holding my breath...