Why did the TV show and the film flopped?
I mean, it looked like crap, but so many people liked themboth, and yet they both tanked.
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MovieChat Forums > Serenity (2005) Discussion > Why did the TV show and the film flopped...
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It had a cult following. Which means few people liked it, but the ones who liked it really liked it.
It would still flop today, though.
It's the designs, I guess. Star Wars has a really iconic design. Star Trek has also iconic design. This movie's characters, costumes, aliens, spaceships, etc. all look so bland and generic, and also random.
I think having good designs for those things is already half the battle for a sci-fi movie. Even Battlefield Earth has more memorable designs than this underrated movie.
I disagree.
Spaceballs was a hit , and their spaceship design was literally an RV
Plus the in opening sequence of Serenity when the ship is burning on reentry it looks Fking awesome! Not that I',m a fan or anything ....
Space Balls is a parody movie. The more outrageous the design, the better.
Serenity has one or two good designs, but felt random. I mean, Star Wars has some overall design "direction." The universe is designed. All the technology and ships even from different civilizations or planets have a coherent "theme." Not here.
why would technology and ships even from different civilizations have a coherent theme?
" characters, costumes, aliens, spaceships, etc. all look so bland and generic" .
Compared to Star Trek?? are you kidding? All the characters all wear a lycra onesy with grey shoulders.
It really should not. But a movie is not a reality, it's a work of art. And in art well designed coherent theme sell better with the audience. Real life is pretty much random. Movies are escapism, random hodgepodge design looks bad.
shareWhat do you mean it looked like crap? how dare you!
Its well established why they failed, thats all firefly fans talk about apart from "How do we get a new series?"
Firefly:
-No marketing,
-Bad timeslots
-Moving timelslots
-Airing episodes out of order
thanks a lot Fox :(
Serenity:
-No marketing
Well I thought 'Firefly' looked great and it had a good looking and charismatic cast as well. I think it didn't work because the whole 'Cowboys in Space!' theme was a bad fit. I mean you have cowboys and you have space, but you don't have cowboys in space. And on top of that the story line as it played out was a bit thin. Granted there were a few great episodes but there were also some pretty ordinary ones. And there was no clear idea where the show was going which is ultimately why I think it was cancelled.
'Serenity' I think showed up just how little the writers had up their sleeves as far as the story line went. When you consider that you might have expected them to dump everything they had left over for future seasons of the tv show into that film it turned out that everything they had left over didn't amount to much.
"but you don't have cowboys in space."
I dont see why not , once space travel becomes affordable to the everyman. In fact the story covered why there were cowboys - there were remote settlements , and colonies struggling to eek a living out on planets that , well, after terraforming looked a bit like the backside of California.
"the story line as it played out was a bit thin."
There was plenty of story to come, some episodes might not have progressed on going storylines but so what? Star Trek didnt have any over-arcing story as far as i could tell , just every week new planet , new alien , and that worked out ok. I think Joss Whedan had a very clear idea what themes to explore and where he was going with several storylines - he just didnt get chance to tell them as it was criminally cancelled in its prime.
"'Serenity' I think showed up just how little the writers had up their sleeves"
No , it dosent matter how much is up your sleeve you can only fit so much into a 90min film. + see point 2
Indeed.
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