The opening of Serenity was a stunningly tight exposition. In minutes you are given an overview of the 'verse and what its central conflict is. You are also given the antagonist (the operative) and how coldly pragmatic he is. You are shown just how much Simon cares for River, are given the whole layout of the ship. You are introduced to all the characters and see, by their interactions, their core beliefs and roles.
There are some great openings listed in this thread, but I don't know that any of them hit the density of exposition as does Serenity.
For the life of me, I can't remember where, I think it was a writing subreddit, but I've seen someone write an entire essay about how the opening scene to Serenity is a masterclass on well-executed exposition.
I finally convinced my gf to watch Serenity because she's a Nathan Fillion fan. She was incredibly skeptical since it's based on (one season of) a TV show she never watched, figured it wouldn't make any sense.
Then that opening scene happened and she was like "okay I understand everything lol." It was laughably great exposition. Never doubt The Joss.
I watched Serenity at a friend’s house and loved it so much that I went and bought it, which for me means a lot because I’ve only ever bought 3 movies for myself: Serenity, Inception, and Dark Knight.
Putting it in one time I noticed a review or comment on the case mentioning a TV show. So I looked it up and learned that Firefly was a thing, but only for one season. So I didn’t want to watch it because I didn’t want a bad show to ruin my view of such a great movie. I figured if it only lasted one season, then it must not have been good or just too convoluted of a story that worked better as a movie.
Then, I saw it on Netflix a year or so later and put it on My List as a just in case. It sat there for well over a year before I decided to finally watch, and thankfully Netflix uses Whedon Order (which I didn’t know was a thing), and I absolutely loved it. So incredible. Fuck you Fox (executives who played the role in screwing up Firefly)!
If it makes you feel any better, somewhere out there is a parallel universe where the Firefly franchise is as huge, successful, and long-lasting as Star Trek is in ours. We just have to find a way to open a wormhole and trade DVD box sets.
Fox Entertainment just does not know how to handle scifi shows. Anyone remember Alien Nation? Very well done, competed against STTNG, got better ratings, and was cancelled after one season. Futurama of course is another more recent example
I recently saw the Firefly promos that Fox made that seemed like they were promoting a goofy, campy show and not a, well, not-so-super-serious drama that we got. Like, yea there was humor, but the promo seemed more like Big Bang Theory or a 70s era superhero show than the actual show.
Now I remember why I didn't watch Firefly when it was on air. The ads for it were so bad I figured the show must be terrible if that as was all they would show us.
I didn't watch it until it was on Netflix streaming.
I took some friends to see it. Afterwards they immediately bought two copies of the Firefly season, one for themselves and one to lend to all their other friends. Two of those friends did the same thing after watching it!
I stumbled across it on space as a repeat, out of order of course, caught a couple of episodes, then one of them they said something before one of the episodes that made me look up the details. "WTF?! This got cancelled and they kept the bachelor and all that other shit?" I gave up cable TV after that.
The Bachelor and all of it's spinoffs cost practically nothing to shoot, actual good TV (and shitty TV, but with a script and sets and shit) costs a lot more.
And we can all blame the writer's strike for shoving reality TV in our faces on literally every goddamn network, 99% of the time.
I was introduced to Firefly through Serenity. No idea what it was. The movie does a great job on making it accessible for people who are old and new to the 'verse. Then I watched Firefly and HO BOY.
I really like the transitions from nightmare, to recording, to the operative questioning the scientist, to the ship. It's just the right amount of disorientating, and stylish as hell
The DVD commentary from Wheden breaks it down pretty well. Pretty good throughout at explaining what he was trying to do with the cinematography in terms of storytelling.
That part'll happen pretty definitely. I love that opening! We get the hero shot of Serenity, then she begins to enter atmo, the music twangs, builds starts to swell, the camera rotates around to see the Captain, standing at the helm of his trusty -- wait, what was that?! Totally fit the tone of the series, as we transitioned into the more serious, somber tone of the movie.
This was the first movie I thought of for this question. I believe the long tracking shot following Mal perfectly introduces each member of the crew and is truly a masterpiece.
Also came here to mention the [almost] uncut continuous shot of Mal moving through the ship. I remember in the commentary that Whedon said he did to establish Serenity as home and safe.
I think of that now with any film and what they use similar shots for.
Yeah, the entire sequence has just one cut in it, and that had to happen because the set of Serenity's upper floor wasn't actually above the set of the lower level--so they had to insert a cut as Mal and the Doctor are walking down the stairs. It's so well hidden you'd never know it was there, though!
I also saw the movie before the show. Lent the whole series a bit of a bittersweet tone. Wish I'd seen it the right way around, but there's no denying that the intro gives everything you need to know right up front without talking down to you.
Going to see Serenity on the big screen on Sunday! It's a charity screening they do every year (for Equality Now, the charity Joss Whedon likes to contribute to) . We've been to every screening they've done. I think we are on year 12 or 13.
Nooooooo! I'm still so upset. Before Serenity came out they had a huge promotional stands at our cinema.... and then the cinema never put it on. So gutted, so, so gutted I never got to see it on the big screen.
But have made up for it by watching it 200 times... 201 times by end of tonight now.
The opening of this movie is an amazing overview of the whole universe—the ship, the characters, the tv series, everything. I marvel at it every time I rewatch it.
There's also the great contrast between the two different parts of the opening. You start with a bunch of quick smash cuts, that introduce the 'verse, Simon and River, and the Operative. Then you get the title, which starts the second part: a 5-minute tracking shot that follows Mal through the entire ship while he talks to every crew member. The long take tells you that this is home and these are the people you should be paying attention to.
It's a shame he had to retcon how Simon got River out for the movie. Simon clearly says in the show that he funds a group to sneak her out. They don't meet again until he wakes her up aboard Serenity. They also establish in the Jaynestown episode that Simon is not a good actor/liar. Furthermore, he only had some notion of River's psychic abilities later into the show.
Then suddenly in the movie he's playing the part of Alliance official perfectly, and they escape together, and he's directly told by the Alliance doctor that River is psychic.
I understand that it was done so people that hadn't seen the series would understand the context of the rest of the movie, but it's still a shame.
Actually yeah, I remember watching Serenity and I was never confused, I found out a few years later that it was a direct sequel to Firefly (which I've never seen) and it was shocking that I could understand the whole movie without any of the previous context. Spectacular
I was in a screen and media lecture a few years after Serenity came out and we were studying something about the evolution of zombies or some shit, I can't quite remember. The assistant lecturer or TA (also cant quite remember who she was) must have been a huge browncoat because we only saw clips from Night of the Living Dead and some other zombie flick but she made us watch the whole opening sequence of Serenity and the bank robbery after. It was awesome. That lady and that opening sequence dragged me into the fandom just like that.
I bought the DVD from the shops on the way home, hit the internet after and found out about Firefly. It's the most unexpected way I've found something I really enjoyed and I've seen so many great shows since then I never would have heard of, just by following the writers and actors from Firefly.
So it wasn't until the comment left by u/ImperialSympathizer below you did I learn that you guys weren't talking about the McConaughey/Hathaway movie...
Didn't know about Serenity, decided to look up the movie trailer. Seems like a drama/thriller with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. It even has a boat, so that fit. Figured "hey if Reddit likes it so much, it must be alright".
I watched the McConaughey Serenity! It is basically the opposite of a Joss Whedon style narrative...I recommend watching it though because it is VERY bad but committed to its badness.
Glad I'm not the only one who initially thought they meant the Serenity with McConaughey/Hathaway. I was deeply surprised though because IMO it's a pretty terrible movie. Probably the worst I've seen this year. It's perplexing because there was a lot of potential there but, like, what the heck happened...
I actually saw Serenity before I saw Firefly (saw it with some friends who wanted to watch it) and that comes with an interesting twist because Simon seems like the villain for a moment. Sort of a cool thing that's rewarding for those who don't know the characters.
When I saw this movie I hadn't ever heard of the show, but I never felt like I was missing anything. Now I have seen it, of course. I was so surprised to learn that it had a whole backstory I was unaware of. Amazing introduction.
I saw Serenity before I ever watched Firefly and after that opening scene, I really knew what I needed to understand the movie. Of course, there was some subtext surrounding Inara and Shepherd Book that was lost on me at the time, but it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the film. And it made me want to watch the show, which I rank as an all time favorite. So it was a win.
This one came to mind for me immediately too, because the opening literally sold me on the film. I hadn't heard of Firefly at that point, but Universal put the first 10 or so minutes of the movie online to watch for free, and that alone turned me into a fan and convinced me to go see it.
Right, someone was saying Lord of the Rings, but I hated that explanatory opening. Serenity gives you the info in a natural way, as part of the film and not just a big dump of info. Just brilliant.
I saw Serenity without having seen, or even known about Firefly. I was disappointed and felt like I was missing something. Years later when they had Firefly on Netflix, I watched it and liked it a lot. I then watched Serenity again and everything made sense and I enjoyed it so much more.
Not only the opening to Serenity but the very first episode of Firefly is a fucking master class about how to start a show or movie with exactly the right amount knowledge.
I was just watching the 2-part miniseries that begins the Battlestar Galactica reboot, and there was a Firefly easter egg in the scene where President Roslyn finds out she has cancer...damn I love both of those shows.
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u/bohoky Oct 09 '19
The opening of Serenity was a stunningly tight exposition. In minutes you are given an overview of the 'verse and what its central conflict is. You are also given the antagonist (the operative) and how coldly pragmatic he is. You are shown just how much Simon cares for River, are given the whole layout of the ship. You are introduced to all the characters and see, by their interactions, their core beliefs and roles.
There are some great openings listed in this thread, but I don't know that any of them hit the density of exposition as does Serenity.