Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
I thought Serenity was pretty good. I mean, I don't think it's as good as Firefly, as it loses some of the charm and western feel, and Shepherd Book's role was painfully small, it's still a very exciting and enjoyable film. But Randy is right in that the narrative does fit the small screen better. It's just too hard to encapsulate such a large plot into a one-hour and fifty-nine minute movie.

EDIT: It definitely works ten times better if you're already familiar with the show.

I liked Serenity a lot. However, the actual tv show was many times better in most of the episodes. You had more of a feeling for the characters and the plots were down to earth and authentic in their values. I so wish the show's larger scale plot lines could have played out properly. The bastard at Fox who canceled the show should have given it a whole season's chance at the very least. I bet the finale would have hooked many people.

Otherwise, the main problem with the movie, if you ask me, is that it tried to do too much. It tried explaining crap that didn't need to be explained and tried to answer too many of the plot elements from the show. You can't do that and still have a good movie. There's very little cohesion.

I would have suggested to Whedon (who is a brilliant writer) that he forget about keeping things simple for newcomers and forget about the fans who wanted to see closure and just focus on making a great standalone story that exhibits the best of who the characters were and what they cared about. No stupid "agent" plotline or complicated stuff like that. He should have focused on the characters and how they lived their lives, just like in the show, and only throw in a few bones of the larger plotlines left hanging for the original fans at most. It would have been an anti-sci-fi sci-fi film, just like the show was anti-sci-fi sci-fi. It would have been sweet. Then, if the movie had been successful, the small bones of plot elements could have been expanded to provide closure in later films/shows. I don’t know.

Heh, the only tv-to-movie transition that has ever practiced my ideas (that I know of anyways) was Cowboy Bebop the movie. It was fantastic in every way. It didn't need to introduce any of the complicated back-story for the characters or large-scale plotlines. It was about its own, self-contained story. It was perfect way to translate the real feeling of the show.