Is Serenity better than Firefly?

[Wesley Pryce]

My opinion,but I like the movie much more than the series,am i alone? 😛

 

[Fuffy Baith]

You're not alone. I binged watched Firefly on Netflix and I've only seen it once so I'm sure a second viewing might impress me more but I'm not a fan of westerns. Something about it I find boring and tend to zone out. Right after I finished the last episode I started watching Serenity. At first I wasn't excited but that first scene got me hooked. I think the reason why I like the movie more is because it answers all the questions I had on the show and was a good followup to the characters.

 

[Still a Scoobie]

No. Firefly is far superior. It may take a second or third watch for everyone to realise it, but it is, and while the film answers the questions posed by the show, it doesn't do so very well, imo.

 

[thetopher]

Firefly is by far the better format.

Ask yourself if you'd rather have all the questions that the tv show asked, all the character development and twists, told in that format (say over 2 or 3 seasons of television, at a steady pace) instead of a film 2 hour long film. No contest. 🙂

Serenity does little more than tie up the loose ends (although not all the looses ends- like who the guys with the blue hands are?) from the tv show in an entertaining enough way.

Personally I was way more interested in Firefly before the Film came out, afterwards I didn't really care about exploring the characters or the world any further.
For example I have zero interest in the comic books. After the film, thats it for me.

 

[Still a Scoobie]

Personally I was way more interested in Firefly before the Film came out, afterwards I didn't really care about exploring the characters or the world any further.
For example I have zero interest in the comic books. After the film, thats it for me.

Me too, but if the show came back in some way (on TV or something else) and disregarded everything that happened in the film, I'd be very interested in that.

 

[Taake]

For me Serenity will always be a complement to Firefly and thus not superior. Firefly is the Queen Bee, Serenity is the string that ties the bag up. Meaning - I love Serenity, I love that we got Serenity and I never tire of watching Serenity. But Serenity in and of itself would just be an entertaining movie with great dialogue. For me it can't really stand alone. Firefly can stand for itself, it doesn't need Serenity.

Again. I will forever be grateful that Serenity got made, I desperately wanted that "final episode", but even without it Firefly would still have been one of my all time favorite Tv-shows. Serenity was just the icing on the cake. 🙂

 

[white avenger]

I think that a lot, not all, the people who prefer the series over the movie is that they actually were invested in the characters before the movie came out. I saw the movie with no more knowledge of "Firefly" than that it was a short lived series that Joss created. I wasn't all that upset when Book or Wash died, because I didn't know their history. I knew a little more about River, because her origin was part of the beginning of the movie. I didn't know these people, so, to me, it was just a stand alone production that I saw as something like Roddenberry's original concept of "Star Trek" was supposed to be ("Wagon Train To The Stars," as opposed to "Firefly's " "Space Cowboy") and, as such, I liked it a lot. I like it more now that I have seen the series, which I ordered from Amazon as soon as I came home from watching the movie, but now I have a much better understanding of what was actually going on.

I like the series more, because now I know just who all of the characters are, how they came to be together, what they have gone through as a group, and what the significance of the ship's name and the term "Browncoats" means. As a Southerner, I grew up in a culture that still recalls our own history of a lost rebellion. "Browncoats" is synonymous with "Johnny Rebs." (Please, let's not get into the slavery issue, because that's not my point)

That was my long winded explanation as to why I like the movie because I love the show

 

[JCoatsworth]

It depends. I love both of them, but they're so different.
Firefly is a basically about this random group of characters interacting, with a bunch of small stories and one overarching story in the background. Serenity, on the other hand, is primarily about the same group of people being confronted with an immense, intergalactic task, similar to Star Wars, classic feature film material.

It's impossible for me to choose which one I like better. I consider Serenity to be the series finale of Firefly. I guess I'd choose Firefly for a casual watch, though. Serenity is more meaningful, in my opinion, and I prefer watching it attentively, maybe even only after watching the complete series first, as this enhances the experience tremendously and makes certain moments (you know which ones I'm talking about) way more emotional.

 

[Nowhere]

I've only watched both the series and the film once, but very recently and I have to say that while Serenity overall is 'good', it is very problematic due to having to rush so much stuff into a single 2 hour film. To me, the film was essentially saved by the second half that finally started to feel coherent after a fairly messy first half of setting up the plot.

When it comes to the series, every episode is at least good. And several are absolutely excellent. To me, although it doesn't answer many questions, the individual stories are easy to get invested in and hold interest (thanks largely to great character chemistry). The film doesn't really have time to get properly to the entertaining character banter of the series, due to having to focus on setting up and telling this more grand and high-stake type of mission.

But, you know. I don't think it's even fair to make a direct comparison between a series format and a film. I just think that Serenity, while good, could have been an even better film while Firefly the show is really only held back by the fact that it didn't have time to develop to everything that it could have become.

 

[Silverspike]

Weirdly enough I liked Serenity far more then the TV series and I don't really know why, but then I also have to admit Firefly as a whole left me cold really. I can see what some saw in it, but It just never appealed to me.

 

[Xin Rong]

One way to judge this is to ask someone who watched it the wrong way round. My girlfriend watched Serenity first and hated it, but then she watched Firefly, rewatched Serenity and loved it!

---------- Post added at 09:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 PM ----------

I think they're too tied in to be judged separately so arbitarily... I see Serenity as a very long episode with a big budget.

 

[Mr Trick]

Still finishing off Firefly so its a little early to say. But they are different so difficult to prepare. The film was really enjoyable with some good effects, and the series I did find a bit slow at first, but then got more into it.

 

[Nix]

Loved them both. But loved Serenity because of Firefly. So Firefly wins for me as I would not have watched it otherwise I fear.

 

[JCoatsworth]

I don't really like making a distinction between the two. Serenity is part of Firefly. I love both of them.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I first saw Serenity. I did not know of Firefly before seeing Serenity. I enjoyed Serenity, even liked it. Then I found out about Firefly and watched the series. They are polar opposites. Firefly hands down was much better than Serenity. Tonally I like it more.