Serenity Displaces Star Wars as Favorite Film
By John DeNardo |
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at
3:52 pm
UK science ficton magazine SFX has posted the results of their “What’s the best SF film ever?” poll. The result is not good news for the Star Wars fanboy:
- Serenity
- Star Wars
- Blade Runner
- Planet of the Apes
- The Matrix
- Alien
- Forbidden Planet
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Terminator
- Back to the Future
SFX also notes the timing of their poll results and the 860% increase in Serenity DVD sales at Amazon UK.
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- Top 10 Special Effects in Film
- POLL RESULTS: Star Wars DVD Changes
- POLL RESULTS: Serenity
- POLL RESULTS: Star Wars DVDs (Unaltered)
Filed under: Movies
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That’s a hard one, given my childhood affection for Star Wars and my great love for Firefly/Serenity. I think they’d both be in my top two for sure. The problem is that Serenity, without the television show context, is a great film but not as great as it is with that background. Star Wars didn’t need or have that background. It simply was, and was a brilliant piece of film making that has reverberated for generations.
2001 is way, way too low on that list.
I like Firefly. I did not like the movie as much; too much crammed into one flick, at the expense of some characters. So, I would put it among my favorites, but the most favorite? Probably not. I’d also put Aliens ahead of Alien. Which Planet of the Apes (the original, I hope!)?
I guess my belief about how great Star Wars was has diminished, but as a platform for everything that has been created using the license on the other hand it is quite good. The original film was stories hobbled together from other sources, which is not a bad thing, but the universe has proven to be somewhat fruitful for several other types of media…
Given a straight contest between Star Wars and Serenity, it’s no contest. Serenity was well-written, it was it’s own story, the characters were all individuals in and of themselves.
Star Wars, the movies, stopped working for me a long time ago. I was a Star Wars fan of the books, and especially the video games, but the movies I could take or leave.
In some ways, I think Star Wars vs Serenity is one of those apples vs oranges questions: they’re very much different kinds of movies and shouldn’t necessarily be on the same set of scales. The appeal of Star Wars (when it first came out) was very visceral – it dragged you onto the rollcoaster for an unapologetic popcorn romp and any subsequant metaphorical/intellectual dimensions are just that – afterthought. Serenity, on the other hand, despite the action and humour, is right from the get-go more of an intellectual picture. The characters are full-flushed (especially with the series’ background) and the issues raised demand some thought. In any case, I think Star Wars and Serenity are really duking it out for third place. If we’re talking about the best SF flicks ever, 2001 and Blade Runner have first and second place, respectively, in my books.
I am disappointed my favorite SF film did not make the cut. DARK CITY by Alex Proyas (Starring Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelly) was a tale of gothic paranoia, fleshed out with all sorts of details. It had an actually science fiction premise and conclusion, and a surprise ending that was correctly set up from the get-go. Unlike 2001, the ending made sense. Unlike the much more popular MAXTRIX, it did not have any dangling plot-threads or thoughtless elements not tied into the basic SF premise. Unlike STAR WARS (which was a fun romp, don’t get me wrong) DARK CITY was actually about something.
If A.E. Van Vogt and Keith Laumer got together to make a movie, it would be this one.
Not enough Kubrick or Cronenberg. Also, “Dark City” sprung to mind for me too.
Personally I’m disappointed that Back To the Future was even on this list. I think that both 2001 and Alien should have been higher up on the list, but I’m quite pleased to see Serenity at the very top and that Blade Runner was within the top 5. I agree with the sentiment expressed regarding Dark City, it definitely should have been on the list…and I feel that The 13th Floor had just as much right to be on this list as The Matrix.
Planet of the Apes above The Matrix. What is this world coming to