'Serenity' Beats 'Star Wars' in Best Sci-Fi Film Poll
Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Remakes and Sequels, Lists, War, Western
The Browncoats strike again! The wacky fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly television series, and its feature film spin-off, Serenity, are continuing to show their strength on the internet, as SFX Magazine has declared Serenity the winner of an online poll, in which readers voted for the best science fiction film. This should be a big blow to George Lucas, whose Star Wars had certainly been the sci-fi fan favorite for most of the last three decades. Star Wars came in 2nd place with only 28% of the votes compared to Serenity's 61%. There was also a sad turnout for fans of Spielberg, Verhoeven and Star Trek, none of whom/which made the grade this time around. The winners, in order after Star Wars, are Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes (1968 version, I hope), The Matrix, Alien, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator and Back to the Future.
Lucas and his Star Wars franchise also fared badly in CNN's list of best and worst movie battles. Not only did no Star Wars film make it into the best ten, but two of the films held spots in the worst. The Battle of Endor, with its Ewoks, from Return of the Jedi and the Battle of Naboo, with its Jar-Jar, from The Phantom Menace are grouped alongside awful sequences from King Arthur, Dune and Pearl Harbor. Also among the worst, though, is a sequence from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which also features two battles in the best of group. Fortunately for Spielberg and Verhoeven, one film each of theirs was also highlighted among the greatest battle scenes of all time, which was topped by the helicopter attack from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
[via Fark.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-02-2007 @ 2:15PM
nefariousone said...
Serenity was a great Sci-Fi flick! Good action and lots of tongue in cheek humor. Fox was dumb to pull the plug on the "Firefly" series so quickly.
Reply
4-02-2007 @ 4:14PM
sobeit said...
Serenity may have topped the charts today but a science fiction film really hasn't achieved cult status until there is an actual cult/religion based on the movie/television series.
Star Wars of course has Jediism - http://jediism.tripod.com/
Going back to the sixties Star Trek has The Church of All Worlds - http://www.caw.org/
And more recently The Matrix has Matrixism - http://www.geocities.com/matrixism2069
I suppose Scientology is a religion based on a science fiction novel but I don't think there's a blockbuster movie to go along with it, yet. I suppose John Travolta and Tom Cruise might be working on that as we speak.
Reply
4-02-2007 @ 4:25PM
WillTheSecond said...
Yes they were, but really, I have to say, having watched the original trilogy again recently, I would have to say that they are better films than Serenity, simply because of the whole number of classic scenes they incorporate: the bar fight in IV; the duel leading up to the 'I am your father' moment in V, the battle of Endor in VI. They really are probably the most stylish action-adventure movies ever.
However, I may be suffering from the rose-tinted glasses syndrome, perhaps Serenity is the Star Wars of our time, though I think Serenity's story lacks the fairytale universality that has meant that Star Wars' story found such a huge audience. It has a certainly narrative grace that Serenity lacks, methinks (note I am referring of the original trilogy only, not the derivative prequels).
Reply
4-02-2007 @ 4:59PM
Cath said...
I didn't watch the series, so maybe I missed something in the film, but Serenity seemed like a bad TV movie with typical TV acting. I suppose whatever floats your boat, but I'm more like Groucho: I wouldn't want to join any club that would have me as a member.
Most "best of" lists these days seem to favor more recent fare, so I don't give them much weight.
Reply
4-02-2007 @ 4:59PM
Christopher Campbell said...
Sobeit, Travolta already tried to get some Hubbard love going with Battlefield Earth. Fortunately, it bombed.
Reply
4-02-2007 @ 9:18PM
jon royer said...
Where were all these morons when "Serenity" came out? They certainly didn't show up to pay and see it, hence the tragic box office. To be sure, Universal surely won't be re-releasing a 30th anniversary DVD of Serenity in 2035. Hell, most normal moviegoers forgot about it the week after it opened. No accounting for Whedon's geekdom fans, I guess.
Reply
4-03-2007 @ 11:32AM
alyciam said...
Being a HUGE Firefly fan, I was a bit disappointed in 'Serenity' but it was definitiley better than the latest Star Wars movie. I was so embarassed when Ewan MacGregor used the cliqued "you won't get awaay ths time".
Reply
4-03-2007 @ 12:42PM
Akbar Fazil said...
Well Jon,
All those "morons" saw it all ready at the numerous pre-screenings that were held so many who said they would see it again in theaters did not.
In the long run I feel all of the pre-screenings hurt Serenity's box office. By having so many screenings for "the fans" regular people couldn't see it and help get the word out for more to see it.
Plus, it was a deeply flawed movie that had some major issues with its plot and ties to the series. The deaths in it were of deep affects to the fans but to anyone who had only seen the movie they were very "ok.. so what?"
Reply
4-11-2007 @ 3:02PM
celticelvis said...
Forbidden Planet was mentioned as one of the best. Is anyone planning a remake?
Reply