Serenity Chronicles I: Firefly

I requested this a few years under the promise I would write a review. Now, I had watched this (and the second edit) with a friend who had never seen the original series. He loved this edit. Both of them, so you have his approval in addition to mine. In fact, when I gave it a second viewing he was disappointed that I rewatched it without him.

What I particularly enjoyed about this edit is that it brings Reynolds loss of faith closer to the surface, using it as his arc in this edit. The first film is very much his origin story. Full disclosure though, I haven't watched this in a while so the memory of both edits is not fresh on my mind. However, from what I do I recall is that this edit was much tighter. It could've easily served as a TV movie with its tight plot and pacing.

The second is a bit more non-traditional in its plot and is more set-up for what happens in the Serenity film. I remember it bounced its focus between four characters: Reynolds, Jayne, River, and, to a lesser extent, Wash. The first has a strong focus on a singular protagonist. Still good, but IIRC it lacks the tightness of this first edit. I don't blame the editor for this as it had to set-up the drama of the cinematic feature, and putting a little attention and development on Wash is not a bad idea before jumping into that film.

There are minor to medium drops in quality when MusicEd921 uses deleted scenes to add some character development to the plots he's trying to craft. However, they're infrequent and easy to ignore. The vast majority of the edit is quite good and I didn't notice any issues. The video quality is what you can expect from a mid-2000's TV DVD box-set. A bit grainy and rough, but this is an issue with the source and not the edit.

An excellent pair of edits. And with an endorsement from someone who'd never seen the original source material, I can hope that is encouraging to MusicEd921's work on these edits.

SHINY!!!!

A wonderful, magical and emotional fan edit that will bring joy to long time Browncoats and entertain those who are unfamiliar with Joss Whedon's space western.

This edit is pretty darn close to perfect in my book. Technically, it is flawless both in terms of cutting and audio work. I say close but not perfect only because Ed had to use some lower video quality deleted scenes and also had to zoom-in/crop out the opening credits. Otherwise, I could find no fault to this edit.

In regards to the deleted scenes, yes they are of obvious lower video quality, but they are so character driven and well acted, that as a viewer I did not find them a distraction in the slightest. Further, Ed has added some incredibly emotional, heart-tugging new music to these scenes, so they pack a powerful punch. Well done Ed!!!

The new opening act and the introduction of the crew from the episode Out of Gas, is brilliantly weaved into the fabric of the story. It moves smoothly and organically. Again, some amazing editing done in this sequence.

Commercial breaks are perfectly eliminated. And the new closing, again with added music, is pitch perfect, leaving viewers both satisfied and wanting more.

Ed has created new closing titles, and as one who has done credits on few edits now, I can attest how mundane and challenging it can be, so great work there too.

And the post-credits trailer -- goosebumps!!!! Part two can not come fast enough!!!

I really enjoyed the dvd menu design. Again -- the MUSIC! So haunting and beautiful.

This edit has magnificently captured the wonder and spirit of the Firefly Universe and is Must-See viewing imo.

Thank You Ed for such a wonderfully executed and entertaining fan edit. BRAVO!

THUMBS WAY, WAY, WAY UP!

I love FIREFLY, and I love its first episode "Serenity." Strangely enough, though, I know a lot of people who just couldn't get into that pilot episode. Many found it inaccessible.

Maybe if they had been able to start with Musiced's wonderful edit, they would have liked it better.

Musiced wisely puts the flashbacks from the episode "Out of Gas" near the beginning of the story, in their proper place in the timeline. These flashbacks do a great job of establishing the characters and setting up the world in which they live.

The episodes are edited together as a feature-length movie, and Musiced makes the transitions pretty flawless. I knew where the commercial breaks originally came from having watched the original episode many times, but Musiced seamlessly makes the scenes flow. There was a slightly lower audio/video quality in some of the deleted scenes that were added in, but as he explains in the opening, the scenes were not restored for the DVD release. The scenes were very worthwhile; they answered how Mal and Zoe finally got out of Serenity Valley, and why Mal would name his ship after the place where he and the others lost the war.

There was one moment at about 1 hour and 5 minutes in where the audio transition seemed a bit abrupt, but other than that, the audio was handled flawlessly.

I enjoyed the rearranging of the scenes so much that I almost wish that the Simon/River flashbacks from later episodes and the movie were also moved forward into the timeline here. But for new viewers, the connection of these scenes to the overall story would have been baffling, and the surprise reveal of who these two turned out to be would have been ruined if they had been put in the aforementioned order. Musiced made the right call.

A couple of very small, nitpicky things: The scene where Wash plays with the dinosaurs (a hilarious scene that's one of my favorites in the series) no longer feels right when placed in the middle of the movie. It's clearly an intro scene when Wash has already been introduced. (And, as Zoe notes, he *is* kind of annoying when that's the first time we meet him.) And the Mal/Inara flashback loses a joke through the reordering of the material (Mal promises not to call Inara a certain nasty name ever again, which is funny in a later episode when we know that he constantly calls her that. But the gag doesn't work anymore by putting this scene first).

Mind you, I love the dinosaur scene so much myself, I don't know if I could bring myself to cut it either. And I don't have a solution for the Mal/Inara scene; it pretty much has to be placed where it is. I talk about these minor niggling points because so much else works about this edit that it leaves me with little to say.

The use of the theme (for the first time in this version of the story) over the end credits is beautifully handled.

A large portion of this edit is simply the "Serenity" pilot episode running in a straightforward fashion (as it should be). I imagine that the third part will be mainly the 2005 SERENITY feature film running in a fairly straightforward fashion. But what I really look forward to is seeing how Musiced sums up the middle section of the story in the one movie that comes in between them! That will probably require the most inventiveness and repurposing of footage on this part.

But after seeing this edit, I know that he's got the skills to pull it off. :)

As a Fierfly nut, I have been sitting on these edits for some time...but finally felt the need for a fix.

After so many years since my last view of the series, I fell in love all over again.

The material that is added in is effective if ocaisonally a touch jarring, but no marking down on visuals for sure. Some of the audio edits are a touch harsh but this did not detract from the experience, which gets a 10 from me.

I won't repeat what others have said, save to say, if you need a new fix of FIREFLY, this is THE ONLY WAY to go...

Roll on Ep 2 and 3

A great edit, I only wish the trilogy lasted longer.