I was sitting in the middle of the first row of the stadium seating (not the front section of seating).

I was like two rows behind you and just didn't see you, I guess. Huh.

eta: What was the last line?

An echo of Mal's first: "What was that?"

I was all 'WTF?' that they had copied the "first person shooter' aspect of it, down to the the gun being in the frame of the shooter POV shots.

I might have to see it just for the chainsaw bit, because in the game, easiest way to kill those demon dog things was to shove the chainsaw down their throats.

Except for the thinner part, I couldn't disagree more. Kaylee-Firefly and Kaylee-Serenity were one in the same in my mind. Weird.

This is me. She felt very much like TV!Kaylee, though more sexually frustrated.

She felt very much like TV!Kaylee, though more sexually frustrated.

Yes. She was a lot more WarStories!Kaylee, because this was a long battle with her in the middle. She was more insulated on the show, but when she wasn't I think it was behaviour consistent with what we saw here.

I have a question -- when they first reaver up and head for Miranda, they show an exterior of the ship that shows the cannon, and what looks like a suited person moving at its controls -- did anyone notice that? We don't get such a clear CGI shot on the way back, when we know that Jayne is there.

Also, why in hell do they all stand in the cockpit where reavers could see them?

I think the characters and the 'verse were heavily rewritten to appeal to the segment of the movie going market that sees opening night shows, and who go to movies a lot--the youth market. I think the emphasis was necessarily shifted to the younger characters: River, Simon, to appeal to that market. I think the Mal & Inara was traditionaled-up and simplified to make it more easily understood by the movie market. Simon became a superhero rather than a human who lacked the knowledge and ability of how to fight, personally, to free his sister, and River became the pivotal focus of the movie, again, as a superhero appeal to the youth market.

As there's only so much time in a movie, that time had to be spent on the forefront characters. Older and less-appealing to young moviegoers characters got little story time, and when character death was needed to drive home the plot points, Book was a ready sacrifice. I understand the logic, and as much as I mourned his onscreen death, I saw the purpose.

I was tugged, as others have mentioned, by Serenity's loss, a piece at a time, of herself--it was painful to see her violated and torn. At the same time, watching Wash keep her intact enough to protect her crew was grand. I've never loved him more, even as I mourned Serenity's apparent death.

The instant of death removed the movie Serenity from any frame of reference it had for me. I was numb, and I watched Zoe deal by shutting down to soldier mode, watched the others cope as they could, watched Joss try to leaven the doom with a Jayne joke, and I feared for them, through the fog of numb. As each of them was hit and wounded, I got angrier as it looked like all of them, but River and Mal, were going to fall. I had no fear for River going into the chamber with the Reavers. I figured that was the weapon she'd been designed as, and was the only thing that would stop Reavers in that sort of scenario. I was too numb to care much about Mal's fight and foregone victory over The Operative, or really, about how the movie went after that. I teared up at Zoe in the beautiful dress, because how not? I hated the headstones with the pebbles left as tribute/tokens, and their animated headshots.

I gasped and really teared up at the shot of the pilot's chair and console with the dinosaurs and palm trees. I'd waited to see whose butt sat in that chair, and started a slow burn when it was Mal. The burn accelerated when it turned out River was flying the ship from the previously non-existant copilot's chair, and that angered me to the point that I stopped feeling sad.

I stopped feeling angry, I stopped feeling at all, except for a little regret.

It was a shiny movie, and I'm glad lots of people enjoyed it. I'm glad Joss got to make it, and I hope it sells lots of tickets and earns lots of money. It's not my movie--they weren't my characters, it wasn't my 'verse. I won't see it again. And they'll have to work awfully hard to convince me to see any other "Firefly" movie they may make.

I'm breaking out the dvds in about a week, when I've managed to put some distance between me and tonight.

And Wash, ah Wash, we will miss you and your dinosaurs in This Land.

I just realized that newbies probably won't know the meaning of the dinosaurs on the console at the end, and I find this terribly sad.

I know Joss won't bring characters back from the dead in this show, but I'm ready for some serious prequeling. I want to know more about Book. I want to see Wash and Zoe fall in love. I could wait for tastes in flashbacks before, but mostly I really don't want either of them to be dead.

Damn, that was a big stake.

For the people here who feel betrayed -- have you felt betrayed by fiction before? Did you know, before you saw Serenity that you could feel betrayed by it? Is there other fiction that can make you feel that way about its 'verse or characters?

Don't you ever sleep, ita? I thought it was late here! Of course, I have, of late, turned into an old fogey.

eta on topic note: I'm up late because I came home from Serenity and had to catch up on every single review or (formerly) spoiler ever written, before going to see it again tomorrow.

I don't feel betrayed, if you're asking me.

This was Joss' movie, and he did what he needed to do to the script and the characters to put as many butts in seats as possible. I don't fault him for that at all. He didn't "betray" my belief in Firefly or those characters. It's another thing. Apples and oranges. The movie wasn't my thing.

But to answer your question about betrayal in other fiction, no, I've never felt betrayed by a work of fiction, unless the writer didn't do the work, and pulled an ending out of thin air with no logical progression to that result. I've mourned for characters lost, to death, to cynicism, to wantonness. But that's not betrayal, that's story development and character development. Betrayal is a different thing.

Firefly has always been a special thing to me, apart from any other show or anything "like" it. Not many folks felt that way, so maybe the depth of my disconnect is strange. But that's what I have: not betrayal, but a quantam leap right out of the 'verse. It's not a bad thing. It's just something else.

I just wonder about the feeling of betrayal at Wash's death. Is Shakespeare not supposed to break your heart when Cordelia dies? Are the New York dock workers not supposed to yell, "Is Little Nell dead?" Isn't that part of the deal?

Absolutely. I love movies/books/TV shows that can break my heart with the deaths of beloved characters. I love that they can write these characters in such a way as to make me care, and care deeply, and I usually enjoy the emotional catharsis that their deaths bring.

Wash's death felt different, to me, because the circumstances of this movie are different for me than any other movie I can think of. I know that a lot of the PR about how "the fans made Serenity happen" is greatly exaggerated, but it still feels like MY movie, MY characters, MY story. And now Wash isn't in that 'verse anymore. It's not the same, and it will never be the same.

Losing Firefly made me sad. Getting it back, even in movie form, in any form at all, felt like a triumph. And then losing Wash broke my fucking heart; it felt like losing Firefly all over again.

I have totally felt betrayed by fiction before. (Though I didn't by this movie.)

I think, for me, Wash wasn't in the movie enough for me to feel the shock of his death.

Can I talk about any specifics about any possible sequel in this thread?