While I still think there are pacing problems in the climax, I am willing to admit some of my problems are probably due to the character in question and not just how it was handled. I'm curious how popular Wash is with the group at large.

Though I love them all, if I had to rank the crew in order of favorite to least favorite, it would probably look something like Kaylee, Wash, Book, Mal, River, Jayne, Zoe, Simon, Inara

Edited to clarify: This list is post OiS. Before that, River ranked last.

I think Wash is (or was *sniff* ) Firefly's Xander - that is, he's Firefly's Joss stand-in. I'm curious, possible meta issues aside, if Joss always planned on killing Wash, if he would have killed someone else if Alan had wanted to continue, or if they all would have made it out.

I thought we got some good quality Simon in the movie, but not enough of any of the cast except for Mal and Summer.

I loved Wash -- and I really loved the relationship between Wash and Zoe. His death was shocking but it didn't ruin the movie for me.

I really wanted to know Book's backstory. I hope that we will get it sometime.

Wash is my second-favorite character after Kaylee.

I am outraged, but it's funny outrage. I thought the death was a useful plot point, appropriately handled. Wash *did* get his moment -- we saw the impact of his death through Zoe, and through the rest of the cast's reaction to being told he wouldn't be coming.

For me, this was like Buffy killing Angel: horrible yet inevitable. Death in war is random, does strike without warning, and does kill the wise, the lovable, and the brave.

It was horrible and random -- but it certainly didn't move me to join the "Save Wash" movement.

We went (and saw Cass!) last night. Loved. I have a little concern also that uninitiated may not follow who all these people are, but that may come from trying to imagine what it's like not to know who they are. There was some guy behind us who went on and on about how he doesn't like tv, so I don't know if he'd seen it, and I didn't stick around to listen to his thoughts on the movie (honestly, he sounded a little pretentious).

Mr. H fell madly and completely in love. He is now promising to show each episode in a loop up at the bar- with no music in the afternoons. He's making signs and stickers to put up and three shirts for continuous rotation until the movie opens. He thought it kicked Star Wars's ass.

Heh. Mr. H is quite adorable.

I enjoyed the movie overall, and I'm definitely excited to see the finished product, but I do agree with Kalshane on this:

While I hate to lose Wash and Book, and it hurts, my main gripe continues to be the presentation. We're not given a chance to breathe. Wash's death is sudden and random and immediately on the heels of Serenity getting seriously shredded (and props to Joss and Tim for this even hurting. My reactions to the various versions of the Enterprise blowing up have always been more "Woah" than "Ow".) then we spend the next 20 minutes getting punched in the gut again and again without a chance to take it all in. Apparently this worked for some people. For me it just caused an emotional disconnect and pulled me out of the story.

Although Tim had nothing to do with the movie, correct?

Heh. Mr. H is quite adorable.

You have no idea. He's like a little kid trapped in a huge grizzly bear.

I already knew the death was coming, so I don't really have a pure reaction to it. I know I was dreading it, and knowing when it was coming made me squirm, but actually, I kinda needed the next action/scary stuff. It also did make it seem that none of them might make it. In fact, even being spoiled I kept thinking that maybe others did die and I just forgot. Mr. H said (and I'm not sure I agree- just giving the opinion of someone who, until now, wasn't really invested in any of the characters) he didn't think the story would have worked as well without the death.