I can't believe how emotional I felt after seeing the movie. First I was totally elated seeing everyone together again and the beautiful job they did on the ship. Throughout the film I was totally absorbed and after the death of Book I thought wow that wasn't too bad but after all these years of Buffy and Angel I should have known better...Many tears at Wash's demise and scared that anyone else could go...Joss really did his job, I had no idea what was next. Afterward I told my husband that I felt sad and missed Firefly. That as great as this movie is, it is not Firefly. I wanted to see more of Mal's soft side. I wanted to see more Inara... I felt like we didn't get to spend enough time with everybody. My husband just laughed and said "Let's see what you say tomorrow, right after we see it again!". Does that guy know me or what! In all the important ways I loved the BDM. But yes I missed Firefly.

This is the third time I've seenthe movie. I saw two of the screenings, but I refused to talk about the details until the movie actually premiered.

One thing the final product had that the screenings didn't was the credits at the end, which were mercifully short! There was no waiting 16 minutes to see if there was anything at the end. There was. It was an instrumental version of the Ballad of Serenity.

About Wash's death. I had known somebody was going to die because some arse posted something about it on another forum I go to. I didn't know who, though, so when Book died (which was sad enough - sadder upon subsequent viewings), I thought that was it.

Then there was "I am a leaf on the wind." Pfumpf!!!

The first time I was in shock for several minutes so almost nothing else processed until Kaylee's reaction to Simon's wanting to have sex with her. Even after that, though, I grieved for days.

The second time I saw the movie, I was in knots during the scene leading up to Wash's last moment, and when it happened, I cringed, winced and dug my nails into my son's arm.

This time, though, I actually had tears streaming down my face. I didn't cry when my own mother died, but Wash's death just got to me. In fact, I still haven't gotten over it since the first time I saw it.

On a happier note: River the Reaver Slayer!!!! It's worth it just to see that!

I plan to see it a couple of more times this weekend, and maybe during the week as well. It's been years since I've seen a movie more than once in its first run.

I went to the 6:40 showing, which was only about 1/3 full - but it was almost all Browncoats (and their newbie guests). It was kind of nice hearing complete strangers having the same conversations we have in my household or online. They felt a little like family.

After seeing the rough cut in two prescreenings, it was a real pleasure to see the finished product, all put together and then some! I really think you nailed it, Joss. No, really, man. What a piece of work. And, judging by the reactions of the audience in the packed theater at 4:30 in the afternoon, I wasn't the only one who loved it. I mean, people APPLAUDED at the end, and this was no 'partisan Browncoat prescreening-type' audience. Total cross section of age and hair products.

I smell a sequel. And it smells right purty, gotta say. Way to go, Joss and company.

I just got back....first time...ready to go again.

I'm so emotional right now...really not what I expected. I guess I thought it would be a more light-hearted romp with a few dark emotional punches, but it was just the opposite--light touches to get you through a very dark journey. I'm glad I avoided spoilers, because I was sad when we lost Book (I just saw Ron Glass at the post office the other day, too), and then I was an absolute mess after "leaf in the wind"

For me, this was kind of like watching Buffy season 1 then jumping immediately to Buffy season 6/7. I just wasn't prepared for how far he went emotionally.

It was very daring to go so boldly in this direction. I really expected it to go in a more universal direction to ensnare more fans. But, it stayed specific and true to the characters and universe it created, and I admire it so much for that.

Now, so many questions, and so many tears ( i keep crying spontaneously). I wish I had some Whedon friends around me right now, but they are far-flung or haven't seen it yet.

I don't even think I can watch the series DVDs again because it was so different and I'll just get so connected to Book and Wash again...

Okay, suck it up......thanks Joss!

Oh, DearBoy, it is SOOOOO painful to watch "Heart of Gold" in that scene where Zoe and Wash are talking about having a baby. That tears my heart out even more. "I want to meet that child someday."

I have to say, I thought my daughter was insane when she said "I hope they show a Serenity trailer before the movie." We hadn't seen one on the big screen before, and we had tried a little. Sure enough, she was right and there it was.

During the "Doom" trailer, a guy says "Go to Hell." My daughter and I looked at each other and yelled "Save me a seat!", so if you were there and heard us, please let me know! You can confirm it was us, I have pictures of us on flickr.com under same screen name. Our fan status was firmly established from the beginning.

We went to the 4:25 showing and the theater was half full. We discussed it and came to the conclusion that that was a good turn out for the time of day, since most people hadn't started getting off from work yet. When I go tomorrow, I'm going to ask if any of the evening show times sold out.

Damn you Joss Whedon - you made me cry - twice!!! Well, actually more than twice, I kept having these moments throughout the film where I'd start feeling all emotional.

It was wonderful, exciting, scary, sad and amazing all at once. I loved every second of it, even the deaths. I would prefer if there could've been a way to save those two very beloved characters but this is a Joss Whedon story afterall. I suspected that someone would die since I read way back when the screenings were happening that the movie made them laugh, scream and cry and I thought if there's crying Joss killed off someone. So when Book died I thought that would be it. I was just so stunned to see Wash get killed too - and in mid joke too! I felt so sad for poor Zoe. I was openly crying at that point whereas with Book I was wiping away tears but not sobbing. My two daughters were sitting in the seats in front of us and I could see that they were crying too! Damn it Joss you made my girls cry too!!! And the fight scenes were great between the crew trying to save themselves and keep the Reavers out to Mal trying to send off the broadcast. That guy was a great bad guy and if there is a sequel I hope there's a way to bring him back into the story, maybe as a good guy.

I loved it when Simon confesses to Kaylee that his only regret is that he didn't get to be with her and Kaylee asks him if he's talking about sex and he says yeah and she says, "Well I ain't gonna die then" (really paraphrasing there). I wondered if Zoe was going to get killed when she started fighting them on her own - honestly I would've had to be swept off the floor if anyone else had died because I was already so emotional by that time. Then I thought for a moment that they were all going to die and then sweet little River tells Simon it's her turn to take care of him! That was awesome how she ran out there, threw the doctor's bag in and closed to the door so they couldn't get in. I thought she was going to win, then I thought she was going to die too when they surrounded her and grabbed her like that and we didn't get to see for awhile that she was still alive.

The funeral scene was heartbreaking with Zoe looking so beautiful and the head stones with the videos of each person. And then them all rebuilding the ship together, and Inara painting the Serenity symbol on the side of the ship - just loved that. I loved that Simon and Kaylee finally did the deed and through my crying eyes I see River spying on them, which cracked me up.

And also loved the final scene with Mal getting ready to fly Serenity and we see River sitting next to him and she basically just takes over. I hope this means we won't have a replacement pilot because Wash was so loved I couldn't bare to see anyone take his place.

And yes, River's fight scene reminded me quite a bit of a Buffy scene - but way better.

I missed the ballad at the end because everyone, including my family got up to leave. Next week when we go we'll make sure we sit through all the credits.

People heartily applauded in my theater too. But, the crowd was rather small - about 35 people. But, I live in a very sparsily populated area, we went to the 9:30 show to avoid the teeny boppers and I live in Red Sox nation and the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, our biggest rivals and it's a pennant race with winner take all by series end. I wasn't expecting there to be a lot of people at the theater tonight.

Before the movie started two girls/women came in. Probably late teens, early twenties. They were both being really loud, talking loud, laughing a lot and even singing very loudly - I think they were drunk. I was really concerned they were going to be like that the whole movie. When the movie started and they showed that first scene leading up to the Reaver jumping out on Serenity and getting killed, both women walked out and didn't come back. So I was really happy about that. The crowd was mostly very quite (but laughing when appropriate and jumping when appropriate) with maybe one small moment of someone talking. It was the most well behaved audience I had every been in. I loved it when everyone clapped at the end.

My only disappointment was that it didn't end on a kiss between Mal and Inara - come on you two - Simon and Kaylee got the right idea!!!

Edited to fix all my spelling errors - shouldn't type threads when overly excited and hyper!

I disliked it. I found myself laughing at it instead of with it, most of the time. The Simon retcon bothered me right away, and I thought the theme was pretty lame.

Some people, they juggle geese.

It was a great time. I'd seen it during the second round of preview screenings, but it was amazing to see it again with another audience for whom it was all new. Don't let people spoiler it; those people eat babies.

Leaving the theater, there was a swirl of good feeling among the crowd. People had seen the culmination of something they loved. I too am a fan of the too-short series. But the the thing I noticed most clearly was this: As people streamed out of the theater toward the theater exit and then the building exit, all the talk was of how great things were, small things they liked, big things they liked even better. The only people not walking were little cliques of snipers, already working up their arguments as to why this is a worse movie than Movie X. They stood in little clusters in the hallway, and the people talking of their love for FIREFLY and now SERENITY flowed easily around them; soon the naysayers could not be heard, and their complaints? Can't recall now.

I am a leaf on the wind.

John

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I went to a 1:45 show & there was only about a dozen people there which surprised me. I'm sure later shows will be sold out. I was completely absorbed by it, but was just kinda going along with it, until Wash's death. I wasn't so much affected by Book's death, because of his small part hear & on the series. It's a shame his story won't get told. But after Wash's death, everything about the movie changed, because all of a sudden anything could happen to anybody. I couldn't help but feel so sorry for Zoe, because off the deep love they always showed on the series. After his death I really feat anyone of them could die & when each got some kind of wound It was up for grabs. Nice work Mr. Whedon, bringing some unpredicability back to movies.

I don't know if this is the place, but a few things bothered me as a lover of continuity. Such as Simon rescueing his sister all strapped up like that. It seemed that from the episode where they had to get her brain scan at St. Lucy's, he really had no idea what had happened to her, or what they were doing, until he saw the scans. If he saw her strapped in & experimented on like that & shouldn't have seemed so ignorent of what had happened to her.
Also when did Mal make Captain in that army. I never heard him refered to as anything but Sgt.
It also didn't ring true, when Simon said he was leaving the ship, much of Mal dialog seemed like it might have been ok after episode 2 or 3, but not with a lot of the things that came after, including his speech to Jayne on how nobody messes with his crew, and how unified they all seemed after.

All in all though very enjoyable & I can't wait for the DVD to get more of the subilty of the dialog. I not sure how anyone not familiar with the series could have gotten it though.

Saw Serenity for the third and fourth time today (Friday) at two different theaters. There were 200 plus each time and it was received VERY well. I enjoy it more every time I see it. I will be seeing it a couple of more time this weekend just 'cause!

Tired now. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz