"You mean to say--"
In short, Serenity was amazing. Better, on every level except (maybe) special effects, than Star Wars. Not kidding here. Star Wars was my first fandom, and I will always love Star Wars, but I am fan enough to submit that Serenity was simply a better movie.
Now, for the fun stuff, by which I mean massive spoilers.
I have never honestly had a movie that made me laugh through my tears. Sure, a couple of movies have provoked both reactions (Return of the King being the one that comes to the forefront of my mind), but never at the same time. Until, of course, now.
Going in, I should have known the stakes would be higher. I shouldn't have thought that the crew was immortal, but then what in the show would give me reason to think otherwise? Simon always fixes everyone up, and they go off to smuggle cows and the like. It didn't even cross my mind realistically that someone would die. Much less two people.
Book's death shocked me out of that false security. I don't care how un-Christian it might have been to shoot that damn ship out of the sky, Mal's right--it was the right thing to do. But because I was so shocked, I didn't cry. I did keep murmuring "No no no not Book please no no no," under my breath, however. Upon further reflection, it's right. In the context, at any rate. Haven was destroyed; Book, being the man of such principles as he is, would never have hidden while his friends were dying.
I was chilled by Mal's plan to make Serenity look like a Reaver ship. You get a really great picture of who Mal is right there, and it's not all good. Sometimes I forget, with all the one-liners and derring-do, that Mal shot the lawman, that he shoved the deserter off their speeder to be taken by Reavers (and then shot him--good Mal). It was necessary, I think, to emphasize that while Mal is overall a good guy, he will do whatever it takes to protect his crew, including Simon and River.
Speaking of Simon and River. Simon/River is now just about as canon as Sirius/Remus. No, really. Their love is so deep and powerful, and when River says "My turn," I got chills. That's the kind of devotion Sirius and Remus have, and whether one wants to see it sexually or not is one's own business. They love each other. Period.
Then Wash is just being Wash, taking Serenity down for a landing rather reminiscent of RotS in its bumpiness...and he dies. To be honest, I'm not 100% certain where the giant spiky thing came from--I'm pretty sure it was a Reaver thing--but it was the shock moment of the movie. It was just so fast. You see one second of Zoe almost breaking down, then Mal pulls her back (physically and, I'm inclined to believe, emotionally) and she does what she has to do. In a vengeancy sort of way.
The thing that really made this movie unique to me is how dangerous it was. Nine out of ten movies, if it gets really intense, you can pull back and go "Okay, fine, but this is a (insert genre here) movie--everybody's going to be okay in the end." Well, not in Serenity. After Joss demonstrated his willingness to kill off characters, I was absolutely certain during the fight that every single one of them was going to die. It has been years since the last time I was that worried about people getting out of a movie alive.
I did manage to restrain myself until the end, though. When the screen zoomed out over Book's and Wash's graves, I lost it completely. Zoe killed me in that scene, without even saying anything. That was when I realized that although I still hate the idea of Wash being dead, it's right in the canon. Sometimes things happen in movies that just don't sit right, and they upset you for an entirely different reason. This was horribly upsetting, because I adore Wash, but it was really good. It fit. And so I cried.
And then I recovered as the finale neared, only to break down again at the sight of Mal flying the ship with Wash's dinosaurs still sitting on the control panel. And then Simon and Kaylee got it on, and River peeked through a window, and I laughed a lot. Speaking of Simon and Kaylee--finally! ;) Not that I don't like the idea of shipping half the crew members with each other, but Simon and Kaylee just needed to happen. And it happened well, too.
I don't know how to conclude this. I've forgotten a lot of things that I wanted to include--I haven't even mentioned Inara or Jayne really, because I was kind of more focused on the others. (Sorry.) But it was wonderful. Absolutely insanely incredibly wonderful.
Oh, and I watched the pilot last night at Zac's, because I will make him a Firefly fan, you just see if I don't! I don't think I whimpered out loud at Wash and his dinosaurs. Much.
...Good lord, is it September yet?!
Now I'm going to go downstairs and get dinner. Maybe. Seems like a lot of effort to make at the moment.