Welcome to filmmaking purgatory

It's funny. I didn't know that "Serenity" was really just fancy Hollywood jargon for "purgatory." You know, that place where everything's not quite good, not quite bad, but just kind of there?\nThat's kind of how it is with this movie, which picks up sometime after the extremely short-lived 2002 television series "Firefly." "Serenity" is almost a sci-fi movie that's almost an action/adventure movie that's almost a western that's almost a comedy. It's got some good dialogue; it's got some bad dialogue. It's got some pretty special effects; it's got some ugly special effects.\nIt's not quite television. It's not quite a movie. And it's definitely not quite a TV movie.\nThe somewhat limited group of fans of the series will no doubt be pleased. Creator/director Joss Whedon (of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" fame) successfully brings back that unique "space western" feel in which heroes quick-draw six-shooters instead of laser pistols, everybody wears trench coats over their hip holsters and the good guys have that independent mean streak about them.\nThe casual moviegoer will pick up on the story quickly but will probably be disappointed. A rag-tag group of rugged space-goers for hire, led by Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion), continues its struggle against a corrupt interplanetary government. One of their passengers (Summer Glau) is a natural telepath and victim of torturous government testing and conditioning. She might be the key to defeating their oppressors -- if she doesn't kill our heroes first.\nThe story is attractive enough to merit interest, but the movie's plot seems to wander in and out of normal plotline development, stopping and going here and there and coming to a dead stop more than once. \nThe rather unaccomplished but talented group of actors fit the roles comfortably. They help to spin believable, fun characters within the span of the film, but they're never given any really remarkable script to work with to create any truly outstanding moments. And, by no fault of their own, they get stuck with a couple of those overly melodramatic, barf-into-your-popcorn-bag exchanges.\nMost of the action sequences near the end are pretty good, and Whedon builds them with a flowing, pleasing visual style that brings creativity to fights that have probably been done before in the vast history of film. There's nothing really new here, but it looks new enough to get a little excited about.\nAnd there we are again: "Serenity" is lost somewhere in the blackness between stars. It's a tolerable limbo, but there's nothing amazingly good or unspeakably awful about it. Fans of the show and folks who relate more to Han Solo in "Star Wars" will enjoy it. Others might be a little bored.