Let me get this out of the way straight out: I've never been a big Joss Whedon fan.

Not that I knowingly and actively dislike his work or anything, it's just that I've mostly ignored it over the years. I never gave "Buffy" much of a chance, because, frankly it had about three things that weren't going for it right off the bat. 1) It was called "Buffy." 2) It had Sarah Michelle Gellar, who just annoys the crap out of me (and, by my estimation, is more weird-looking than hot -- it's the nose, I think). 3) It was about vampires, and I try to do everything in my power to avoid just about anything in that arena.

So, I never watched it. To this day, I still haven't watched one all the way through. Same story with "Angel."

I'm not sure why I never watched the original "Firefly" series. I guess it was just promoted badly -- I seem to remember the Fox promos making it look a lot like some kind of "Wing Commander" rip-off. Not to mention they didn't show the episodes in order. I'm pretty sure I watched the first one they aired, had no idea what was going on, and never tuned in again.

Basically, I didn't find out that anything on TV Whedon did was actually worth watching until it was all canceled. I started hearing from people that "Buffy" was actually entertaining (a claim I've yet to confirm, obviously) after it went off. My friends tried to show me the Firefly DVD long after I had forgotten it existed (I've seen maybe two episodes). "Angel"... I'm still not even really sure what that is.

Basically, the only thing the guy's done that I'm familiar with is his work on Astonishing X-Men, which I'll admit is probably as good an X-Men book as can be made at this point. Nonetheless, I still inexplicably confuse him with Judd Apatow (the "Freaks and Geeks"/"40-Year-Old Virgin" writer/director) sometimes.

I bring all this up to point out how amazing it is that I actually really, really enjoyed Whedon's movie based on "Firefly," "Serenity." I am not a Whedon fanboy, and I have a passing familiarity with the show and its characters, at best (and not even really that -- I had forgotten pretty much all of the show I had seen prior to seeing the movie). And still, I really liked this movie.

A lot of complaints have been made saying that one has to be a fan of the show to enjoy "Serenity." I contest those claims. I followed it just fine, thanks. Everything was pretty clear. It seemed less to me like the third part of a trilogy than a very complex plot pared down into 2 hours. Whedon pulls it off, though. Granted, I'm sure that, had I watched the show, I would have noticed more fan-service types of things, but as it was, everything made sense.

And make sense was pretty much all it did. "Serenity" (which I always have an inclination to follow with the word "now") doesn't plumb for a whole lot of depth or poignancy, but then again, it doesn't have to. This is a movie that knows exactly what it is: a fun, actiony sci-fi flick with some snappy dialogue. It doesn't try to be epic or grand (like some sci-fi movies of recent years which will remain unnamed), but, frankly, that's a good thing, because it never slips into soap-opera style melodrama.

No, it's not "2001: A Space Odyssey." So what? Not every movie needs to be. You'll have fun when you see it. The characters are interesting, the action is exciting, the dialogue is clever and often very funny. The plot's nothing to write home about, but it'll hold your attention.

Sometimes, that's all you need. A-. --------