But having a happy birthday is the last thing on Aaron's mind when he goes to school and ends up in a fight with another member of the wrestling team—off balance, thanks to a pretty girl he's attracted to, and dealing with a splitting headache that doesn't want to go away. Something's wrong, and it's not just the normal teenage stuff.

Suddenly he can freeze time, he has super-strength, and he can even understand other languages. In fact, he can communicate with his dog, Gabriel. But his newfound powers go from strange to stranger when he meets a crazy old bum named Zeke (Skerritt), who claims to be a fallen angel. It only gets more bizarre when Zeke tells Aaron he is the product of a union between a fallen angel and a human. Zeke also has a dire warning for Aaron. Angels are on their way, and they are determined to destroy "abominations" like him, believing that this is what the Creator wants them to do.

Talk of angel death squads is bad enough, but there's also the prophecy that Zeke believes Aaron is destined to fulfill. Zeke tells Aaron he is the Redeemer, the only one of his kind, and Aaron is destined to be a bridge between mortals and angels. But when a vicious angel named Verchiel (Lackey) and her henchmen pick up his trail, Aaron couldn't care less about the prophecy. He just wants to be normal, a condition that seems unlikely considering that pesky destiny business.

A slow middle doesn't muddle

ABC Family's Fallen could have been a terrific TV tale, considering the cool special effects of angels battling with fiery swords and whips. Unfortunately, the special effects are better than the execution of the story, which starts out confusing and then takes too long to get going.

We never get a sense of who Aaron is before the angel stuff kicks in, and it takes a long time to connect with him. Suddenly weird things start happening, and since the angel theme is obvious from the start, the slow journey of Aaron coming to accept his inner angel makes the movie drag in the middle. There are some nice bits (like Aaron's realization that he can hear and talk to his dog, Gabriel) that add some entertainment value. Still, other films, like Spider-Man, have done the intro-to-super-powers thing much better, and it makes you just want to yell at the screen, "Get on with it!"

Paul Wesley is believable as Aaron, but most of the characters are underwritten, leaving us with the feeling that these are generic people who've been stuck in the movie to save time for all that stuff in the middle. The only character that has some interesting development is Zeke, and Skerritt is appropriately goofy as the old fallen angel. Except for the moments that focus on Aaron's unique family situation and his interaction with the dog, the story is filled with stock characters, from Aaron's schoolmates to the pretty girl with an interest in angels to the bad guys.

Still, when you balance the good and the not-so-good parts of this film, the cool battling angel scenes are just cool enough to make Fallen worthwhile.

ABC Family has promised four more hours of Fallen in 2007, although it hasn't decided whether there will be two movies or perhaps a limited series. The good news is that all the setup will be finished, and they can add some character development and the fun stuff, like more angel battles, with their nifty fiery weapons.