Movie Reviews

PILOT    The Gathering: Special Edition 
Plot: Commander Sinclair is framed for attacking the Vorlon Ambassador by an elaborate conspiracy between the Narns and renegade Minbari.  Kosh joins the station after being cured, and Sinclair clears his name.

A really great way to introduce the series, but a really horrible movie.  The plot was so convoluted and confusing that it makes diffcult entertainment.  Looking back on it now the creature makeup is ridiculous, but the sets of course look wonderful.  Londo and Garabaldi look like idiots, but they improve greatly.  The movie moves pretty slowly until that little shoot out at the end.  Not much to say about it; bad acting and plot but a necessary and unobtrusive way to introduce the series.

M#1        In the Beginning 
Plot: The Saga of the Minbari War.  Stated by the first contact between Earth and Minbar, the Minbari and Delenn go mad when Dukhat is killed.  Earth gets massacered in the war, the only victory is Lt. Commander Sheridan defeating the Black Star.  Londo is an Ambassador to Earth, and warns against the first contact.  He also prevents an Earth-Minbar peace summit with Sheridan, Franklin & G'Kar to happen.  In the Battle of the Line the Minbari assult Earth, but when they take Sinclair they learn Valen's soul is in him, ending the war.

Unfortunately this is all essentially old material or else this would have been wonderful.  The little future Londo thread did nothing for me, but then again the whole movie didn't.  The Rangers-Grey Council-Dukhat conflict was interesting, especially their discussion about the Shadows.  Always wonderful to see more of Dukhat, too bad he isn't a regular!  The Earth side was vaguely disappointing.  Sheridan's Black Star battle was nice but everything else with him in it was pretty routine.  The peace envoy mission was a little stupid but Londo's remorse of it was nice.  The Battle of the Line was really disappointing.  There was just some random shots of the battle, no sense of strategy or following it.  The President's speech was nice.  What really hurts here is the reused Sinclair footage.  It really hampers the ending which really petters out.  The movie is essentially about Delenn, and she's pretty interesting.  A mildly disappointing classic.

M#2        Thirdspace 
Plot:  Ivanova defeats some Raiders and discovers a vast artifact in hyperspace.  IPX (InterPlanetary Expeditions) arrives to help study the Artifact, which is causing strange dreams and behavior in the station.  When Sheridan threatens to kick out IPX, they activate the Artifact which is jumpgate into Thirdspace.  An alien armada jumps through and engages the Babylon Fleet in battle.  Lyta has a Vorlon memory activated which tells Sheridan how they made the jumpgate to ascend into Heaven but instead found these alien who could turn the weak to their side.  Many civilians go crazy and attack Zack's security force.

Very disappointing!  During the whole freakin' summer this is all we get for B5?!  There was a lot of promise here, but 3/4 of the movie is actually pretty boring, just the anticipation of the battle is what keeps it moving.  Plus, the Ivanova appearance is now something really special since she's not in Y5.  The aliens were visually interesting, but they didn't do anything!  The possession of the B5 civvies was ridiculous and stupid.  They never get guns?!  None of the security guards are possessed?!  They never storm C&C?!  There are essentially two good points to this movie; the Vorlon thread and the FX blowout at the end.  The Vorlons' past mistake was very interesting if not a blatant Crusade lead-in.  The FX battle was of course amazing, especially when Sheridan in his spacesuit is flying through the middle of the battle.  But the aliens only fight for about ten minutes, and they don't do much.  They can almost kill the Vorlons but we hold our own against them?!  The big part for Lyta was nice, and that white eye look is really creepy.

M#3    The River of Souls 
Plot:  An Edgars Industries steals a soul orb from a Soul Hunter stronghold and flees with it to B5 to meet Garabaldi.  A Soul Hunter soon arrives who forms a bond with Lochely before the displaced souls break loose and cause havok and a fleet of Soul Hunters arrives.  Lochely is forced to deal with a holo-brothel using her image.

Another disappointing movie!   I expected to finally see some Soul Hunter action but we never get this!  First the good:  this is the best use of Lochely yet.  I actually liked her and thought she was funny.  The 'Garabaldi Effect' was a hoot, and her problems with the holo-brothel were pretty funny.  The base of this episode had a great philisophic arguement (it didn't preach on the souls argument like the first season episode did) about the Soul Hunters being so arrogant when they accidently enprisoned a higher race.  The teaser was pretty exciting with the discovery and the attack of that ship.  Now the bad:  A lot of fuss was made over Martin Sheen being the Soul Hunter, but I found him too normal; the first season episode had W. Morgan Sheppard, and he sounded like a wierd child molester!  Sheen was just kinda there, and his character's big self sacrifice at the end did nothing for me.  The biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn't have enough action.  the last act is so abrupt, convoluted, and quick-fix that it really hurts the episode.  I was really looking forward to B5 v. Soul Hunter fleet, but it never happened.  This whole 'souls run amok' thing was poorly realized and a little silly.  Still, the movie essentially stars Lochely and she does a good job, with Garabaldi being funny and Corwin being nice.  I especially enjoy the Lochely-Garabaldi exchanges, ending with her quietly asking if he's had a drink yet.  Lochely's 'death' was pretty interesting, but Franklin was really wasted in this episode.  What was the point of bringing him in for a few minutes to be someone else with a bad accent?  Plus, he says its because she needs a friend to hear, but she's said all but two words to Franklin in the fifth season!  All in all a slow and disappointing movie with a horrible ending.

M#4    A Call to Arms 
Plot: Galen the Technomage contacts President Sheridan, an Earthforce Captain, and an alien theif Dureena to secretly prepare for a Drakh attack on Earth using a Shadow Planet Killer.  To combat the attack Sheridan and Garabaldi call into the service the prototype White Star-class Destroyers Excalibur and Victory.

This was an incredible movie, even more entertaining than "In the Beginning"!  The first half was essentially the setup but was extremely interesting.  Galen is an extremely interesting character, and the mystery surrounding Sheridan was very intriguing.  Dureena was also a very interesting character.  Capt Anderson played by Tony Todd was of course great.  The test flight and expedition to the testing planet were all very entertaining, and final half of the movie is essentially one huge running battle!  The FX on this movie were very different from any before them (using the new Crusade technique) and were an incredible improvement.  The battle scenes were the best ever!  The new CGI is more colorful and textured; the White Star suddenly has texture to its skin and is not smooth!  The new jumppoint FX is also great.  The Excalibur is a very cool ship, though the bridge is curiously small (the White Star bridge is bigger!).  Drake looked to be comic relief but he ended up being the traitor, which was a good plot twist.  The battle itself was INCREDIBLE, my only complaint is that we don't see the human side to Earth once again being attacked (remember the President's address in "In the Beginning"?) and that the Drakh are reduced a faceless villian who never talk.  I was excited to the next step in the arc starring the Drakh Leader from "The Fall of Centauri Prime", but he actually didn't do anything!  The ending twist with Earth's poisoning was also surprising distant, and what was up with Galen arriving at B5 to be welcomed by Dureena like that?  The new music was also incredible, a great compliment to the new look, very techno and futuristic.  The perfect lead-in to Crusade.  A minor nit: Zack Allen is one of the four regulars in the movie... to appear as a generic security guard in one scene.  Why?