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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
What a pity this didn't get a chance
I liked this movie. The characters clicked together very well, better than one usually sees on a pilot show. I thought the notion of a direct link between the ship's weapon system and a person was interesting, but the dramatization of that notion did fall flat, even ludricously so. Actually, the biggest complaint I had was the idea of yet another ancient very powerful...
Published on March 7, 2006 by S. Gudmundsen
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
Not Quite as Bad as I Remembered
Ranger David Martell (Dylan Neal) has committed a horrid offense - staying alive. The Ranger code strictly states that at no time shall a Ranger back down from a fight. But with his ship out-gunned, David doesn't force a fight, thereby living to fight another day.
A funny thing happens on the way to his court marshal. Saner heads prevail, and he is allowed...
Published on June 14, 2006 by Mark Baker
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
Not Quite as Bad as I Remembered, June 14, 2006
Ranger David Martell (Dylan Neal) has committed a horrid offense - staying alive. The Ranger code strictly states that at no time shall a Ranger back down from a fight. But with his ship out-gunned, David doesn't force a fight, thereby living to fight another day.
A funny thing happens on the way to his court marshal. Saner heads prevail, and he is allowed to stay in the Rangers. He was in line to be given command of a new ship just coming off the assembly line. He does still get to command a ship, but he is given command of a 20-year-old Minbari ship rumored to be haunted.
His first assignment is to provide support for a larger ship taking a group of delegates to an undisclosed location. Even with all the secrecy, they still fly into an ambush, and David and his crew must use every trick up their sleeve if they are going to survive this encounter with an ancient race.
I had only watched this movie once, the day it first aired. I was less then impressed. I bought it mainly so I could complete my Babylon 5 collection. The movie was actually better then I remembered.
The story presented here is entertaining. It had been long enough since I had seen it that I couldn't remember much about it and was pulled into the action again. The acting by a group of unknowns is top notch, and the characters are interesting enough that I wish the series had been picked up so we could learn more about them. Fan favorite Andreas Katsulas (who unfortunately passed away recently) returns as G'Kar, the only character from the original series to appear. His performance, as always, is great. And the dialog is witty. I was laughing out loud at many of the lines. This is some of the sharpest writing series creator J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) has done. This is all supported by great special effects.
Unfortunately, the flaws I remembered were still here. If this had been the pilot for a new series, it would have worked well. It introduces us to a new danger and sets a potentially interesting story in motion. However, since this was all we got, it feels empty. Adding to this is the sense we've done this before in the original series. I'm sure a series would have gone in a new direction, but here "The Hand" just felt like a retreat of original series villains The Shadows.
The almost fatal flaw of this movie, however, is the weapons systems. I mean, seriously, what was JMS thinking. In order for this ship to fire, the ammunitions officer must go into a virtual reality chamber and use Kung Fu moves. I'm not kidding! She has to punch and kick at pictures of the ships in order to fire the weapons. While the visuals are unique and interesting, the idea that a ship would have a weapons system like that is laughable. It pulls me right out of the movie.
This movie was never popular with fans, and in keeping with that, this is a bare bones release. We get the movie in widescreen and surround sound with nothing in the way of extras. I'm a little disappointed. I would have loved to hear JMS attempt to explain the stupid weapons system.
This is not the place to get introduced to Babylon 5. If you are interested in a great science fiction show, start with the season sets. This is a movie only a fan will love, and even then, most fans don't.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Serious Problems, but . . ., April 19, 2006
Worse than Infection? That's saying quite a bit. I have to agree this film has some serious problems, for example, the Kung Fu weapons sequence is literally embarrassing, even if you watch it alone. Yet even the idea of a gunner immersed in a VR system (sans the kicking and screaming) was interesting -- with some work it could have been interesting. Moreover, the chemistry between the crew was much better than that in the original pilot, especially between the captain and his second in command.
Rather than chronicle the flaws in this movie -- and they are legion -- I will just say this: the critics of this film are correct in every detail. I cannot find a single particular where you would be wrong (right down to the quality of the video); however, if you step back and see the totality of this pilot (and what it could have become, warts and all) it becomes more enjoyable. The story is predictable, but that was exactly the the technique used by JMS in the original B5: to give the audience a predictable story, with stereotypical characters, and then slowly have them begin to behave and evolve in ways you never would have expected.
There are even a few moments which, far from being embarrassing, bring it all back (the last scene where G'Kar says his famous line about B5, and they show the Babylon station, actually got an emotional reaction from me and the people I was watching the show with.
Deeply flawed, but as G'Kar would say, not without hope.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
It might have been a good series. But it's not that great a pilot/movie., January 28, 2007
If you're as much of a fan of Babylon 5 as I am, you'll be compelled to check out this movie, which was a pilot for a follow-on series. The pilot didn't sell the show. (Crusade also took place in the same general timeframe, after the Shadow war and other events of the 5-year B5 series. Crusade was destroyed by TV network stupidity, not by the creator's vision or a lackluster script--a subject that I go into in my review of that box set.)
I'm not sure who's at fault in The Legend of the Rangers, but this doesn't work very well as a standalone movie. If you love the universe already, you're going to watch this no matter what I tell you (and it's definitely worth seeing _once_). But if you're trying to catch up to learn what the shouting is all about... cast your eyes aside. This isn't the best of what the Babylon5 universe has to offer.
It's important to remember that this was a pilot, so there's a lot more exposition than in an ordinary movie. The characters stand around with an uncomfortable amount of conversation in the "As you know, this is What Has Gone Before," and make rather bald statements meant to convey "This is my role in the show; don't you think I should keep the part?" That makes any storytelling awkward -- a rule that applied equally well to the original Babylon 5 pilot, which had something like 18 characters to introduce in a 90-minute show. The Legend of the Rangers doesn't have quite as long a casting call, but it somehow (and not very smoothly) has to bring you up to date on the whole B5 history, and introduce the bad guys who our crew will be battling with, presumably, throughout the proposed Season One.
The only character in the movie to bridge between old-and-new B5 stories is (the late, sigh) Andreas Katsulas as J'kar, who at this point has spent several years on his own universe walkabout. The movie switches from "okay" to "darn, this is good after all" in nearly every one of his scenes.
Despite my criticism of the storyline, I think this might have made a good TV show. The premise of the rangers is still a very cool one -- spacefaring knights of the round table -- and we all do like to watch the "captain with an attitude, who somehow engenders incredible loyalty among his crew." (A bad guy says, "A ranger wouldn't kill me." "Yeah, well, I've been having disciplinary problems lately," replies the ship captain.) If it had been approved, I would have given it a chance.
Bottom line: worth watching once. Maybe twice.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
How did this end up sucking!, April 14, 2006
Ok, to start off, I've been a B5 fan since the I first saw the pilot. I could be accurately called a "fanboy" of the work of JMS and of the B5 universe. So, I have to assume the writing for this movie was solid and good.
The director? Name didn't ring any bells, but checking his link in the extra info section, he's directed some of the very best episodes of B5 that I enjoyed the most. So I have to assume he "got" the uninverse, knew what he was doing, and brings a minimal amount of "suck" to the table.
The stars? Well, Andreas was in it, that's about all I can say...
The effects, actually, sadly, the effects are the strongest suit of this feature. But pretty pictures don't make compelling TV.
So I'm forced to blame the actors for it sucking as much as it did, or it was a fluke of the director or writer that just happens. And suck, it does. While I understand what they were going for in the holographic kickboxing = weapon controls, very anime of them, it just did NOT work, on any level. It it agonizingly bad to the point of making ME embarrassed FOR them.
Rangers never run? Since WHEN? Rangers ran all the time in the series, when the importance of the information they carries outweighed any personal loss of honor for appearing to flee. They weren't running FROM the fight, but TO a more important goal. It was a lame way to make the ship's "leader guy" something of an outsider.
Did I mention the horrid holo-fight? Words can not describe how lame it is, I mean it.
But will I get this? Yeah, I'm a completest, I don't have a choice, but I won't like it. I'd wager that about 70% of the sales of this item are people the same way.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
It's as bad as they say it is, March 26, 2006
Some folks are cutting this show a lot of slack because it had potential. And I agree; there was definitely the potential for this movie to become a pretty decent series.
But it didn't.
All we have to judge is what's on the screen. All the guesses about where the show was going, how the actors would mature, and the overarching themes are moot. Because what's on the screen is pretty bad.
Sure, it may be average for a pilot. It may even be good for a pilot. Watching "The Gathering" after seeing a couple seasons of B5, you cut it a lot of slack. We don't have that luxury with failed pilots, and it's just silly to say that we should enjoy "Legend of the Rangers" for what might have been.
Pilot or not, this is a bad movie.
Fact is, there's nothing fresh here. It's formulaic, with characters who come not out of Central Casting, but out of Wardrobe. Plot and dialogue were both flat and predictable. The premise was weak, but not laughable. The acting was bad, but not awful.
And the less said about the spastic hissy-fit weapons system, the better.
As a fan, I was disappointed that such low-grade, paint-by-numbers schlock was branded with the B5 name I've come to know and love. I've seen worse, but not under that logo, and not without Michael Pare.
Was this a noble attempt at reviving the B5 franchise? Sadly, no. It was an attempt at reviving the franchise, alright, but there was nothing noble about it.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
What a pity this didn't get a chance, March 7, 2006
I liked this movie. The characters clicked together very well, better than one usually sees on a pilot show. I thought the notion of a direct link between the ship's weapon system and a person was interesting, but the dramatization of that notion did fall flat, even ludricously so. Actually, the biggest complaint I had was the idea of yet another ancient very powerful evil force; that was too reminiscent of the recently (more or less) resolved Shadow Wars. I think it would have been better if the crew had been left with more doubt as to just what was threatening them. I really wish this show had been given the chance it deserved.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Worst Potential Pilot for a Post "Babylon 5" Television Series, August 12, 2007
There are two words which should be your only reason to watch this nearly two hour film which had the potential of being yet another spinoff from "Babylon 5". Andreas Katsulas. That's right folks, the only worthwhile reason to see this film is to watch Andreas Katsulas step once more into the role of Narn diplomat G'Kar, and see him do a much better job performing his part than any other member of this cast. While the concept of a small Ranger gunship on deep space patrol is truly intriguing, its execution suffered considerably from both inept acting and technical details (The only notable exception of course is Christopher Franke's excellent score.). I was troubled with the obvious parallels between the human Ranger captain and his Minbari first officer with another well-known team from science fiction television, namely a young human starship captain and his pointy-eared half-human/half-alien first officer; the comparison was quite simply too obvious, and I wonder why Straczynski himself didn't realize it before completing a shooting script (Thankfully he's paid more attention to both story and character development in the new "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales".). Diehard fans of "Babylon 5" will enjoy this film primarily for Katsulas' superb - and sadly final - portrayal of G'Kar; others will be inclined to skip this for the "Babylon 5" films, "Crusade" and Straczynski's latest, hopefully still ongoing, effort, "Babylon 5: The Lost Tales".
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Get Ready for Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, May 15, 2007
Like Crusade, Legend of the Rangers was another unsuccessful attempt to jumpstart the stalled B5 franchise. The production values on Legend were higher than those on Crusade, and this time, instead of being leftovers from the Shadow War, the villains were some kind of super-Shadow called "the Hand" which was supposedly even more ancient and powerful than the Shadows, the Vorlons, or any of the other Old Ones. I guess Lorien just neglected to mention them. Zog! One of the main strengths of B5 was continuity and the Hand was the biggest continuity violation in the B5 universe, not the greatest basis for a new series. I suppose that if the series had caught on, JMS would have eventually revealed that the Hand was all a lie made up by the Drakh. ZOG!!!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Not as bad as people say, March 15, 2006
The real problem with this Pilot was that no one gave it a chance and it never became a series. This almost happened to Babylon 5, its pilot was panned by more then its share of people. For many of the same reasons, people complained about Kosh and the technology in the pilot, just as they are complaining about the combat control room it legend, the truth is this is a pilot so along with telling a story and working through a plot you need to introduce the main characters, since this is sci fi you also have to set the universe and culture, which it did.
The characters are great you want to know more about them, the ship is a characters on of its own. We are being emerged into one of the great mysteries in Babylon 5, the Rangers. All in all that pretty good for me. I liked it for me it was a 5. For most people its probably a 3. If you like the Babylon 5 pilot you will love this one (Kung Fu fire control and all, personally I found it interesting for the gunner to become the ship for combat).
So if you want to see a good pilot for a show that should have made it, defiantly get this on, but like with most sci fi pilots leave expectations at the door this is not Season 6 of Babylon 5 where the characters and universe are set and familiar. This is a fresh new start.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
This thing sucked!, July 26, 2006
I loved B5 and Crusade. I hated this. Well, maybe hate is too strong a word. I strongly disliked it.
I'm gonna make this short and sweet.
The plot stunk. The idea a race as old and powerful as they presented in the pilot could've gone un-noticed by the "first ones" and not have an influence in the Shadow wars of the original B5 series is completely ludicris to me.
The acting was far from normal B5 universe quality. That hologram targeting system thing was totally and completely disaterous. Gawd awful!!!
The story never went anywhere. The whole time I was waiting for the movie to progress. It never did.
The special effects where fantastic though. A+ work there.
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