Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
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Movie Reviews of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
Movie Review: Babylon 5 LIVES!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
FINALLY some new material in the epic saga that was, is, and will be seen as the best sci-fi series of all time!
The CGI improvements used in this mini-drama are excellently done and impressively executed. The only thing missing is more stories (DVD's)...MORE OF THE SAME! To any die-hard B5 fan, this just wets the appetite for more.
Bruce Boxleitner and Tracy Scoggins each game impressive performances, as well as Peter Woodward. Keegan MacIntosh also is a fresh face (and talented young actor)--new character with ties that sends chills up the spine of any B5 fan.
The stories, typical of J Michael Straczynski, are better the more they are viewed. What to the initial viewing may seem one thing, upon closer viewing (and listening) reveals many layers of thought and imagination. It is very obvious JMS has made a lifetime study of humanity and the psychology thereof...his writing has many levels of introspection--philosophical, spiritual (where appropriate), psychological, and very human--get to your gut feelings--but you have to be willing to go beyond the first viewing to get there! Unfortunately, there is (also) the feeling that something is "missing." JMS usually gave three plots per episode for the series. The absence of a third story intertwined with the other two is a big void at times...you keep hoping for more. The intended plot story with Jerry Doyle would have been best to have left in the mix, instead of saving it for another DVD...
One can only hope that this will be the first of many "stories" in the B5 universe that fans have been craving since the series left the airwaves. Warner Bros has its fingers on a real treasure, if they would only allow it to be in syndication again...
All in all, this is a must-have for B5 fans who have waited so long for more stories to tease our psyche.
Thank you JMS, and thank you WB for giving the fans a taste of what we have asked for these years since B5 went off the air! And thanks to all the cast and crew who made it happen for us!
"Faith Manages," and B5 ENDURES.
Movie Review: A great start, hopefully more iwll follow
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are looking to buy this movie, then chances are you are a fan of Babylon 5 already. For the uninitiated, however, B5 was a science fiction show in many ways similar to other series in the genre. It had weird aliens, cool spaceships, spectacular space battles, and so on. However, unlike many sci-fi shows and movies, B5 focused more upon the subtle and "human" aspects - even with some of the most alien of aliens. Morality, politics, mystery, hard choices, uncertainty, and the consequences of actions were all major themes of the series.
The Lost Tales is the first Babylon 5 movie or show produced in several years. After the main series ended there were several attempts to revive the franchise with movies, spinoffs, etc... Fans of the series may debate the quality of these attempts (I rather liked crusade, for example, but many disagree) but it seemed that nothing could be done to get B5 up and running again. I only recently heard of The Lost Tales and, while I was excited by the prospect, I was also a bit nervous - it had been a long time sense B5 and I wondered if they could get it up and running again.
Fortunately, The Lost Tales did not disappoint and was much better then I expected. The two stories were fairly small in scope but large in implication. Both had me glued to the screen wondering what would happen next and it took me little time to get back in the frame of mind of the series. To me at least these felt like Babylon 5 from the getgo - a very good thing. The stories were clever and interesting and I was glued to the screen wondering what would happen. The second story, in particular, left several lose ends that could tie into future stories. Though the stories were small, with a notably small cast, but didn't seem to suffer from it. On a final note, the new special effects were great and B5 never looked better.
I thoroughly enjoyed Babylon 5 the Lost Tales. It felt like a familiar revisit to an old friend (some comfort I badly needed today anyways) and I eagerly await and hope for the next installment.
Movie Review: B5 Goose Bumps Once Again - Terrific - More Please!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you enjoyed the original B5 and related JMS projects you will enjoy this latest rendition. I am thrilled with this endeavor, its results, and hope for MORE!!
Yes it's not the original B5 in splendor with a large cast and multiple studio sets. But it is a great example of what a small cast with talent, a good story, and a super CGI computer can put forth.
You really cannot compare this effort with five years of full scale production. Sure, we all hope to see that caliber of quality entertainment again. But that requires lots of folks, lots of room, and lots and lots of big money. Yes it could happen, but in the mean time, this idea of limited resource production has its merits. It got my blood pumping again with B5 interest and my wallet open and ready for more.
So it's not the full scale grandeur of yester year. What ever is? Who ever fully lives up to old expectations? Not many. This DVD and concept is very good and worthy of attention. I would like to see these and other longer types of stories being released several times a year.
Has this "limited production" DVD idea matures; I would expect them to progressively get "richer" in content and delivery and more popular. It's a great idea. Hat's off to JMS and Doug, and whoever else is in on this. I think it's a winner with not only B5 but other venues as well. This seems to be a natural first step toward full CGI production, characters included. Endless possibilities abound. Best Wishes.
P.S. Stories are good, Acting is good to excellent, CGI cool, Music very good. It was GREAT to have those B5 goose bumps again!! THANKS JMS and ALL. More Please More!!!!
VAB
Movie Review: See it first before rating it!
Summary: 5 Stars
It astounds me how many reviews we already have on this, and it's not even out yet. For those that have given it one or two stars, I've set mine at a 5. How can you possibly rate it low when you've not seen it? To be fair, I shouldn't rate it a 5 either, but again, I feel compelled to counterbalance the 1s and 2s who cannot possibly know if it's good or bad.
No, it's not a 5-year arc. Duh. There are no false pretenses here, it was billed as a single shot story from the beginning. If you followed what JMS has said about The Lost Tales, it was not intended to be feature length stories. Yes, some of the "non-arc, stand-alone" stories from the original B5 were uneven, as JMS himself admits! But a bad B5 is better on a good day than the "best" of so many other series that I'll take it.
Okay - now I've seen it. I'm sticking with my 5-star rating. Perhaps because I've been following the postings by JMS about The Lost Tales, I knew what to expect. Basically two standalone episodes of Babylon 5, done on a shoestring budget. I thought the stories were enjoyable. Yes, it's got a lot of CGI, but so did the show, which really pioneered the use of CGI in a weekly television series. I find the comments about the use of "too much" CGI to be really odd. But it's the stories, not the special effects, that matter here. Yes, everything is very minimalist, including and most especially the cast. Not exactly surprising, again, given what was posted by JMS that they were operating on a shoestring budget and extremely tight schedule. If you're really a B5 fan you should know this! The only bad thing is the menu, which is poorly executed.
Movie Review: Other stuff beside saving the Galaxy
Summary: 5 Stars
I did not like Babylon 5 back in 93 when it all started. I thought that it was a Star Trek DS9 rip off. Was I ever wrong. Although I will always love Star Trek, Babylon 5 gave me a future that had real people who were not all self actualized. This was dirty and gritty and people were not always the heros we thought they were. So what does that have to do with... the lost tales? Glad you asked. I have enjoyed visiting B5 and seeing how the President of the Interplanitary alliance deals with the future including The Great Sentaurie Republic.How the commander of B5 deal with the cross roads of religion and reality.
I recomend this DVD. The actors provided the performance that we have come to expect from people who know there parts and have developed a relationship with then. The story was short. But, this was not the main feature it was "The Lost Tales". The fact that there are demons both internal and external was fun. The special effect were much improved over those of the show. Ten years results in a great deal of progress.
JMS you need to give us more. There is very little that seems to be smart or well exicuted that puts forward a story that has an epic feel like the original B5. I know this was never plannned to be a deep space franchise but there is more to be told. The first World War gave rise to the Second World War. The Galaxy of B5 has only started to be explored ( I hope). I just hope that this DVD breaks the dollar amount needed to get another made (unlike Fire Fly another good show cut down by people who did not understand it. I look foward to the next DVD release. I'm sure it will come "when the time is right".