Rank the B5 movies

[kmiller1610]

Having finished my annual viewing of B5 eps, I re-watched all the movies, including for the first time, Legend of the Rangers. I also watched the commentaries and was really surprised to find out that the vision for Crusade was not what JMS really wanted. He states in "Call to Arms" that he thought the follow on story to B5 should focus on the Rangers and be a number of standalone eps rather than have an over-arching structure. What a shock! That explained a lot about why Crusade seemed so underdeveloped..... Anyway back to the point of the thread....

The Movies:

The Gathering
In the Beginning
Third Space
The River of Souls
A Call to Arms
Legend of the Rangers

So if you want to play, tell us how you would rank the 6 movies and, if you want to get verbose, what you liked and didn't like about each.

I'll hold off on my opinions....

[jds1982]

1. In the Beginning, mostly for Londo's narration
2. A Call to Arms/ Third Space, good space battles
3. The River of Souls
4. The Gathering, haven't seen it so I had to rank it this low
5. Legend of the Rangers, the fact that I ranked it below something I've never seen should say something about the quality of this movie.

[Xicer]

In the Beginning - Awesome story, beautifully written.
A Call to Arms - Great space battles, cool story.
Thirdspace - Again, great space battles and very different from other B5 we've seen.
The Gathering - Didn't like it that much at first but it got better after a few more viewings.
The River of Souls - Eh, nothing memorable. Felt like a long episode.
Legend of the Rangers - Bleh. Not much else to say.

[ancientalliance]

In the Beginning - love the continuity
Legend of the Rangers - K'Gar is hilarious in it!
The Gathering - like watching Stargate the movie after seeing the series first
Third Space
A Call to Arms
The River of Souls - never did like the soulhunters

Overall, I didn't really like the movies compared to the series other than 'In the Beginning' or Legend of the Reangers'

[gopher65]

In the Beginning
A Call to Arms
Third Space
Legend of the Rangers
The Gathering
The River of Souls

I really disliked The River of Souls, and the Gathering felt kinda boring. I've only seen the last 3 movies on my list once.

[Sci-Fi]

Third Space
A Call to Arms
In the Beginning
The Gathering
The River of Souls
Legend of the Rangers

Thirdspace and A Call to Arms, while more action oriented, had a good pace to them (less dead spots) and revealed more information about the Vorlons, the Psychs, and the Drakh.

In The Beginning was good in that it showed the Vorlon and Human War and gave Sheridan's background/participation in it.

The Gathering was the pilot, so there's a lot of setup and character introductions, so a lot of casual viewers found it on the dull side. Difficult to rank this one if you are a B5 fan.

The River of Souls was a bit funny, with the "Holo-Lochley" in her lingerie. Martin Sheen's performance was another highlight of the movie.

Legend of the Rangers had a reasonably compelling story, but the acting was rather pedestrian, the dialogue mundane, and less than believable Liandra weapons platform. Although the Liandra was "haunted", the Millennium Falcon had more character...considering both were labeled as junk in the beginning. If some of the cast and dialogue/script was different/changed, it might of had a chance to go to series. Could you imagine what the movie would have been like if G'Kar wasn't there?

[P-90_177]

1) In the beginning - definately the coolest story of the lot. fantastic acting, esspecially londos naration. there are parts of that film where i actually begin to tear up.

2) Thirdspace - a cool standalone movie that could have been an episode but made such a better movie. Ivanova also gets some cool moments in it.

3) call to arms - i just wish crusade was more like this the whole way through.

4) river of souls - not great but it has quite a few good points.

5) Legend of the rangers - wasn't too bad. the characters were quite fun, it was just the ships and that stupid holographic weapons control that ruined it for me.

6) the gathering - dunno why but i just can't get into watching this. but at least it's a reasonabl first episode.

[Darren]

In the Beginning - Nearly flawless science fiction film. I still weep when I watch it.

A Call to Arms - One of the more interesting of the TV movies, in part because it was one of the first times we'd seen the post-B5 future of the Alliance, in part because it layed the groundwork for Crusade, and in part because of the great performances by Peter Woodward and Tony Todd.

Third Space - Interesting stand-alone. I like the bad guys, the battle sequence, the use of IPX, and the concept of a super-hyperspace gate technology developed and then abandoned by the Vorlons.

The Gathering - Classic, since it started the B5 story. It holds up well, with the exception of some of the early alien make-up jobs. It's too bad that JMS didn't abandon the idea of Delenn being a male before this filmed.

Legend of the Rangers - As much as I love the B5 universe, when I saw "Rangers" I was glad it didn't get picked up for a series. The characters were mediocre, the enemy a silly repetition of the Shadows, and Sarah in the VR combat chamber was just stupid, stupid, stupid.

The River of Souls - Good choice to explore the Soul Hunters more, and the casting of Martin Sheen was nice. But my least favorite overall, largely because I don't think Tracy Scoggins can carry a picture by herself. That's also a big part of why the first half of "The Lost Tales" was a disappointment. JMS seems to love her, though.

[maneth]

In the Beginning. It's the quintessential B5 movie.
Thidspace. Very interesting and different.
The Gathering. I prefer the recut version. It's blindingly obvious that JMS didn't quite know what he was at yet. Delenn's makeup was absolutely horrid.
A Call to Arms. Good but not spectacular. Maybe if Crusade had lasted a bit longer...
The River of Souls. Okay, but I'm not too keen on the soul hunters, so it wasn't really enough to carry a whole picture.
The Legend of the Rangers. Enough said...

I'd also put TLT in 4th or 5th place.

[Prometheus 1]

well i finally just finished watching the show and i must say best damn show to ever air on tv. anyways:

In the Beginning- found parts to have been put in just for continuity but this show can do excellent with continuity. much better than how star trek handles it
Call to Arms- good story felt a little rushed at times but otherwise excellent
Thirdspace- good space battle and clever
River of Souls- i liked this one. i liked the soul hunter idea in season one plus martin sheen was great
The Gathering- its alright but good starter for the series
Legend of the Rangers- not very impressed

[gopher65]

Oh yes, The Lost Tales. I'd put that second from the bottom on my list, right above River of Souls. I was not impressed with the first segment, and the second segment felt rushed. Unlike many other people I didn't mind the sparse sets. That felt Babylon 5ish to me.

Oh, and someone mentioned Tony Todd. He's great. Every time I see him I'm like "where have I seen him before", and I go and check out wikipedia or IMDB.com heh. He's been in so many roles that I can't remember them all. He has an awesome voice.

[Xicer]

I'd probably put TLT just under The Gathering. The first story was meh, but the second was pretty good. I definitely prefer it over TROS and LOTR

[kmiller1610]

Don't have time to get into the whys much, but my list is similar to what others have said...

1) In the beginning: Great as a first exposure to B5. Magnificent as you learn the show and want to see so many parts strung together. Only weak point is the use of footage used in so many other places.

2) Call to Arms: Best production values; but a distant second to ITB. It sort of gets that "Generations" feeling at the end. The movie is a pilot for the next series. Still, Sheridan and Garibaldi shine. And there is finally a B5 product that looks as good as Trek movies (and better than some).

3) Third Space: From a writing perspective, this show is the most original and as a Sci Fi exploration, it's also tops. But it lacks too many of the major characters to get to #1. Still, a solid movie. It gets worse from here on down.

4) Legend of the Rangers

5) River of Souls

6) The Gathering

more later.... gotta go

[kmiller1610]

4) Legend of the Rangers....

Watching this a second time, I again was struck by the potential. The naming ceremony was one of those IDIC moments (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) which made me say, I like these people. I want to see more of them. On repeat viewings, this may move up a notch. Wish they had done this concept rather than Crusade... However, the film is still too derivative and lacking in continuity to get a higher rank.

5) River of Souls .....

I know some people like Martin Sheen in this role, but he mainly seemed spaced out and clueless, sort of like he was trying and failing at doing a version of Starman. The film seemed filled with unhappiness and lacking in resolution. Unhappy souls, confused soulhunters, unhappy customers at the holo-brothel, too much Tracy Scoggins (her acting, not her body). I liked the concept, but thought the film was sadly underdeveloped.

6) The Gathering ....

The screaming Operations manager bothered me. The parts of the film floated around and didn't really come together. It felt .... well, like a half baked pilot.....

[RealmOfX]

Great thread and just the excuse I need to have a marathon to review my choices I'll be back after my marathon but I'm pretty sure Legend of the Rangers is gonna be on the bottom of the pile (great concept, rotten execution).