Babylon 5 - The Movie Collection  (2004)

Rating: NR

Distributor: Warner Home Video

Release Date: August 17, 2004
Review posted: August 28, 2004

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

Movie 1: "The Gathering"
Alien envoys come to the giant space station in the pilot that launched the five-year TV series.

Movie 2: "In The Beginning"
The B5 prequel! It's humans vs. aliens in the battle that led to the station's creation.

Movie 3: "Thirdspace"
Is there a realm beyond hyperspace? Discovery of a million-years-old gateway technology may hold the answer...and more.

Movie 4: "The River Of Souls"
After death, then what? Questions of eternity arise when a supposedly infallible harvester of souls proves to be very fallible.

Movie 5: "A Call To Arms"
The torch is passed. A race against time to save Earth links the B5 mission with the Rangers' new interstellar efforts.

CRITIQUE

Babylon 5 is an incredible TV show, an incredible science fiction TV show no less. These five movies each tell a different story within the Babylon 5 chronology. Each movie runs approximately 93 minutes in length, which equals just about the length of a good movie. They're all unique in their own ways, and the stories are radically different from each other, yet they maintain the tone, mystery, and even humor of the TV show.

The Gathering is a pretty decent pilot presentation. This is the real version J. Michael Straczynski wanted everyone to see, with more characterizations and additional scenes that were not available in the pilot screened for critics and such. This movie introduces all the major characters, and it's nice now to have a look back at how the show originally began. Rating: 8 out of 10.

In The Beginning is simply awesome. This prequel explains and shows the events leading up to the Earth-Minbari War, as well as the war itself and the aftermath, through the words of aging Emperor Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik) who tells the story to two young children. This type of narrative works quite well, and director Mike Vejar does an incredible job. Straczynski's script is just terrific; the back story and everything that goes on here is fantastic to watch. Any B5 fan will love this movie. Rating: 10 out of 10.

Thirdspace is a decent movie, but a lot of time is devoted to building mystery around the alien artifact. Lyta Alexander (Patricia Tallman), resident telepath on the station and certified hottie, has premonitions about an evil force, and soon more people (including Susan Ivanova, played by Claudia Christian) become affected by the artifact as they experience dreams and their minds fall victim to the artifact's telepathic waves. The last twenty minutes are pretty exciting, especially when John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) takes flight with just a jetpack on his back. Rating: 6 out of 10.

The River of Souls is rather disappointing, and actually is the weakest B5 movie. The story certainly brings up some questions about what is truth, responsibility, morality, and so on, but the script comes off more as an extended episode from the show than a movie event. The pairing of Michael Garibaldi (Michael Doyle), who returns from Mars to check up on some dark projects funded by his company, and station captain Elizabeth Lockley (Tracy Scoggins), who must deal with a lawsuit from an angry businessman operating a brothel in Brown sector, is a nice thing for this movie. Security Chief Zach Allen also makes a nice appearance here, but he doesn't get all that much to do. The big news, I think, is the spot of the guest star who plays the Soul Hunter, namely Martin Sheen. The movie has some slow spots and overall is not as exciting as the other movies, but I guess it remains a decent effort, at best. Rating: 5 out of 10.

The fifth film in this collection is A Call To Arms, which stars most of the major Earth characters, such as President Sheridan, Garibaldi, and Lockley. A man who belongs to a mysterious clan contacts Sheridan, informing him about a highly secretive plan by a known alien race to attack and destroy Earth, to finish what the Shadows have started. Sheridan then goes rogue and teams up with two seemingly unrelated people (one played by Tony Todd) who will help him to defeat the alien fleet and the last of the planetkillers, a destructive Shadow technology that moves in the form of a large black cloud. A Call To Arms likes to build on the mystery of what is to come, and it works really well. Mike Vejar is back in the director's chair, and he does an excellent job. The music here is not by Christopher Franke, but by another composer, and even though the music is composed nicely, it feels radically different from Franke's work, though I'm not really complaining. Rating: 8 out of 10.

THE VIDEO

Warner Bros. presents Babylon 5 in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Video quality is still not great, but that's okay. Colors are overall pretty nice and look well saturated. Detail is fine, and sharpness looks decent. The print image appears in decent shape, although several specks and areas of grain are visible, especially during the low-lit scenes. Many of the dark scenes look a bit fuzzy and grainy, and blacks and dark tones are pretty good. I didn't notice any major compression artifacts. The presentation for The Gathering is the worst of the other four as it's presented in fullscreen format, plus the video quality is very mixed; lots of grain, specks, wear and tear, etc. The other four films look pretty good overall, I have no major complaints about them. You can select to view the episodes with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, plus English Closed Captions.

THE AUDIO

Warner Bros. presents Babylon 5 in English 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound. The soundtrack is listed as being remastered, and in a way that is only half correct. Surrounds are hardly in use, except they're strong during the show's music cues and action sequences, and the rear speakers are only active during certain times. There is some good definition and placement among the front speakers, however. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand, and only a few times lines sound a bit muffled. Audio is not particularly strong, but the soundtrack presentation is fairly good with considerable clarity in most cases.

THE EXTRAS

There are introductions to each film by J. Michael Straczynski and various cast and crew. They each run for about four minutes and cover some good topics. There's plenty of clips from the films, but the interviews are good.

Next up is commentary for every film. The Gathering commentary by J. Michael Straczynski and production designer John Iacovelli is pretty decent. Both remember making this pilot over ten years ago, and the challenges they faced. Iacovelli talks a lot about design and such things, and Straczynski adds his own thoughts, such as griping over the fact that he shouldn't have cut some scenes from the pilot that was screened for critics.

In The Beginning commentary by J. Michael Straczynski and director Mike Vejar is informative and enjoyable. They cover various topics, reference things on screen, and overall engage in a good discussion. A solid commentary for a terrific movie.

Thirdspace commentary by director Jesús Treviňo and series stars Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Conaway, Steven Furst, and Patricia Tallman is pretty fun all-around. The actors have a blast watching this film again and remembering things from the set, both positive and negative things. While not the most insightful comments, the actors have good things to say, and the director creates a good balance by providing scene-specific commentary as well as interacting with the actors on several topics. The DVD booklet lists J. Michael Straczynski as a participant on this track, but he's not there.

The River of Souls commentary by J. Michael Straczynski, director Janet Greek, and series star Tracy Scoggins offers a solid discussion about the film, on-screen events, the production, and many other things.

A Call to Arms commentary by J. Michael Straczynski and director Mike Vejar is very good. This is the last Babylon 5 film (at least so far), and the two men's comments stretch out a bit, referencing the film itself but also the show as a whole. The last thirty minutes are interesting and informative, especially when Straczynski states his intentions the way the film ends; it was supposed to have set up another five-year series, called Crusades, though it was cancelled after only thirteen episodes.

The last extra is a featurette called Creating The Future, an eight-minute discussion how science and the series have influenced each other. It features interviews with J. Michael Straczynski and various crew. I won't say anything else about it other than I wish it could've been longer; a well-done featurette to end the Babylon 5 DVD saga.

SUMMARY

A Call To Arms and In The Beginning are my two favorite B5 movies, and The Gathering serves as a good set up to the show, but the other two movies are just not good enough to recommend. This five-disc movie collection is probably a must for Babylon 5 fans, but it depends. The set is noticeably lower priced than the season boxed sets, and so it should be affordable enough.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED

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