Babylon 5: In the Beginning
January. 04,1998 PGLondo Mollari, the Centauri Emperor, recounts the initial contact between the Humans and Minbari, which resulted in a major incident and subsequent war, for an eager pair of youngsters wanting a story about love and conflict.
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Reviews
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Whereas Babylon 5: A Call To Arms is the beginning of a new adventure in the Babylon 5 universe, Babylon 5: In the Beginning actually completes the epic story that is introduced to us in Babylon 5: The Gathering and then continued by the television series.Babylon 5: In the Beginning describes the events leading up to the Earth-Minbari war in context with everything we have seen in the TV show. For those of you that don't know, the Earth-Minbari war happened 10 years before the start of the time line of the show. The TV series then proceeds to tell the story of Babylon 5 year by year from then on.Babylon 5: In the Beginning has a fantastic story, and it introduces us to one or two wonderful new characters. It is brilliantly put together, but just like Serenity (The Firefly movie), Babylon 5: In the Beginning makes much more sense, and is much better, if you watch it after watching the TV show. I suspect that is why it has such a relatively low score here on IMDb; perhaps many viewers had not watched the TV series first.In the Beginning also contains spoilers for the TV series. Delenn, Sheridan and G'Kar's characters, for example, are very much in keeping with the characters as we know them towards the end of the TV series, not as they are in the first two seasons. You could argue this is a negative point but it falls within the scope of artistic license, and it is hard to imagine how it can have been done any other way. So I think you really need to have at least watched the first four seasons of Babylon 5 before watching In the Beginning, although personally I'd recommend watching everything from the TV show before watching this (don't forget to start with Babylon 5: The Gathering).
Another poster here commented that as soon as B5 strays from it's 5-year arc it fails, I agree with that.(Though...truth be told, the pilot episode of B5 was horribly silly as well)In the Beginning is the story of how the Earth and Minbari went to war, and the stories of many of the people we know from the B5 show, all told by Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari. A masterful choice since Jurasik has a charisma that to me is only matched by Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar.From the start the movie is a feast for fans of B5, the great war is explained in all it's horrible stupidity with leaders of both races too arrogant to see their own faults; The humans by sending an armed force of ships to Minbari space when advised against it by Londo "Send only one ship.", their folly is shown when they fire upon a minbari ship and kill the spiritual leader of the Minbari. Though for all their alleged wisdom the Minbari show themselves as prideful as the humans when they set the wheels in motion for total genocide of the human race. With the warrior caste driving it forward the war takes on a life of it's own, as Delenn so eloquently puts it.It is when the war begins that the real highlight of the movie starts, the 10-or so minutes of eerie scenes of battles and defeats, hauntingly backed up by Christopher Franke's 'Battle on the Line'So what about the rest of the movie? Well, the actors plays their roles with mostly the same energy as they did in the shows, something which lacks in other B5 movies like Thirdspace. Some of the other characters are quite simply just fillers, the Earth officials that send the Expeditionary force to Minbari space feels too much like the 'crooked politician' to be of any real worth to the movie. The special effects are rather good, on par with the show. The greatest weakness with the movie is the feel that maybe..It is too much flirting with the fans, like "Look! There's all our favorites!", and the fact that I cant' grasp how the war could last for years when the Minbari slice through fleets in seconds. Sure the ground battles could last for awhile but it's hard to have ground battles if the fleets transporting soldiers get shot out of the sky. And it is good to know that even with genocide as their goal the Minbari ignore the civilian populaces.8/10
I was a fan of Babylon 5 as a kid, but I didn't remember the story before seeing this movie. However, seeing this brought out a whole lot of goosebumps. Not because I am the greatest fan, but because of the amazing acting and setting in some of the scenesWithout doubt the movie that has brought me closest to crying in a whole lot of years. An absolute recommendation goes out to all! But be bewared: It will be tempting as hell to join the wagon and see the series :DIf you are already a fan of the series, you have no choice. An absolute must-see for fans, and a "should see it anyways" for all others!
I actually cried, Can you beleive it? This film was so good, it touched me. That part where Londo is talking about loving Centauri Prime, and then it goes back to the war, showing the little shelter full of crying humans, powerful stuff. Mira Furlan and Bruce Boxlietner played their roles to perfection. And I have never seen Peter Jurasik perform better, and I've seen a lot of his stuff. Simply put, this film should have won an Emmy. It was incredible.