Such a frustrating disappointment

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

hyped garbage

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I think my father summed it up perfectly with the breakfast question about 30 minutes into this film. Both of us were huge B5 fans and had been chomping at the bit ever since we'd heard a new B5 series was in the works, and one that focused on Rangers. You'd think B5 had nowhere left to go but up following the embarrassing Crusade, but that's not the case here. There is a perceptible and curious decline in the quality of JMS's scripts since Season 5 ("Sleeping in Light" withstanding since it was produced during the fourth season): The TV movies beginning with Thirdspace, up to and including A Call to Arms, then Crusade and now this. His dialogue is rough and unpolished, the humor weak and generic -- nothing like the original four seasons which are incredibly sharp and rewatchable; exceptional storytelling. Quite simply, Babylon 5 the series is the best fictitious television series I've ever watched. But it's as if JMS became too comfortable within his own universe, or else burned out. Were it not for the writing credits to identify those responsible, one could mistake Season 5 onward as being helmed by an all new writer or staff; that's how distinct the styles are. The Legend of the Rangers really plays out like something a teenager could have written in study hall. I swear by this time they must have been locking and shooting his first drafts. There's also a problem with the actors here: Dylan Neal and Andreas Katsulas seem to be the only ones capable of subverting the trite material with thoughtful performances. The visual effects are passable for a 2002 telefilm, but what's with the unnecessary makeover for planet Minbar, and the TOTALLY DISTRACTING absence of Epsilon III when we see Babylon 5? Let me throw in a compliment: I actually liked the idea of the (notorious) virtual gunnery port. Notice I said THE IDEA OF.In closing: B5 the series is amazing, however JMS's later excursions into his universe have done nothing but dilute its legacy. The Lost Tales was a marginal improvement over Crusade and Rangers, but still fair game for B5 skeptics who may never give the series a chance after discovering such weak ancillary material.

I love Babylon 5. I have seen every episode of the series and the movies as well--so it's obvious that I really care about this show. Heck, I even saw the spin-off series, CRUSADE--that's how much I love the show!! And, in light of this love, it really hurt to watch such a seriously flawed and inferior product as THE LEGEND OF THE RANGERS. I guess that after having written so much that the series creator, writer and executive producer J. Michael Straczynski finally was due for a fall as this is easily the worst of the Babylon pantheon.So why was it so bad? Well, the fundamental idea of a new spin-off series wasn't the problem--this movie could have led to a decent series. However, the characters and writing just weren't up to snuff. Particular problems were a very, very predictable plot through at least the first half in which time and again I found myself guessing exactly what would happen next. In fact, my wife and I were both very accurately telling what would happen next because it all seemed so unoriginal and clichéd. Fortunately, it did improve later and I did like the escape pod sequences. In addition, the weapons officer and her gimmicky way of fighting was just embarrassingly bad and silly. She was completely one-dimensional and the fighting sequences made me cringe--they were THAT bad.So what you have left wasn't without some merit and I guess it is a passable 90 minutes of entertainment--but just barely. My advice is that if you are a Babylon 5 geek (like me), then by all means watch it. Otherwise--skip it and watch the series.By the way--take a look at all the ratings for this film. Like many popular sci-fi TV shows or movies (such as Star Trek or Star Wars), there are a small number of mindless zombies who declare that EVERY episode and EVERY movie is an artistic masterpiece--giving ALL OF THEM 10s!!! Now if you liked this movie, I have no argument with you. But, to take an obviously flawed movie that is clearly inferior to the previous series and films and STILL give it a 10 is just ludicrous. These zombies, I assume, are like cult members who CANNOT objectively rate anything from the series and think by giving EVERYTHING a 10 that they are somehow "helping" the show or being loyal. I am sure my harsh words will draw many "not helpful" ratings, but I don't care--the casual viewer needs to know that some reviews can't be trusted.

I watched this film after finishing the whole five seasons, all 13 episodes of Crusade and the other five films. I had already got the general idea from Babylon 5 forums that this film was not going to be good. But since I am a forgiving and merciful person and a big fan of Babylon 5, I thought I'd go soft on it.However... the disappointments prevailed.To start with- the Rangers. Every other comment touches the same problem: the Rangers here are nothing what they ought to be. These guys are impulsive (especially Ne'Feel and Sarah) and irrational and one of them (Tirk) is just plain stupid. How could such people command a Ranger ship (and a strange one indeed)? How could they even BECOME Rangers? And since when does the Grey Council judge them?To continue with- the Hand. You may remember Delenn telling the B5 crew about the First Ones, Shadows being the eldest. You may remember Lorien, the eldest of all. And here we have a race, billions of years old, powerful beyond imagination, sensing their chance to conquer and destroy (or just destroy), whose ships fall to simple explosives in a life-pod...To further continue with- the VR shooting and other minor points. It seemed quite interesting when Sarah first jumped inside, but the sheer impracticability of it and the ridiculous scenes that followed killed the idea off. After the ambassadors get on board, they complain and after that, they somehow disappear from the scene. And G'Kar is simply abused and flattened here.To end with- I could dismiss the darkness and mist around the base on Minbar with thinking "it was at night, probably in industrial quarter". I could judge it as a pilot knowing that JMS has some tricks up his sleeve he would show later. I could appreciate the CGI. I could do all that and I still cannot find enough compassion for this film.I am truly sorry it had to end like this.

MILD-ISH SPOILERS throughout.We live for the one, we die for the one. And so this needless attempt at another Babylon 5 spinoff series begins, with Ranger David Martel (Dylan Neal) breaking the Anla'shok code of honour and fleeing from battle rather than needlessly dying. His superiors punish him with the command of an old starship that lost its previous crew in battle. This previous crew still haunts the ship. Martel gathers a small crew, and their first adventure involves a lot of nancying around, chewing scenery and saying "We live for the one, we die for the one" every few minutes.The thing that made Babylon 5 so great was its five-year plot arc. All non-arc stories are remembered with distaste, in particular the dire TV movies like "Thirdspace" and "River of Souls". When B5 isn't doing its five-year arc, B5 just isn't working. So I don't think a "starship adventures" series would have worked, and this pilot doesn't do anything to disprove my theory. (We live for the one, we die for the one.)It's easiest to list the things that didn't work:G'Kar's appearance is the most welcome thing, but it feels pointlessly tacked on. He's the "bridge" between shows, rather like Picard's appearance in the ST:DS9 pilot, or Quark's appearance in the ST:Voyager pilot. He waltzes into private Ranger disciplinary hearings. He just conveniently happens to be one of the ambassadors picked up later in the episode. We live for the one, we die for the one... or did I say that already?Rather than introducing the new characters subtley throughout the episode, there is one big cheesy scene where the new crew gathers around a table to state their names and specialities. Imagine if a new Star Trek series started with a scene like: "Hi. I'm Will Riker. I'm a First Officer. Yay me!" "Hi. I'm Data. I'm a robot guy. I don't have emotions." "Hi, I'm Tasha Yar. I'm kinda butch and I'm going to die soon."The Rangers are nothing like their previous portrayal in B5. We remember Marcus Cole as the perfect blueprint of a Ranger, and none of the characters here compare. There is so little spirituality or nobility. The Rangers here are wise-crackin' gung-ho heroes. It's just not right. Oh by the way: we live for the one, we die for the one.The weapons thing. Oh dear. The first time the weapons chick (Cantrell) jumped into her virtual reality chamber and started punching and kicking fireballs to control the space battle, I thought it was pretty unique. It's good to make weapon control more interesting than simply pushing buttons. But then there was ANOTHER of these scenes, then another, and another. The last one was full on CHEESE, with Cantrell having what can only be described as a laughable spaz-attack. And can I just add: we live for the one, we die for the one.The "haunted ship" concept is very interesting, but it didn't work well here. There just wasn't room in the plot to squeeze it in. If the pilot went into a series I'd have loved to see more stories about the ghosts. But at the end of the episode the characters basically say: "Well, it looks like we've satisfied those ghosts and we won't be seeing them anymore." Damn!BIGGER SPOILERS NOW. This pilot introduces what could have possibly been the main nemesis for the series, known as "The Hand". These aliens are said to be about a billion years more ancient than the Shadows, and they have finally got back to our dimension. This just sucks. It undermines the Shadows totally. The TV movie "Thirdspace" did something similar with an ancient deadly enemy breaking out of another dimension, and it was annoying that time too. But anyway... we live for the one, we die for the one.So those are the bad things about Babylon 5: Legend of the Rangers. But it's not a total loss. There were moments of J. Michael Straczynski goodness. One thing you can say about his writing is that he's not afraid of full-on balls-out cheese. The usual charm and groan-worthy humour can be found here in small doses. And for all its faults, it's still better than an average episode of Enterprise. And aren't ALL pilots rubbish in comparison to the show that blooms from them? Wasn't B5's pilot quite rubbish and cheesy too? I'd have liked to test out Legend of the Rangers for a full 22 episodes before giving up on it.We live for the one, we die for the one. Or we just watch fairly average TV pilots for the one.