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
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