Since i will probably be stoned for my "less-then approving" comments i thought i would spare most the touble of typing it.
I realize that this is the the first of what could be many more episodes and characters and events cannot be expected to be perfect,they can at least be a good foundation of things yet to come. I did not see this here. As for the Topic:
>> What was was your impression overall? How did it compare to other material in the B5 universe?<<
Terrible. Forced humor, shallow characters, "been-there-done-that" plot, unrealistic to name but a few.
>>What did you think of the characters? Did they seem interesting and deep? How do they stack up to characters from the rest of the universe?<<
Bad.
1. The captain. Tried to hard. possibly due to bad script but a good actor can overcome this.
2. The Human female ranger gunner. Please. Her sorry attempts at one-liner harrasment based jokes made her possibly the worst actor i have ever seen.
3. The intelligence dude. His reaction to G'Kar was IMHO NOT how a ranger would react. He was like a scared schoolboy cuaght in the hall without a pass.
4. The first officer. again with the one-liner humor aimed at the captain? wasnt one character enough?
5. The healer. She tried to hard at the "Serenity and Purity of Being" role IMHO
6. The Narn, Turk ( i did like that character but not as a ranger. No IQ tests to be one?) and the 3rd menbari didnt make enough of an appearance for me to formulate and initial opinion.
>>What did you think of the acting? Was there anyone whose performance stood out to you, for good or ill?<<
I wont re-hash this but i would like to give credit where credit is due. G'kar. always a pleasure to see what a good actor can accomplish regardless of his surroundings.
>>Compared to The Gathering and Call To Arms, how does To Live and Die in Starlight compare as the starter for a series? Does it show more or less promise than the others showed?<<
Although i had some problems with the gathering i thought for the most part it was well written and played out for a pilot that did not involve combat.
A call to arms was also a excellent movie in my opinion. but here you had the proven actors doing what we came to enjoy from them. The series that followed however was a total dissappointment. Bad acting will kill the best theme everytime.
to live and die in starlight does not even compare. except for the FX its boring.
>>What would have made it better? Is there anything particular that you were looking for that was lacking, or was there anything that was included that you didn't like?<<
If i could answer that 100% i would make my own movies. BUT, with what they had? Better actors, less attempted humor, the removal of the tai bo weapons sequences, a new theme. The whole "super-enemy" is played.
Since that was the last question im just going to add a few things of my own here.
"super-enemy syndrome" Is it believed that the major reason the B5 was popular was becuase of the shadows? I hope not. Although they were an excellent part of the story line it wasnt the only thing.
Inconsistencies. Some may call it "nit picking" but oh well. When you develop a standard please stay with it or at least provide a reasonable explanation of why there is a deviation. example: The medical table is flat. from what has been seen of menbari habbits, a flat bed is considered badluck. When Ivanivah?( spell check again please) was injured and was on board the Menbari cruiser they laid her flat but Marcus was there with an explanation. He made them do it. they didnt want to but he made them. Nit-picking? Maybe, but imho these things are what make the difference between a movie being just thrown together and one that the creator took his/her time with.
Humor. Humor is an excellent part of a movie but when its poured on i personally dont care for it. best example of something comparable would be Lethal Weapon 1 and 2.
In 1 the humor appeared spontaneous and balanced. In 2 ( due to 1's success i would assume) they went heavier on it. Now i still liked the movie, but that was a sore point.
The "Technologically Superior/Intellectually inferior" enemy. Ok, this is bad. It was bad even in the movie where sheridan destroyed the black star. OK, even though it was already done in a way by sheridan, and even though all throught history (although apparently only with humans) trick bombs are used in crunch time, they still fell for it. Its not standard procedure for the bad guys to scan the lifepod or debris fields? Only humans do this stuff? oh wait, they did scan it the SECOND time but becuase it was in the same line as the ship they couldnt tell where the signal was comming from. oh, and apparently their scanners arent technologically advanced enough to detect the explosive grenades that were on board the life pod.
oh well, enough is enough. I have a lot more to say about this movie but i dont think there is a need. after typing this and thinking about it more i am going to redo my earlier classification of this movie however.
If you are looking for an action based movie with good FX then i would score it as good.
If you are looking for B5 version 2 or are not interested in pure "fluff" then i would score it as terrible.
Again, this is only my opinion of this movie but if the series were to come out i would try it out for a couple like i did with Excalibur before i made my final judgement. Excalibur was a complete waste of my viewing time. i hope that B5LR will not be.
Be gentle with the spelling mistakes and other errors. although a fan of B5 i dont spend much time thinking about it except when its on.
