Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So what are you watching tonight?

That's on the movie box set?

AFAIK it’s part of the 5 movie box set. I ordered them individually from Netflix.

I started to watch "The Flash" series I rented from Netflix. Don't bother. It is extreemly boring and low budget. I could hardly get through the first episode.

Thanks for the feedback. I don’t recall ever seeing the series and it sound’s like I didn’t miss much.

I just finished watching the Babylon 5 movie “Third Space.” It’s basically a double length stand alone episode set between episode 406 “Into the Fire” and 414 “Moments of Transition,” more specifically probably near episode 409 “Atonement.” Don’t watch this movie if you haven’t seen at least up to episode 406 as it contains spoilers for what happens prior to that. But I do suggest watching it before moving past episode 409 as the series itself then becomes a spoiler of sorts for the movie.

Overall it’s a ok story but not going to win any awards. The best thing I can say about it is that it has the season 4 cast which I prefer to the season 5 cast I just finished watching.

Minority Report on Blu-ray. I had my friend and her family over, and it was a lot of fun. It was kind of funny because I'd had her over to watch the DVD of it a long time ago, when I only had a 32" Sony CRT and Polk bookshelf speakers in an apartment. With my new system and the new format, it was a lot more impressive. The sonic shotgun Anderton wields in the Lexus factory is always fun.

Just watched Babylon 5: River of Souls. Despite being set in season 5 I actually liked this one better than the “Third Space” movie I just watched. If you want to keep within the timeline then this should be watched just before the last episode of season 5 as it has spoilers for that season while last season 5 episode jumps ahead of this part of the timeline.

Both the overall sound quality and the picture quality of the live action scenes in this are a cut above the original series and preceding movies. The stock CGI shots of the station still suffer from the same transfer problems however, the new CGI work specific to this movie and the live action film both look like high definition quality. Also, the surround sound in this though somewhat sparse is noticeably better than anything prior.

Overall this is an excellent stand alone episode just double the normal episode length.

I'm probably one of the few sci-fi lovers that has never seen a single episode of Babylon 5.

Then you're probably more of a sci-fi "special friend" than a lover!

You really should watch it, although the effects are dated. Excellent storylines.

I seem to recall enjoying River of Souls a great deal more than Third Space. I should pick those up again. After I finish BSG and DS9, maybe...

I just got done watching the Babylon 5 movies: “In the Beginning,” “The Legend of the Rangers,” “A Call to Arms” and “The Lost Tales.”

First thing you notice is that none of these contain the entire cast or in some cases even most of it. All of these except perhaps “In the Beginning” are best viewed just before the last episode of season 5. “In the Beginning” can be viewed earlier but I forget at what point in the series it won’t have any more spoilers.

First watched was “In the Beginning.” Probably the best reviewed of the 5 movies and an interesting prequel to the series for some reason this movie just doesn’t flip my trigger. I think it’s mostly because I already know the outcome so while entertaining didn’t really offer anything that new. The video and audio are pretty much in line with the series.

Second watched was “The Legend of the Rangers.” Ok this one was very campy and although set in the B5 universe has only passing similarities to the series. It’s more like a version of Star Trek with a young crew. Clearly geared for a younger audience and as a series would likely have been lacking the intrigue of the B5 series. While it would have been interesting to see this as a series I doubt I could have held my interest. The video was on par with the series but the 2.0 audio track left me wanting the 5.1 of the series and other movies. While B5’s 5.1 was never stunning it was noticeable in it’s absence here.

Third was “A Call to Arms.” Probably the closest to feeling like a B5 episode. It works well as both a stand alone episode and a setup for the series “Crusade.” Both the video and audio are on par with the series.

Fourth was “The Lost Tales.” Although set with the B5 characters this is more of a cerebral exercise than the series. No action of any kind is present and most of both mini-episodes are mostly dialogue between two characters. Overall I found these interesting with a sort of “Twilight Zone” feel only with the B5 cast. Skip these if you are looking for excitement. Both the video and audio on these are outstanding. My understanding is they were shot in HD and it shows. Also the CGI is updated and with a couple exceptions looks fantastic, sort of like B5 re-mastered the way the original Star Trek was. Also this is the best sounding of all shows. Came up as DTS 5.1 and sounded like it.

One major thing about these movies is that they all fail to capture the “feel” of B5 in the sense that the series was a serial with overlapping story arcs leaving a sense of wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Unlike an episodic series like Star Trek, IMO B5 doesn’t lend itself to stand alone movies that well. If you are a B5 fan then these are worth watching if only to get a small fix. OTOH, if you haven’t gotten into the series then don’t even think of wasting your time with any of these movies as they fail to capture the magic of the character driven story arcs of the B5 series.

Now on to “Crusade.”