Watch Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight For Free

Perfect cast and a good story

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

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

I can't understand why so many negative reviews appeared here. The only problem I had was the "even worse than the shadows" bad guys. However, the interactions between the crew, especially between David and his first officer were nothing short of perfect. I immediately started to care about these people, and could see each of them developing into truly fascinating characters. As to the VR weapons targeting system only one thought occurred to me; TOO FREAKIN COOL! Being able to fight as if you were the ship itself. Woof! It truly stinks that network morons, correction, idiots killed this show and Crusade. Both were gems, as was Firefly. Why do networks seem to do everything they can to cancel shows with depth and imagination? Star Trek, Crusade, Legend of the Rangers, Firefly, Brimstone, & American Gothic. It's as if depth of characterization is anathema to them. All I can think is that it requires them to think and that is something they refuse to do, or believe we want to do.

I have noticed some criticisms of this film which I don't agree with like...The Hand' don't come off at all either. We are told they are billions of years old, and only their servants show themselves in this movie. Despite their superiority though, their technologically superior ships (which tear the Valen to pieces in seconds) have a really hard time taking out a damaged patrol vessel and its escape pod slinging captain. Their leader, glimpsed in transmissions is hardly menacing: he simply wears a horned hood and speaks in a vaguely legalistic sense. The Hand are a carrot dangled before us we should want to watch the rest of the series to see them. The Minions of the hand are not supposed to be menacing they are races of aliens who are far more primitive than humans yet have been given 'Toys' by the hand to do their bidding, as explained in the film.I believe the idea was to make the minions appear to be defeatable and believe that there was some hope until we saw their masters. If so it would have been more relevant to what we saw here. Sometimes the bigger picture reveals the hidden brilliance.

I have seen B5 and enjoyed it immensely, this movie has almost no connection to it. It is set in the same universe, but the only recognizable link is G'Kar, played well, as usual, by Andreas Katsulas.The plot looks a lot like the premiere of a spin-off. You have the charismatic captain, the loyal specialized crew, the promise of a dark enemy, all the ingredients that start a sci-fi series. The movie is not bad, but it is certainly not exceptional. I have read a review here that compared this to the original Babylon 5 series which was so much better, brilliant and all that. Come on! Babylon 5 was a good idea, but the lack of funds and experience did provide, along with good scripts and depth in characters, really stupid scenes and dumb fill-the-season episodes. So in comparison, the "Legend of the Rangers", is not so different. Same low budget effects, same geeky humanoid aliens and the stark contrast between "dark" and "light" that annoyed me in Babylon 5 (after such a gray beginning).In conclusion, it is worth a watch for any sci-fi fan, even a Babylon 5 zealot. Oh, I almost forgot: casting the sidekick of Chuck Norris in a movie about rangers? Puh-lease! Some casting people should be shot.

What I can say starts like this, all those taking cheap shots at JMS should back off slightly. B5 was pre-planned, all 5 seasons, as, I believe, was Crusade (although the triple-damned networks forced it to be cut short) whereas this is just a pilot. OK, so it isn't great, but it's not totally crap either, just slightly. I have read comments from people about how the "ancient, all-powerful race" thing has been done before and citing the Shadows and the aliens from Thirdspace as examples, and they are generally correct (although I would ask those people to remember that the whole Thirdspace "gate" problem was the fault of the Vorlons, and did Lyta not say that it was one of many mistakes they had made.. and those aliens were never actually identified so it is not too much of a jump to consider that they and The Hand may be one and the same).Anyway I digress, here it is from my perspective. The acting was generally dire with the noteable exception of Andreas Katsulas camping it up somewhat as G'Kar. The characters were really quite weak, a few humans (a couple of them born on the outer colonies), a Narn, a Drazi and a nice compliment of Minbari, but the bad guy was obvious right from his first scene as he was the only alien (with a speaking role, at least) who I did not recognise (apparently his world had recently joined the Alliance?? Mmm), and where did he get that hair-do??The storyline did leave a lot to be desired but then so did the storyline of The Gathering (the B5 pilot, for those who don't know) and look what came out of that. The visual effects were outstanding as always although why was Minbar always in darkness and where were the White Star ships, and that weapons thing, great use of wire work similar to that used in movies such as The Matrix and Crouching Tiger (at least I think that's how it was done) but it was a bit of a daft concept and if that is how the Minbari were doing it 20 years previously, why was it not incorporated into the design of the White Star instead of the standard button on the control panel.But ok, as an ardent B5 fan, I had to watch it and I think anything that takes away the tv sci-fi monopoly of Start Trek is still a good thing.It is not fair to completely pan this just on the strength of the pilot, if a series does ever evolve out of this then perhaps there will be the prospect of some good stories (and maybe a better cast, or acting lessons for the cast they have).In closing, I would just like to echo most of the characters in this (at every opportunity they get) and say "We live for the One, We die for the One".