JMS and fans' reactions to AICN B5LR review

[hypatia]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

Am I the ONLY person in this world who respects the concept of signing a contract and sticking to the conditions therein? Reading so many people posting in this thread and others that everyone has a right to an opinion is just off topic, IMO.

The guy ADMITTED he was violating the terms of his employment to publish his review.

Am I the only person in this day and age who respects her contract? There are times it hurts to have to do so. But this review was hardly an ethical dilemma. He wasn’t breaking his contract to save lives or help the poor. He published what he did out of vanity, pure vanity.

It’s a sad day when people don’t care what they are signing to get a paycheck.


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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

 

[hypatia]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Capt. Neville:
No, Hypatia, you're not. In fact, that was the point I was trying to make originally in arguing with him--something that he missed, either by accident or deliberately. As far as I was concerned, whatever his review said, however it was written, it was completely invalidated by him breaking his contract to write and publish it. IMHO, if he couldn't be trusted to honor his contract with his employers over a small review of a TV movie, how could he be trusted with the contents of the review at all?

Good to see that I wasn't the only one bothered by it, though

Cheers,
-mcn<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, I think I'll just try to avoid reading the reviews on that website from now on. The first reviewer could not spell or write a complete sentence, and the second one seems of a very shady nature.

I usually hate reviews anyway, and stopped reading them long ago. As AntonyF and others have said, we'll all watch LOTR when it comes out, we can decide for ourselves what we think of it. It's not like we'll have to pay $7.50 a ticket to see it!

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' - Zero Mostel, The Producers

 

[arkiver]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

The 2nd response, the one from the reviewer (not JMS) caught my attention. I have to take issue with the notion that journalists conform to a higher standard than some joe fanboy in his basement. Journalists also go on press junkets. Journalists rarely ever say a truly negative word about anything, even when it's obvious to any layman that something deserves to be criticized, even flamed, for being truly awful. Perhaps fanboys' grammer and spelling isn't always up to journalistic standards, but journalists have editors to doublecheck their stuff (not true for fanboys, although you'd think they'd know how to use their spell checkers at least, so they'd come off as reasonably intelligent).



I think the only thing to do is look at those kinds of reviews, think about them, but then decide for yourself. There are some things about the new B5 movie that make me nervous, even as an incredible fan of B5 (I've even hooked my fiance who is about as far from a sci-fi fan as you can get). The "new" method of controlling the ship's weapons looks especially bad to me. It reminds me too much of this lame version of Street Fighter or Mortal Combat I played at a Sony Gameworks, where you actually punch and kick to control the characters. That kind of interface is a lousy way to control a starship's weapons and that has left a slightly bad taste in my mouth about JMS' ability to manage all the various projects he's got going. Will B5:LOTR measure up? I hope it does, but like anything else it's going to have to stand on its own rather than ride on the original series. I thought Crusade showed that JMS can do this, but still I was hoping they'd pick up Crusade rather than doing something new.


Too often when a studio or company decides to "do something new" they end up ruining what went before. I have high hopes however for this new B5, I think it's certainly got a better change than anything in the Trek universe (although I'm favorably impressed so far with Enterprise, they've actually pulled off a convincing prequel, which even George Lucas failed to do).
Thanks for listening, comments welcome... 1st time poster here....

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--arkiver

 

[hypatia]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

Welcome, Archiver. And well put.

By the way, I missed last week's episode of "Enterprise" but have it on tape. I caught the other episodes, though. It does look like it has promise, it has interesting characters.


I'm afraid if JMS is having this much of a wait to see if LOTR turns into the pilot for a series, Crusade's chances do seem slim. I hope otherwise, but I'll be happy to see another JMS project on a station I can get. Well, I could get Showtime, but why pay for a premium channel if you hardly ever use it?


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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' - Zero Mostel, The Producers

 

[hypatia]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by haze:
It's situations like this where I go over to jmsnews.com, look at the archive count of messages, and think about how forthright JMS has been over the years about all of his work in television and media. He's typically the first to criticize his own work, and the first to tell you when something is really going to knock your socks off. Compare 16352 messages from JMS since 1991 to this one review by someone virtually unknown to us and it's an open and shut case on who's word I am going to trust.

I think if Pike had wanted to be taken more seriously, he at the very least would not have compromised his style, but much like he has stated his opinion, I'm stating mine.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very good points, haze. (BTW, your posts seem quite clear for someone named "haze"! He he he.)

Has anyone here ever seen one of the original reviews for the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart?

That'll put all of this in perspective!

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

"I think I speak for Mr. Bloom and myself when I say: you are the only director in the World who can do justice to 'Springtime For Hitler' - Zero Mostel, The Producers

 

[bakana]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> where you actually punch and kick to control the characters. That kind of interface is a lousy way to control a starship's weapons <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll reserve judgement on that until I see how well they manage the effect.

In a Gravity field, you are correct. It would be too exhausting. A long battle would exhaust the person trying to do it.

In a no Free Fall (no gravity) situation it would be more like a Dance. Given the Holographic battle display we've previously seen on Minbari ships (and the White Stars), it could be Very Effective.

I agree that, if they do it as "punching and kicking" it'll just look silly.

If they manage to make it look more like a "Ballet" or "Tai Chi" type exercise in free fall, I think it could work nicely.

I had a friend/roommate a few years ago who was very into Tai Chi. She could do a one hour routine without breaking a sweat. And look totally graceful the whole time.


BTW, I hope our Weapons Officer is taking notes here. <G>

Go for Graceful, not "Kick & Punch".
I think it'll play better.
Just reach out and touch the image of the enemy ship and the guns blow the thing into scrap metal.

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The 3 most common elements in the Universe:
Hydrogen, Greed, Stupidity!

 

[haze]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

I think hypatia hit it right on the head. I begin to question the integrity of a writer who violates the terms of his employment just to post a review. Additionally, he stated that it had to be, and this is not a direct quote, "simple and quick" so it was not his usual or professional writing style.

While I'm excited about the new movie, I certainly don't consider it to be of such monumental importance that I would jeopardize my position at work just to make sure a review gets out there. I can't expect to hold this person to the same ethical standard, but I find it hard to take his opinion seriously when his actions are so questionable.

It's situations like this where I go over to jmsnews.com, look at the archive count of messages, and think about how forthright JMS has been over the years about all of his work in television and media. He's typically the first to criticize his own work, and the first to tell you when something is really going to knock your socks off. Compare 16352 messages from JMS since 1991 to this one review by someone virtually unknown to us and it's an open and shut case on who's word I am going to trust.

I think if Pike had wanted to be taken more seriously, he at the very least would not have compromised his style, but much like he has stated his opinion, I'm stating mine.

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[Capt. Neville]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
Am I the ONLY person in this world who respects the concept of signing a contract and sticking to the conditions therein? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, Hypatia, you're not. In fact, that was the point I was trying to make originally in arguing with him--something that he missed, either by accident or deliberately. As far as I was concerned, whatever his review said, however it was written, it was completely invalidated by him breaking his contract to write and publish it. IMHO, if he couldn't be trusted to honor his contract with his employers over a small review of a TV movie, how could he be trusted with the contents of the review at all?

Good to see that I wasn't the only one bothered by it, though

Cheers,
-mcn

 

[Deviot]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

Hello.

Just popping into this thread to welcome arkiver

I hope you enjoy your stay ..well I am sure you will

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Deviot
Lincbot@yahoo.com.au

 

[En'til'zha]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

Personally I'm going to do the only sensible thing that anyone can do, watch the film when it comes out and make up my own mind. As for the AICN reviews, everyone's entitled to their own opinions. Just because 'Captain Pike' doesn't like it it doesn't mean he's an 'anti-B5 plant' as has been suggested.

Legend of the Rangers may be terrible, it may be great, I can't comment until I've seen it for myself.

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"Watch the Shadows, they move when you're not looking..."

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Re: JMS and fans\' reactions to AICN B5LR review

You know I read these reveiws, good and bad and have posted both these AICN Reveiws on the B5 Area of my site. But I never actually believe anything I read off of these reveiwers. I mean am not the greatest fan of AICN but that has never stopped me from using their site as a news source. However I have sent this site legitimate news in the past and more often than not it has been ignored.

I have noticed since I started surfing into their site that more often than not their slateing a TV show or a movie, and I rarely see any positive news posted there of late.

But to me a reveiw is just posted to give you a flavour of what a show is going to be like. And JMS Need not worry about me being put off by this one bad reveiw because I will be whaching Rangers if it is shown on the UK's Sci Fi channel. Another thing I have noticed, is more often than not when a movie gets a bad reveiw I wind up actually likeing the movie or the TV Show.

There has been alot of Unfair treatment of B5 and alot of people seem to be of the impression that it is a Star Trek Clone which is really out of Order. Hell am one of the biggest trek fans you guys are ever likely to meet, but I loved B5 because when Voyager was on which I whached in the hopes that it would improved, I whached the re runs of both B5 and DS9 instead because they both gave me something that Voyager could not, a damn good drama. When B5 started and we all had Commander Sinclare, I was not overought with it, but when they instroduced sheriden I was glued from then on in and even whached the show in its re runs to see the whole story ark through. Yes yes you guessed it my favorate character in the show was the british guy marcus don't know why may have something to do with the all black costume lol.

Anyway as my message to JMS on this board, if indeed JMS reads these boards, just want to say I hope B5lr gets picked up and made into a series. I like alot was dissapointed when TNT got cold feet on crusdade because I was really beginning to enjoy it, I love woodward as the techno mage that was great casting. And what was the name of that woman who was the thief damn she was hot.

Anyhow I look forward to b5lr as both a fan of sci fi and a sci fi news site webmaster.

Thanks JMS for all the great shows and you know something thanks to the webmaster for a great site and bbs and I think that all you B5 fans should pat yourselves on the back for sticking to your guns. As a trek fan and an all round sci fi fan I know what it is like when someone slates you show and I know that your gut reaction is to knock the reveiwer on his proverbial back side and serve him or her their speen and thats just for starters.

Anyway I hope B5LR is a resounding success, I mean B5 the original show certainly helped DS9 along, and I feel that there is room for many more quality sci fi shows out there, something that is sadly lacking right now.

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Ian M Cullen