OK, here is my review of Rangers.
CHARACTERS
David Martel (Martell?) is wonderfully acted and believable. I liked him almost instantly, and really look forward to getting to know him in the series (being positive)
Dulann was played brilliantly by Alex Zahara, and is instantly likable as well. I am sorry, but I see no resemblence to Lennier/Spock or anyone else that some reviewers came up with. I am wondering if they saw the same movie (see below).
Sarah Cantrell was good, but at times had either horrible lines (the Yogi Bera quote) or was a little over the top (mainly the scream in the battle, and then the "it's not fair" was just slightly so).
Kitaro Sasaki was only there for awhile, but his reactions to what happened around him were great, and I look forward to getting to know him.
Na'Feel was hilarious, and yet showed potential.
Tirk is the same.
Malcolm was interesting, and I think he has tremendous potential to be an interesting character (obviously by his line about what Kafta was guilty of at the end he is ruthless).
Tafeek had maybe two lines. We will see in time.
I feel much the same about Firell, but what I saw I liked. I find myself wishing Malcolm would not have interrupted her when she was talking to the captain.
I understand that you cannot get into all of the characters in a 2 hour movie and under those circumstances I think it went fine.
ACTING
For the most part good. G'Kar, as always, was great. Some of the guest actors were bad (Capt. Gregg), and Miriam (no offense) had a few spots where it came off flat, but I think that is more to do with the lines than her acting talent.
STORY
I liked it. It was not perfect, but it held my interest and gave us another view of the Babylon 5 universe. I think the "we live for the one, we die for the one" got REALLY old, but that is a simple enough thing to improve during the series.
SPECIFIC ELEMENTS
The Hand
Lets face it, critics do not actually watch what they review it seems. I bring this up here because this is one example. First, they said David and Dulann were like Kirk and Spock, bull. They were friends (like Kirk and Spock), but that is where the similarity ends. Another annoyance was the old "why were the hand so easily defeated?" crap. That would be because our heroes never faced the hand! They faced their flunkies. The cloaked figure that many are referring to the hand was not only in an inferior ship, but we have no evidence besides Davids assumption, that this was a member of said race. All of the B5 fans know that "nothing is as it appears" in Babylon 5. If they don't they did not watch B5 from the beginning, or did not pay attention, or did not read the unproduced scripts from Crusade. Why would Rangers be different?
Rant mode off.
FX
Okay, first let me say that I think GVFX did an incredible job with what they had to work with (since none of the old Netter Digital stuff was available thanks to WB). The Liandra looks good, the Valen looked as ugly as it was supposed to, and the "piss ant" hand flunky ships were VERY interesting to look at (especially how they seemed to undulate like water, and how the limbs moves constantly). Babylon 5 looked great (with the small acception of the spin speed), and Minbar was spectacular (who says we are looking at the exact same building as the "stock shot" from B5?)
I will agree that the Hyperspace is different (in some ways better, more 3D), jump points are different (except for the missing color I like them better), and the space around B5 was somehow different (since the planet could just as easily been off camera the only real legit complaint would be the nebula, but that is so nitpicky it is stupid to even consider.
SETS
Great work. The Liandra was perfect, I mean perfect. I loved it, especially the bridge. The "round table" set up is great, and gives the feel I think JMS was looking for.
GUNNERY POD
My only true problem. I think the "Seat" idea would have been MUCH better, or even having Sarah fire by just making hand gestures at targets, but I give JMS kudo's for having the massive balls required to put that on TV, and hear all of the people complain about it. I think the system needs ALOT of tweaking, and if it gets better, or if it is gone when the series comes, I will be just as happy.
CONCLUSION
I am comparing this to other Pilots (because to do anything else would be unfair). It beats the snot out of Encounter ar Farpoint. The Gathering is left in the dust. Emmisary is not as good (although still a good pilot). Caretaker is not as good (although good {the only thing Voyager that was in my opinion}). It was better than "Under the Night" (Andromeda) and in my opinion better than Decision (EFC). For the most part, I am having a very hard time finding a better pilot than this.
I frequent many BBoards, and I have to say this is by far the most negative about the movie (I guess we bitch cause we love). Over at Slipstreamweb, Trekweb and Andromedatv people are all pretty positive about it. If the sheer number of posts is any indication, I would imagine the ratings to be quite good. Which brings me to my final observation...
All that matters are the ratings. Period. Any problems we may have had can be fixed with a series (hell, I thought the Gathering and S1 B5 were horrible). We just have to wait and see, and give JMS a chance. He proved the naysayers wrong with Babylon 5, and would have with Crusade based on the unfinished scripts. What makes you think he can't do it again?
I think he can, and I will watch and see.
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CHARACTERS
David Martel (Martell?) is wonderfully acted and believable. I liked him almost instantly, and really look forward to getting to know him in the series (being positive)
Dulann was played brilliantly by Alex Zahara, and is instantly likable as well. I am sorry, but I see no resemblence to Lennier/Spock or anyone else that some reviewers came up with. I am wondering if they saw the same movie (see below).
Sarah Cantrell was good, but at times had either horrible lines (the Yogi Bera quote) or was a little over the top (mainly the scream in the battle, and then the "it's not fair" was just slightly so).
Kitaro Sasaki was only there for awhile, but his reactions to what happened around him were great, and I look forward to getting to know him.
Na'Feel was hilarious, and yet showed potential.
Tirk is the same.
Malcolm was interesting, and I think he has tremendous potential to be an interesting character (obviously by his line about what Kafta was guilty of at the end he is ruthless).
Tafeek had maybe two lines. We will see in time.
I feel much the same about Firell, but what I saw I liked. I find myself wishing Malcolm would not have interrupted her when she was talking to the captain.
I understand that you cannot get into all of the characters in a 2 hour movie and under those circumstances I think it went fine.
ACTING
For the most part good. G'Kar, as always, was great. Some of the guest actors were bad (Capt. Gregg), and Miriam (no offense) had a few spots where it came off flat, but I think that is more to do with the lines than her acting talent.
STORY
I liked it. It was not perfect, but it held my interest and gave us another view of the Babylon 5 universe. I think the "we live for the one, we die for the one" got REALLY old, but that is a simple enough thing to improve during the series.
SPECIFIC ELEMENTS
The Hand
Lets face it, critics do not actually watch what they review it seems. I bring this up here because this is one example. First, they said David and Dulann were like Kirk and Spock, bull. They were friends (like Kirk and Spock), but that is where the similarity ends. Another annoyance was the old "why were the hand so easily defeated?" crap. That would be because our heroes never faced the hand! They faced their flunkies. The cloaked figure that many are referring to the hand was not only in an inferior ship, but we have no evidence besides Davids assumption, that this was a member of said race. All of the B5 fans know that "nothing is as it appears" in Babylon 5. If they don't they did not watch B5 from the beginning, or did not pay attention, or did not read the unproduced scripts from Crusade. Why would Rangers be different?
Rant mode off.
FX
Okay, first let me say that I think GVFX did an incredible job with what they had to work with (since none of the old Netter Digital stuff was available thanks to WB). The Liandra looks good, the Valen looked as ugly as it was supposed to, and the "piss ant" hand flunky ships were VERY interesting to look at (especially how they seemed to undulate like water, and how the limbs moves constantly). Babylon 5 looked great (with the small acception of the spin speed), and Minbar was spectacular (who says we are looking at the exact same building as the "stock shot" from B5?)
I will agree that the Hyperspace is different (in some ways better, more 3D), jump points are different (except for the missing color I like them better), and the space around B5 was somehow different (since the planet could just as easily been off camera the only real legit complaint would be the nebula, but that is so nitpicky it is stupid to even consider.
SETS
Great work. The Liandra was perfect, I mean perfect. I loved it, especially the bridge. The "round table" set up is great, and gives the feel I think JMS was looking for.
GUNNERY POD
My only true problem. I think the "Seat" idea would have been MUCH better, or even having Sarah fire by just making hand gestures at targets, but I give JMS kudo's for having the massive balls required to put that on TV, and hear all of the people complain about it. I think the system needs ALOT of tweaking, and if it gets better, or if it is gone when the series comes, I will be just as happy.
CONCLUSION
I am comparing this to other Pilots (because to do anything else would be unfair). It beats the snot out of Encounter ar Farpoint. The Gathering is left in the dust. Emmisary is not as good (although still a good pilot). Caretaker is not as good (although good {the only thing Voyager that was in my opinion}). It was better than "Under the Night" (Andromeda) and in my opinion better than Decision (EFC). For the most part, I am having a very hard time finding a better pilot than this.
I frequent many BBoards, and I have to say this is by far the most negative about the movie (I guess we bitch cause we love). Over at Slipstreamweb, Trekweb and Andromedatv people are all pretty positive about it. If the sheer number of posts is any indication, I would imagine the ratings to be quite good. Which brings me to my final observation...
All that matters are the ratings. Period. Any problems we may have had can be fixed with a series (hell, I thought the Gathering and S1 B5 were horrible). We just have to wait and see, and give JMS a chance. He proved the naysayers wrong with Babylon 5, and would have with Crusade based on the unfinished scripts. What makes you think he can't do it again?
I think he can, and I will watch and see.
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