The Age of Commercialism

An Exercise In Nonsense

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The Lost Tales could never have really lived up to fan expectation. Two major actors have since passed on and no network or studio would be intelligent enough to fund such a scifi fan favorite.Understandably, the effects and budget were minimal. However, the writing was also minimalist. Not a good thing. It felt as if the whole idea could have been better produced, directed and written by the fans. It's a shame that JMS and company couldn't have showcased their obvious talent better.I was a huge fan of B5 and now am NOT of Lost Tales. There was just so much that could have been done better. I can't recommend this one to any fan of the franchise.

Babylon 5 got a brand new face and ships textures look pretty smooth - this is the good part. The bad part is the script, especially the pathetic way they try to connect religion, or their idea of religion, with space and science fiction. People do not mistake space to heaven. Faith is more than angels and heavens imagery brought to life by medieval priests with no education. I'm very disappointed by Straczynski McDonald image of religion and logical errors. No man is capable to interfere with God work and so the man will do the right/good thing without hesitation. As an atheist the same man will still do the right/good thing because he is a social and compassionate 'animal', capable to reason on his own, especially a man who saw, like another review mention here, Vorlons and Shadows. Plus telepaths, I may ad. The second part is slightly better, yet still religious somehow in his bones. Techomages are not omnipotent ad the way they run in the TV show, scared by Shadows invasion, tell something about their limitations. How one mage can predict the future 30 years before it happens ? Simulation software ? And how the Centauri acquired all that over the edge technology to destroy Earth ? Many unanswered question exchanged for some 'moral dilemmas' that sound old.

Both of, what someone else called these two interesting B5 based quips "Radio Plays" - Are actually much more than "Religious Mumbo-Jumbo" or Galen playing his regular ridiculous techno-games.Both of the "Radio Plays" deal with choices. The first choice has Alan Scarfe (One of my favourite character actors) playing a Catholic Priest who wonders what his place in the universe is. The discussions of this chapter are Theologically, and scientifically, sound: And I heard more than one "Tiplerism" in the discussion (refer to the works of Frank Tipler).As such, I highly enjoyed the solution Lockley comes up with, even though she is getting on there in years like Bruce Boxleitner- It had the very interesting value of being carefully thought out, theologically AND scientifically. Anyone thinking "What was JMS thinking about when he wrote this" forgets that the entire B-5 Series is Lord of the Rings in space, and Lord of the Rings is at it's core a reflection of the religious beliefs of JRR Tolkien.But JMS makes valid statements about what Faith Is in this little episode, and I appreciated that.On the other hand, Boxleitner's dilemma, was almost too easy to guess the solution (I had guessed it about 3/4 of the way through it).I really liked the quaintness of these two "Lost Tales" - Another Tolkeinism.So now, we have, The Fellowship of Babylon 5, The Two Towers of Babylon 5, Return of the Boxleitner of Babylon 5... And now, these two quaint tales which could be "On Fairie Stories" (An essay by Tolkien regarding the place of Fairy tales versus Faith) and your regular Bilbo mentoring Frodo story (ie, Boxleitner taking the Centauri Prince under his "Star Fury") Even with the stripped Sets and Cast, it is still B-5, and the visuals from Optic Nerve... Well I had forgotten how good they were, and are.

It was nice too nice to see B5 again. I was expecting more aliens, and spaceships. More of the old B5 seasons. Maybe a bit more action, but the story was good anyway.No new spaceships but, the new effects are really great! And that I was really expecting. But I have to be honest that I wasn't expecting them to be so good. Really impressive work.Hope to see it on Portuguese TV anytime soon. Usually watching it on cable without subs makes me lose some parts of the story;)I really hope to see more shorts movies or who knows a new season. Congrats to all B5 crew!