![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Babylon 5: The Road Home
Aug. 17th, 2023 10:56 amAka the animated movie which has now been released and is available in my part of the world via (paid for) streaming, for example on Amazon Prime. My unspoilery above cut verdict is that it's clearly a labour of love and a nice return to the B5 verse, but also due to its Sheridan-centric nature (which I knew from the trailer it would have) not something i'll be passionate about the way I am about episodes of the show focused on characters nearer to my heart. As to the other thing evident from the trailer, the fact this is a timetravel/multiverse type of story, this makes for some poignant scenes and two alt!verses which could be good set ups for fanfiction (one of them, I suspect, might also be the B5 remix JMS originally intended to do for the CW).
Other non-spoilery thoughts about the film:
Voice acting: since so many of our crew are no longer with us, I absolutely understand and support JMS using the characters with other actors voicing them when the alternative would have been to lose the characters as well. IMO, the most successful voice acting is by the actor speaking G'Kar. The actress for Delenn tries (Mira Furlan's accent included) but doesn't really do it for me. Garibaldi's voice actor is okay, Sinclair's and Stephen Franklin's are good. No Vir in the story, alas. No Zack (with lines, we do see him in ensemble scenes), either.
Animation style: takes some getting used to but evoked some nostalgic fuzziness in me by reminding me of the late 80s and 90s animation, which I suspect was probably intentional. The biggest benefit is of course that you can show the characters at different points in their lives without the inevitable drawback of rl human aging.
Music: Here's it's a thumbs down for me because the three composers while doing a passable job just didn't manage an equivalent to Christopher Franke's epic scores, and not having those (aside from a few quick musical allusions to the B5 theme(s) made me aware of how much the music contributed to the "feel" of B5.
Script: It's pure JMS, meaning there are touching and poignant scenes that feel just right (see above) and those who (imo) overdo it, corny jokes, actually witty lines, philosophical thoughts that land and those which don't, but never, ever, the sense of this being anything but something the writer is deeply passionate about and put his all into. I'd rather have an imperfect passion project than something that feels like an AI wrote it to continue a cash machine (looking at you, Secret Invasion).
( Now, onto spoilers! )
Other non-spoilery thoughts about the film:
Voice acting: since so many of our crew are no longer with us, I absolutely understand and support JMS using the characters with other actors voicing them when the alternative would have been to lose the characters as well. IMO, the most successful voice acting is by the actor speaking G'Kar. The actress for Delenn tries (Mira Furlan's accent included) but doesn't really do it for me. Garibaldi's voice actor is okay, Sinclair's and Stephen Franklin's are good. No Vir in the story, alas. No Zack (with lines, we do see him in ensemble scenes), either.
Animation style: takes some getting used to but evoked some nostalgic fuzziness in me by reminding me of the late 80s and 90s animation, which I suspect was probably intentional. The biggest benefit is of course that you can show the characters at different points in their lives without the inevitable drawback of rl human aging.
Music: Here's it's a thumbs down for me because the three composers while doing a passable job just didn't manage an equivalent to Christopher Franke's epic scores, and not having those (aside from a few quick musical allusions to the B5 theme(s) made me aware of how much the music contributed to the "feel" of B5.
Script: It's pure JMS, meaning there are touching and poignant scenes that feel just right (see above) and those who (imo) overdo it, corny jokes, actually witty lines, philosophical thoughts that land and those which don't, but never, ever, the sense of this being anything but something the writer is deeply passionate about and put his all into. I'd rather have an imperfect passion project than something that feels like an AI wrote it to continue a cash machine (looking at you, Secret Invasion).
( Now, onto spoilers! )
