I am very grateful that this was made, especially considering it's been so long since we've had anything from the Babylon 5 universe. I am a big fan of the show, and I've seen every episode, movie, and spin-off. This had a little fan service in it, which I don't think it's a terrible thing at all, considering there's a chance it could be the last time we ever get anything from this universe, but there are a few things I'd change. Overall, I'm really glad we got this.
With some changes to the plight, this could've easily been a good two-parter from the original series, a season cliffhanger, or easily one of the Syfy channel movies that were made after the show ended. Without getting into story specifics, in its current form, this seemed to be a "let's give it one last hurrah, just in case they never let us do this again", but also a way to test the waters to see if B5 is still a viable franchise.
I'd love to see WB do a whole series of animated Babylon 5 stories, there is so much left to tell with the fallout of the Shadow War, and the minions the Shadows left behind, and the early days of the Interstellar Alliance. A lot of things were hinted at in the finale of season 4 (when they thought they weren't going to get picked up for season 5), and I'm sure there's a lot of material that Straczynski has left to give us.
My only real criticism is that the humor was very juvenile--I guess you could say--and not as witty as the original show's was (no, there were a few that landed pretty well). I'm not sure if I necessarily blame Straczynski for that, I see it as a very bad trend in animation, in general. The original series always had great jokes at just the right time, whereas the dialogue and humor this movie were more akin to shows like Avatar and the Dragon Prince, where it feels forced, and hits at all the wrong times. I know it's animation, but I don't really think there's a sizable audience under 35 that's watching this movie. I'd say the humor was geared towards preteens, where is most of the audience for this are probably 40+. The physics were off as well, but I have to go back and watch the originals show, as my current understanding of quantum physics is substantially better than when that show aired lol. All sci-fi makes up and/or exaggerates science, and that's perfectly fine, it's just some of their foreshadowing and emphasis on quantum physics and causality was cringe worthy to me, when you consider advance alien species and future humans are explaining them to you. Maybe if they did a series, they could hire a science consultant.
So, if you even like the original show, I think you'll enjoy this. If you LOVED the original show, I think you should go buy this movie right now. I jumped on it as soon as I found out this was happening. The extras are really good, about 17 minutes of talking about her behind the scenes process, and started out by mentioning all the actors who are no longer here to reprise their roles. I watched it immediately after the movie.
I'm very grateful to WB for producing this, Straczynski for still giving us B5, the actors that came back (and brought their love of the characters with them), and everyone who is involved in making this. I would absolutely be in for a series and/or more movies.
Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go back and watch some of my favorite episodes,
