I think Babylon 5: River of Souls is probably the weakest of the Babylon 5 spin offs. The idea behind River of Souls is good, but that movie feels unpolished and just not as well put together as all of the others. And yet it is The Legend of the Rangers that has the lowest score on IMDb.I think perhaps people don't like this one because it doesn't do very much. It's really just a film about "events behind the scenes". It is about what happens to one group of Rangers on a mission to escort some diplomats. It doesn't deal with the bigger picture at all really. I think this is just fine though, and although it doesn't deal with the bigger picture it does deal with some of the fundamental philosophical ideas and goals of the Alliance. That is what G'Kar's role is all about here, and as always Andreas Katsulas plays G'Kar brilliantly.In some ways The Legend of the Rangers feels a bit like an episode of Star Trek. It's simply the crew of a ship facing a situation that has developed. They then have to use their combined talents to figure out how to deal with it as best they can. Once again this is not a bad thing.One other aspect I like is the way combat is dealt with. In almost all the space battles I've watched there is usually some shooting and then a pause while the commanders decide what to do next. Then there is some more shooting, often followed by another pause (usually when the shields are down to almost nothing). This is of course completely unrealistic. It's one of the reasons why I think the Borg would have wiped out the federation. You never see the Borg having a conversation about what to do next! In Legend of the Rangers the weapons officer is given complete control of the weapons and she doesn't press buttons or wait for commands from the Captain to fire. Instead she enters a form of virtual reality where she becomes one with the ship. This allows her to use the weapons to attack and defend just as you would use your arms and legs if you were physically fighting someone. It is completely realistic and convincing.Overall The Legend of the Rangers is a really good addition to the Babylon 5 universe and I would encourage the doubters to re-visit it. You just have to approach it with different expectations.

I do like Babylon 5, and was anticipating yet also was dubious of The Legend of the Rangers. Seeing it for myself, it was left wanting and had a lot of problems for me. However, it was not as bad as I'd heard and feared. Technically it was not bad at all, in fact quite good. The scenery is lit well and are intriguing, the special effects are decent(if not really great) and the photography is not too haphazard. The music is beautiful as well, while the character of G'Kar was fun in a hammy sort of way even if his main role in the movie was to tie the movie with the series. On the other hand, the script is of really banal quality and feels very hackneyed. The story has some great ideas, but never develops them all that well, and a vast majority of the storytelling felt thin and uneven in pace. The characters are not compelling in personality and felt cardboard in how they were written. The Hand especially were not handled very well at all. The acting felt bland, with the exception of that of G'Kar. On the whole, not terrible but it could have been much better. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Star Trek, B5 was not, nor was it supposed to be. Star Trek tended to have spaceships full of spit and polish, except for DS9, and crews that were fully dedicated to duty. B5, for the most part also had an Earth Alliance crew that knew it's duty, but as we all know Earthers are very slack in strict military bearing. This is one of the charms of the B5 Universe. It wasn't so different in TLotR since it profiled a somewhat undisciplined crew in a force of highly disciplined troops. This shows a new light to the Rangers that would have been interesting to see as the series unfolded. It's really a shame that it was not to be.The basic story was somewhat lackluster, but in the long run would have held promise just like the original Babylon 5 movie did. As B5 worked out the character development and story arch, it became an extremely good show, but it did take time. I think as this show continued with new episodes, it may have been as good a show as B5 was. As the saying goes, you can't judge a book by it's cover, and that was basically what this movie was, a cover and a first chapter that was to introduce a new look at the B5 universe. I really would have liked to see what that planet that was being investigated held secret, other than what G'Kar mentioned. It's just too bad that the book itself will never be completed. I applaud JMS for his attempt to open up this part of the Universe.

I have noticed some criticisms of this film which I don't agree with like...The Hand' don't come off at all either. We are told they are billions of years old, and only their servants show themselves in this movie. Despite their superiority though, their technologically superior ships (which tear the Valen to pieces in seconds) have a really hard time taking out a damaged patrol vessel and its escape pod slinging captain. Their leader, glimpsed in transmissions is hardly menacing: he simply wears a horned hood and speaks in a vaguely legalistic sense. The Hand are a carrot dangled before us we should want to watch the rest of the series to see them. The Minions of the hand are not supposed to be menacing they are races of aliens who are far more primitive than humans yet have been given 'Toys' by the hand to do their bidding, as explained in the film.I believe the idea was to make the minions appear to be defeatable and believe that there was some hope until we saw their masters. If so it would have been more relevant to what we saw here. Sometimes the bigger picture reveals the hidden brilliance.