Babylon 5 - Chiamata alle armi

...within the "modern-day" B5 context (which excludes In the Beginning, a prequel of sorts). Call to Arms leads neatly into the coming Crusade series, we're introduced to some of the important characters of that series (particularly the enigmatic Galen), we meet at least one other character who is played up but ultimately martyred, and unlike its two predecessors, Call to Arms gives us a menace directly out of the B5 "mythos." Boxleitner and Doyle take center stage for the final time. The pieces are in place - now we can look forward to the series itself.

Good pilot movie for the following Crusade series but the script left bothersome questions that only heightened my resentment as a viewer against Sheridan's new Alliance which by all rights, Earth should have revolted against. Here, five years after the events of the Bab 5 series, Sheridan is still President as is the Russian lady of Earth. Are there no elections for these presidencies? Not only that, Sheridan is secretly building two massive warships based on Volrlon tech without permission from anyone. Where's the legislature? Is Sheridan an unelected dictator? It's questions like these that have always turned me against Sheriden in the end and forced me to side with Earth.

I'd like to see Straczynski remaster this one and have Christopher Frankie redo the music. The music now just seems bland and gives the movie a very dull atmosphere.

A Call to Arms is by far the best of the B5 movies. They had a great story, excellent effects and okay music. A Call to Arms acts like something as a send off to the old characters from B5. The movie also had a spine tingling ending that set the pace for Crusade, the B5 spin off TNT cancelled for no good reason. Thumbs way up on this one.

Of all the movies "A call to Arms" is my favourite, "In the beginning" makes a wonderful prequel but generally only the very big fans of the show will really appreciate all the parts of the film. "A call to Arms" manages not only to please big fans of the show by featuring a very big event in the B5 universe, but also make a stunning stand-alone movie that anyone could enjoy.

I thought Dobro and Woodward were absolutely excellent as Dureen and Galen, characters I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of in JMS's crusade.

The music is...well, pretty bad on first listening. But eventually you'll get used to it and it does give the film a unique and different feeling to the rest of the B5 series. This is definetly the movie to watch if you want to watch one of the films to get into the series.