Expected more

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The underlying problem of JMS's Babylon 5 universe is that the characters was always more interesting than the universe they lived in. Narns were fun, but they were never as cool as Klingons. You only cared about Narns because G'Kar was such a great character.Thus we have "A Call to Arms", an excuse to get a few of the regular B5 Characters to set up what was going to become "Crusade". Which might have been a great series in its own right, had TNT not blown it. (Like putting Season 5 episodes of B-5 up against new episodes of Star Trek Voyager).Overall plot line. Galen manipulates Sheridan into realizing the Drahk threat against Earth. He teams up with an Earthforce captain and a thief from a dead race. They take two prototype ships to confront the Drahk and the leftover Shadow Planet Killer.Bruce Boxleitner and Jerry Doyle do some good work here. But all they are doing is setting the table for a meal we never got to fully enjoy. TNT took away the meal somewhere around the soup or salad portion.God Save us From Basic Cable.

I had great expectations for this movie. And I wasn't disappointed, not at all... except for the atrocious soundtrack. Maybe if I wasn't a big fan of Babylon 5, it wouldn't bother me, but when I was used to the great music through the five series, and then I heard *this*, I mean, what's this for? A good soundtrack can promote a movie greatly, or diminish its feel. Anyway, this was the only bad thing about it. Sheridan was ace, same for the new ships! Good storyline, solid action, nice introduction to the Crusade series. I liked how the script tied all this to the Drakh, and that their nasty involvement is explored further. The new characters were great!All B5 fans must watch it!

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.

Well this rates as one of my favorite B5 movies second only to In the Beginning. The movie does a fine job of setting up for the Crusade series. The scenes of Earth being attacked by the Drakh, and the Omega class destroyers along with the 2 ISA destroyer prototypes defending it is staggering. A must see if you are a B5 fan. Omega class destroyer fans will like this one.