Author: Robert Greenberger

REVIEW: The Boys Season 3

REVIEW: The Boys Season 3

With every passing season, Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson’s The Boys seems to be playing “can you top this?” in terms of going where no other heroic series has not dared to go.

The third season, out on disc just months before the fourth season drops, mainly focuses on the increasingly callous Homelander (Antony Star) fighting Starlight (Erin Moriarty) for the heart and soul of The Seven. When Vought named her co-leader, he was far from thrilled and let everyone know. The group of underground heroes – led by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) trying to take down Homelander and expose their sponsor’s corruption almost seems sidelined this season.

There were interesting twists and turns across the eight episodes, such as Butcher’s protégé Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) working with Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) at the FBSA (Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs).  His romance with Starlight remains rocky, especially as he gets jealous of her ex, Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva).

The season’s new wrinkle is the discovery of Compound V24, which can give someone temporary Supe powers that last 24 hours, and Butcher uses it to go toe-to-toe with Homelander, hoping to rescue Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Homelander’s son, from his evil influence.

The plotting and scripting is tight, although it has recently been eclipsed by the first season of the Gen V spinoff. Eric Kripke and company are doing a fine job juggling multiple threads and making sure everyone gets their moment or two to shine.

Sony Home Entertainment has released the series on only Blu-ray, which looks fine in fantastic AVC encoded 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. However, the Ultra HD broadcast on streaming is a tad sharper. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio audio track is up to the challenge and delivers just fine.

Just a few Special Features are included: The Making Of A Giant Urethra (1:58) and Gag Reel #1 (2:37), Gag Reel #2 (3:00); and Deleted & Extended Scenes (seven totaling eight minutes).

REVIEW: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

REVIEW: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

With all the talk of super-hero fatigue, it’s interesting to note that we never talk about espionage fatigue despite the steady stream of spies from a variety of franchises. One of the oldest and long-running series is, of course, Mission: Impossible. Once a lauded television series, it transitioned to film in 1996 and somehow, 27 years later, it’s still chugging along, in some ways invigorated with new life.

Led by the once-ageless Tom Cruise, he remains the fittest sixty-something actor in the world, continuing to do his own stunts and working with his personal guru Christopher McQuarrie, who returned for the newest offering, Dead-Reckoning Part One, out now from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The filming was originally intended to shoot back-to-back with the film’s released a year apart. Then came Covid-19 and now the SGA strike so those plans got scuttled. That said, their threat, Artificial Intelligence, has proven increasingly timely with every passing month. As you may be aware, even President Biden found himself somewhat influenced by the movie as he prepared his recently-released executive order on AI.

The IMF team continues to shrink and remain stagnant, with no real lip service given to the program since the third installment. So, when the shit hits the fan this time, in the form of a key to the world’s most powerful AI, dubbed Entity, Ethan Hunt (Cruise), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Luther (Ving Rhames) are all that’s left to save the world. Matters begin with tracking Gabriel (Esai Morales), the Entity’s human avatar, who has a personal vendetta against Hunt. Along the way, they cross paths with the pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell) and we’re off.

It is good to see Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) back, but Atwell gives the franchise a fresh spark as does Gabriel’s aide Paris (Pom Klentieff), a poorly chosen character name given its M:I connotations. Interesting all the energy comes from the women. Which is not to say Cruise is slacking since he continues to run with recklessness and his showstopping motorcycle/parachute scene is incredible.

The movie brings back other familiar faces so the absence of Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), who doesn’t even get name-checked, feels wrong.

Its wonderful adventure and sumptuously shot. The ending is satisfying enough with still a threat to resolve in Part Two currently scheduled for May 23, 2025.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released the film in the usual assorted formats including the 4K Ultra HD,/Blu-ray/Digital Code combo. The 4K 2160p transfer is extremely crisp with strong visuals and plays wonderfully at home. As usual, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack is excellent as it needs to be, given the sound effects and score from Lorne Balfe.

The Audio Commentary: Director Christopher McQuarrie and Editor Eddie Hamilton is found on the 4K disc as is the Isolated Score Track presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

The Blu-ray offers the usual assortment of Special Features Abu Dhabi (3:55); Rome (4:12); Venice (4:12); Freefall (9:05); Speed Flying (4:17); and Train (5:32).

REVIEW: Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two

REVIEW: Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two

The Justice League and the Huntsmen are back in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two, to conclude the underwhelming story from April’s part one. Other than commercial considerations, there is no real reason for the two teams to be paired together; no real character and dramatic opportunities are present, which may be why the story doesn’t really work.

We force the JL heroes to be transformed into teen versions of themselves and brought to the Huntsmen’s world, working across Remnant’s four kingdoms of Vale, Mistral, Atlas, and Vacuo to fight the good fight. Superman, Wonder Woman (Laura Bailey), Batman (Troy Barker), and The Flash (David Dastmalchian) are teamed with Ruby (Lindsay Jones), Weiss (Kara Eberle), Blake (Arryn Zech), and Yang (Barbara Dunkelman) to fight the Grimms and save the world. As part two opens, we continue with the cliffhanger, the revelation that Flash foe Kilg%re (Tru Valentino) trapped the heroes in a computer simulation. Now, the adult and more familiar Justice Leaguers are working with the altered Huntsmen, complete with freshened uniforms.

There’s plenty of action to amuse the core audience, but it comes at the expense of letting the revised RWBY heroes explore their new forms. Characterization is always sacrificed for action; storytelling be damned. The overall conclusion works, but overall, you are left wondering why did they bother with this.

Warner Home Entertainment has released this in all the usual formats, including the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Digital Code combo pack. Rooster Teeth’s attempt to animate their 3D look works for the most part and the 2160p and 1080p high-definition transfers work for the most part, maintaining a smooth look. The colors are well-preserved and the action is clear. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is actually somewhat better, and an improvement over Part One.

The Special Features are fine with a perfunctory feel to them. These include I’ve Got Your Back: The Bond Between Justice League and RWBY (6:45) and You Look… Different: RWBY on Earth (7:12).

Overall, if you are a RWBY fan, this is must-see viewing, while JL fans can use this to pass the time until 2024’s more substantial offerings.

REVIEW: Titans: The Complete Fourth Season

REVIEW: Titans: The Complete Fourth Season

The live-action Titans series had tremendous potential, from its source material to the pedigrees of the talent bringing the heroes to television. Titans failed to work from the first episode to the last. As a television series, it needed a bigger budget for better effects, and the caliber of actors needed to be stronger to pull off these larger-than-life personalities.

Most of the storylines were drawn from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s seminal run from the early 1980s or the early issues from Geoff Johns and Mike McKone’s run in the 2000s. Both required a consistent tonality along with a budget to make the scope of the stories work.

In the fourth and final series, out now on disc from Warner Home Entertainment, the series tackled both Lex Luthor and Brother Blood. Either one could easily have been the Big Bad for these last dozen episodes, but they split the focus and, therefore, the team. The series never found its footing, either on the DC Universe service or its final home at HBO Max.

One of the things both runs celebrated was the group’s camaraderie, and the series split them up far too often and for far too long, robbing viewers of the very thing that worked in print. Add in the villain Jinx (Lisa Ambalavanar), now a former lover of Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites), and Bernard (James Scully), the wrong-headed lover to Tim Drake(Jay Lycurgo), (carrying over an egregious bit of pandering from the print side), and things were diluted, and the real sense of danger was mainly missing.

Wolfman carefully created a team that had someone for every genre, letting him and Pérez tell science fiction, occult, mystery, myth, and superhero stories. We’ve seen some of that, and the producers settled on magic to run through the final season, but then don’t do enough with it, Brother Blood (Joseph Morgan), or Mother Mayhem (Franka Potente). The other story, the growing connection between Luthor (Titus Welliver), and Conner Kent (Joshua Orpin), was an interesting story that needed more subtlety (and Krypto).

The strongest actors and characters in the show—Wonder Girl, Hawk, Dove—are long gone by now and are much missed. Instead, we waste time and space on threads that never quit epayoff, the worst being “Dude, Where’s My Gar?”, which is the obligatory multiverse episode using archival footage from The Flash, Swamp Thing, Shazam, Teen Titans Go!, Harley Quinn, The Joker, Batman (1966 and 1989), Superman the Movie, and a cameo from the much-missed Brec Bessinger’s Stargirl.

The final, “Titans Forever”, crams in too much to tie things up, suggesting things were not well plotted out in the Writers’ Room. And rather than Titans Together it’s Titans Apart, ending on a sad note.

The Blu-ray discs have a fine 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio of 2.00:1 so visually it’s lovely to watch.  It’s well paired with the excellent DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track.

Special Features include “Welcome to Metropolis” (5:00), “Baptism of Blood” (3:00), and “Mystical Women” (4:00). None are particularly enmlightening.

Voices from Krypton is All-Encompassing Oral History of Superman

Voices from Krypton is All-Encompassing Oral History of Superman

Superman’s incredible 85-year history is defined with intricate detail and unique understanding by those who’ve known him best – the authors, artists, filmmakers, actors and experts tasked with propagating his legend through every medium – in the latest Edward Gross omnibus, VOICES FROM KRYPTON, published by Nacelle Books. The hardcover book is now available via Amazon, online retailers and popular bookshops, with an e-book edition also available.

Hailed as the most comprehensive examination of Superman in history, VOICES FROM KRYPTON begins in the mid 1930s with the character’s creation by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and concludes with the announcement of the next big screen adventure, Superman: Legacy. Topics range from Superman’s appearances in different mediums to the individual actors who’ve played the character, from Superman’s Silver Age to present day iterations, and from the subtleties of capturing the Man of Steel to the tentpole moments of his past 85+ years. No subject is taboo, both the good and bad moments are discussed, and that includes an exploration of Superman’s role in the world of the 21st Century — all of which comes from the perspective of individuals who have uniquely experienced the character on a first-hand basis.

The 250 individuals quoted in VOICES FROM KRYPTON run the most extensive gamut ever assembled for a single examination of Superman, and feature (to name but a few) actors Christopher Reeve, George Reeves, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill and Tom Welling; filmmakers Richard Donner, Zack Snyder, Ilya Salkind, Kevin Smith and J.J. Abrams; showrunners Miles Millar, Al Gough and Marc Guggenheim; Comics legends Alex Ross, Dan Jurgens, Len Wein, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway, Joe Kelly, Jim Lee, Paul Levitz, Mark Waid, ComicMix‘s Robert Greenberger, and Neal Adams; and voice actors Tim Daly, George Newbern, Jerry O’Connell, Mark Harmon, Darren Criss and Bud Collyer; and even Siegel and Shuster themselves.

Veteran journalist Edward Gross has spent the past 40+ years covering film, television, comic books and more for publications such as Cinescape, Starlog, Life Story, Super Hero Spectacular, Film Fantasy, Cinefantastique and Geek Monthly. Additionally, he was the US Editor for Empireonline; Film/TV Editor for closerweekly.com, lifeandstylemag.com, intouchweekly.com and j14.com; and Nostalgia Editor for doyouremember.com. Gross has previously written two dozen non-fiction books on film and television, among them seven acclaimed oral histories, including titles on Star Trek (the two-volume The Fifty-Year Mission), James Bond (Nobody Does It Better) and Star Wars (Secrets of the Force).

“The potential for larger-than-life archetypes to teach us real world lessons is a supernaturally powerful use of the arts,” says Brandon Routh, who famously donned the cape in Superman Returns, and calls VOICES FROM KRYPTON a “masterful oral history” in the book’s Foreword. “Superman’s societal evolution has made him an amazingly resonant conduit of the ‘teach a man to fish’ parable. Teaching us how to embrace, and accept, each other leads us down the path to harmony. To a present and future where we save ourselves.

“Ed has been a part of my journey as we’ve had many thoughtful and insightful interviews over the years. each one giving me an opportunity to dig deeper into my understanding of our beloved hero,” adds Routh. “You, reader, are in good hands.”

“There have been entire encyclopedias chronicling the Man of Steel’s comic book adventures, countless books and articles written about his radio programs, his films and his television appearances, but those are only individual facets of his lore, pieces of a whole,” relates comics legend Mark Waid, cowriter of monumental Kingdom Come, who labels VOICES FROM KRYPTON “an incredible and unique achievement” in the book’s Afterword. “Ed Gross has – by reaching out to dozens of experts and key players – spared no effort in assembling all their vital knowledge in one volume, using nothing but the voices of Those Who Were There Along The Way.”

REVIEW: No Hard Feelings

REVIEW: No Hard Feelings

Let’s get this out of the way. Yes, Jennifer Lawrence is fully, frontally, nude for a few minutes of this rom-com. It’s in character and far from salacious, merely adding to the humor and delineating her character.

That said, the R-rated rom-com No Hard Feelings out now from Sony Home Entertainment, is disappointingly predictable, using the nudity to break the typical pattern, adding little to the genre, which needs some fresh life.

Lawrence’s Maddie Barker is in dire need of a new car after the one she used for her Uber gig got repossessed to pay tax debts. She’s 32, barely hanging on, and in need of a lifeline.

Said lifeline comes in the form of the Beckers (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) who want their son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) to gain some confidence and maybe some sexual experience before heading off to Princeton in the fall.

While twice the kid’s age, she agrees and they meet and things don’t go well until they do. The end.

There are some themes here, mostly about taking control of one’s destiny, being true to one’s self, and the endurance of true friendship. Lawrence’s Maddie has to address the nearly generational gap between her and her charge and it shows she needs to accept adulthood. But, the comedy isn’t very fresh and the circumstances feel contrived by the numbers, so the script from John Phillips and Gene Stupnitsky, who also directed, needed work. Lawrence is a producer here and if she is to be believed, had a blast making this film, which is certainly a change of pace from her more recent work.

Lawrence is rarely bad on film and gives it her best here, making the most of soft material. She and Feldman, best known for Broadway’s Catch me if You Can, are fine together but it just doesn’t work as well as it could have. They get fine supporting performances but again, from people who have given stronger performances elsewhere.

The movie, out only on Blu-ray and Digital HD, seems fine in its 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer.  The daytime and nighttime sequences are equally clear with good color. It pairs well with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Neither is top of the line but perfectly serves this film.

There are a handful of Special Features, none particularly special. We have A Little Wrong: Making No Hard Feelings (6:00), A Motley Crew: Meet the Characters (7:00); and Outtakes & Bloopers (4:00).

REVIEW: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 30th Anniversary Edition

REVIEW: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm 30th Anniversary Edition

To many, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm stands are one of the best Batman stories in filmed media and even one of the best stories all time. With its 30th anniversary now here, Warner Home Entertainment gives you a chance to see for yourself. Out now in 4k Ultra HD for the first time, the movie stands up quite well.

When it arrived in late 1993, critics hailed it but did disappointing box office and it has subsequently gone on to gain stature as it has been available in multiple packages ever since. Written by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko, and Michael Reaves, one would think many hands might spoil the tale, but instead, all four revered the Caped Crusader and honored him with an all-original story.

New to the mythos is Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delany), who also lost her parents to violence. There’s a spark between them, but Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) is in his early days as the Dark Knight and has little time for romance. We jump ahead 10 years and now the Phantasm is going after the same cowardly lot of criminals as Batman, but he kills rather than apprehends, setting up a showdown.

There’s some mistaken identity as people think Batman is Phantasm with Councilman Arthur Reeves (Hart Bochner)  vowing to bring Batman down. Complicating matters is the Joker (Mark Hamill) until all the players come together for the final confrontation when Phantasm’s identity is revealed (not that it’s that much of a surprise).

The story has heart and soul with plenty of doses of action. It moves along swiftly in its 78 minutes. [Yes, it does have echoes of Mike W. Barr’s Batman Year Two, but that’s a discussion for another time.] Pasko’s flashback sequences, including that immortal line “I Didn’t count on being happy,” give the film some emotional weight that many of its companion features lack.

According to Warner, “The 4K HDR remaster of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was sourced from the 1993 original cut camera negative and was scanned at 4K resolution. Digital restoration was applied to the 4K scans to remove dirt, scratches, and additional anomalies, but special care was given to not touch the film grain or the animation cel dirt that was part of the original artwork. This is the first time since its theatrical release that it is presented in its 1.85 aspect ratio.”

The 2160p version is quite good and looks fabulous, a cut above the current Blu-ray version. It’s clear, colorful, and detailed. The original 2.0 mix is here along with the superior brand-new 5.1 remix.

For a 30th anniversary salute, I expected more than one new feature, no matter how good it is. Kevin Conroy: I Am The Knight (26:08) gets the tribute the animated voice of the Batman deserves. After over 400 animated appearances (plus a guest role on the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths), he has become as synonymous with the hero as his creators and live-action actors. This is not included on the Digital HD copy.

REVIEW: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

REVIEW: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

As I tell my students, choices have consequences. Brilliantly, several choices made by Mikles Morales and his friends come back to bite them in the ass in the wonderful, if bloated, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Out now from Sony Home Entertainment, the 2:20 film is merely part one of a more sprawling saga that is entirely built around Miles (Shameik Moore) making a decision in the previous film that has multiversal implications.

In fact, his repercussions have such omniversal impact that Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) has formed the Spider-Society with its core members traversing the multiverse to repair the damage (with a wonderful throwaway line about Doctor Strange).

Miles is blissfully unaware of this until another of his actions appears in the form of a new foe, the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who is seen mastering his powers with growing confidence until he makes a mistake and enters himself and, therefore, the multiverse.

We see not only Miles’ anguish for the above events but also for keeping his secret from his loving parents, Jeff (Brian Tyree Henry) and Rio (Luna Lauren Velez), and his seeming estrangement from his crush Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). When he finds himself in Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni)/Spider-Man India’s reality, he saves Pavitr’s father, Police Inspector Singh, which is considered a canon event. Each Spider-Man, we’re told, must suffer such losses; it’s their curse. To preserve that, Spidey 2099 has decided that Miles is the original anomaly that needs to be contained permanently, which would also mean Lt. Morales was destined to die in two days.

There are many wonderful emotional scenes between Miles and his parents or with Gwen or with the elder Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) that give the film greater depth than you would imagine.

Visually, it’s a stunning accomplishment, growing from the previous Into the Spider-Verse with visual styles that match each world and its inhabitants. Live-action footage is nicely woven in just enough to feel organic.

Throughout the film, there are wonderful homages to the comics that spawned so many of these iterations, along with elements from the animated television series and feature films. It’s an Easter Egg hunter’s smorgasbord.

My problem is that many of the sequences are overly long, extending the action and cutting the dramatic tension. The film could have lost 20 minutes and been tighter and more satisfying. Stil, kudos to writers Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham, along with the directorial trio of Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson.

The film was reviewed via streaming, and the 2180p high definition looks wonderful. The sound mixing issues that plagued the early theatrical release are absent here, with a fine Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio track that sounds strong on home equipment.

There is a plentiful assortment of special features including an audio commentary (not available for streaming; Creating the Ultimate Spider-Man Movie (14:49); Obscure Spiders Easter Eggs (5:39); “Imma do my own Thing” Interdimensional Destiny (8:26); Across the Worlds: Designing New Dimensions (7:00); Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Cast (13:00); Designing Spiders and Spots (12:00); Raising a Hero (8:00); Scratches, Score and the Music of the Multiverse (5:00); Across the Comic-Verse (8:00); Escape from Spider-Society (8:00); Miguel Calling (5:00); Lyric Videos.

REVIEW: The Flash: The Complete Ninth and Final Season

REVIEW: The Flash: The Complete Ninth and Final Season

The Flash arrived on the CW as an antidote to the heavy, bleak world of Arrow. Our Scarlet Speedster was going to be a bright, upbeat superhero series and it was—at first. With each successive season, it grew bleaker and more chaotic as an overstuffed cast all demanded screentime and the writing staff never seemed to grasp that there were other villains than those connected to the Speed Force.

The 2022-23 television season brought us The Flash’s ninth and final season, providing a chance to give closure to the core characters. Tomorrow, Warner Home Entertainment releases The Flash: The Complete Ninth and Final Season.

Across the truncated season, everyone had a moment to shine, get their due, take a bow and move aside so the Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Nora West Allen (Candice Patton) center got to have the last word as they finally welcomed Nora to the preset. We’d already seen more than enough of her adult self (Jessica Patrick Kennedy) in previous seasons.

A distracting plot line was the arrival of a new character in a familiar form, that of Khione (Danielle Panabaker), created because they wrote Frost and Caitlin Snow out at the end of the eighth season. There was little need for that, and their absence was keenly felt since this new person was a deus ex machina. It also meant Chillblaine (Jon Cor) spend most of the season moping.

The supporting players show some growth, notably Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet), becoming a hero in her own right, although the costume felt superfluous. The Allega (Kayla Compton)/Chester (Brandon McKnight) romance, which always felt like juvenile high school stuff, finally got them together, ending some painful moments for the actors.

It was certainly nice seeing recurring players get their curtain call, notably John Wesley Shipp. More than a few speedsters and villains came but, but it all felt overly stuff and some, such as Dreamer (Nicole Maines) felt rather superfluous. And the series couldn’t leave without Stephen Amell coming back one final time and his appearance was perhaps the best use of a character.

Of course, it was all coming down to a finale between Cobalt Blue/Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett) and Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh). But before that, we had to deal with the Red Death (Javica Leslie), alternate reality’s warped version of Batwoman Ryan Wilder. While it was nice to see Leslie, this didn’t advance the story or characters and felt more like filler than anything tasty.

With a finite number of episodes and an ending to reach, one would have hoped that the creative staff more carefully choreographed the events so we were left with a far more satisfying conclusion.

The final season is out on a Blu-ray-only box set without a Digital HD code. All the episodes look fine in their 1080p, 1.78:1 aspect transfer. The colors and special effects play quite nicely. The DTS lossless audio track is a fine compliment.

There are just a few special features this time around, including The Flash: The Saga of the Scarlett Speedster (touching on both the comics and TV series) ; Deleted Scenes, and the Gag Reel.

2023 was not kind to the Flash, with a whimper of a TV ending and a box office disaster with the feature film. One hopes that, in time, we’ll see creators do the fastest man alive some justice.

REVIEW: Babylon 5 The Road Home

REVIEW: Babylon 5 The Road Home

J. Michael Straczynski is back with a new installment in his imaginative Babylon 5 series. The difference this time is that it’s a 76-minute animated feature film, released this week from Warner Home Entertainment.

B5 launched into syndicated television sixteen years ago, featuring a somewhat darker, more nuanced approach to the future. It was filled before and behind the camera with people well-versed in the SF tropes, but used that to twist things and keep them fresh.

Here, Babylon 5 The Road Home, feels far more familiar. We’re set in the time after the Shadow War as we focus on President John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) and his wife Delenn (Rebecca Riedy) adjusting to running the 12-world Interstellar Alliance. Just as he leaves, he’s caught in the tried and true time warp allowing him to visit various parallel realities as we revisit more familiar characters and settings.

Familiarity, in this case, isn’t all bad since everyone who watched the show was happy to have more of what they liked. With so many of the cast now departed, new voices are recruited so things feel slightly off but that can’t be a fault; it’s a reality. Thankfully, we still have Peter Jurasik (Londo), Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova), Tracy Scoggins (Elizabeth Lochley), Patricia Tallman (Lyta), and Bill Mumy (Lennier). The substitutions, such as genre vet Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, are welcome.

Must you be familiar with the five seasons of the series (getting collected on disc in time for Christmas)? It certainly helps, but it’s a solid enough story that you get the gist even if the nuances may be missed.

Director Matt Peters does a nice job keeping things moving so you’re never bored, and you get to see beloved people and settings.

The film is available on disc in 4k Ultra HD and Blu-ray combos, along with streaming. The 1.78:1 ratio,  2160p, HDR-enhanced 4K transfer is above-average, with solid colors and smooth play. Accompanying it is an equally impressive DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix.

The discs come with an Audio Commentary featuring Straczynski, Boxleitner, and supervising producer Rick Morales. It’s nice to hear them reminisce and talk about the potential for additional animated stories.

Only the Blu-ray and streaming options include Babylon 5 Forever (17:57),where returning cast members and others chat about their journey back to B5.