By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 28 seconds ago

It can be hard to choose a favorite character from Babylon 5. A great case can be made for everyone, but there’s no denying that the Centaurian Ambassador Londo Mollari is one of the best. A proud Centauri, Londo represents the very best of his species…when he feels like it. He’s prone to excess in everything, whether it’s drinking or women, and his pride goes before his fall, but it’s that complicated mix of characteristics that makes him so memorable. In Season 1’s “The War Prayer,” Londo steps up and helps a young couple defy marriage tradition in the name of love. For all his faults, Londo knows what love feels like, and what a Centauri marriage entails, after all, he’s gone through with it three times. 

Londo And The Centauri Concept Of Love

“The War Prayer” splits its runtime between Sinclair and Ivanova dealing with The Homeguard attacking aliens, and Londo (Peter Jurasik) navigating a politically complicated situation involving Vir’s (Stephen Furst) cousin, Kiron (Rodney Eastman), and the love of his life Aria (The Wonder Year’s star Danica McKellar). Arranged marriages are custom among the Centauri, which as Londo says, is a society with no need for love. That’s a little ironic considering how far he was willing to go for the exotic dancer Adira Tyree.

Londo explains his past marriages to the young couple, dubbing his former wives Famine, Pestilence, and Death, all of whom appear in Season 2’s “Soul Mates,” and oddly, Londo seems to retain an appreciation for Timov (Jane Carr) who makes zero attempt to show love or affection for him shortly after the arranged marriage was completed, finding her honesty regarding her complete disdain for him to be refreshing. The problem for Londo, is that deep down, he longs for love of the type he briefly experienced with Adira, which is why he finds a way for the lovers to remain unmarried, until they are old enough to choose a spouse for themselves. 

The solution, sending them to stay with his well-connected and very important cousin, doesn’t technically defy Centauri tradition. Londo won’t break the rules of the Centauri, but he’ll bend them. Constantly. 

Babylon 5’s Worldbuilding Is Second To None

No one is the same at the end of Babylon 5 as they were at the beginning, especially not Londo given his ultimate fate, but for all the major changes in his position, it’s a testament to the writing of J. Michael Straczynski that even the smallest detail of Londo’s life and outlook becomes relevant later. Would Londo have acted the same way for another Centauri couple that wasn’t directly related to his aide? Absolutely not. 

“The War Prayer” shows how alien culture isn’t so far removed from human culture, no matter what the Homeguard may want to believe. From G’Kar and Delenn’s responses to the assaults on aliens, to Londo carefully navigating tradition and custom, it’s all more evidence that the world building of Babylon 5 is second to none. When Londo delivers the line, “My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance” we see another glimpse of the flawed man fans will fall in love with over the next four seasons. He’s seen too much, done too much, compromised too much, and the worst was yet to come.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

Last year’s Superman was a monster hit that proved the DCU was ready and able to compete with Marvel. That movie was directed by James Gunn, the man who brought us amazing superhero cinema like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. The fact that he’s running the DCU instilled confidence in fans all around the world. That’s why the failure of Supergirl took audiences by surprise. It was the spinoff of last summer’s biggest movie, written and directed by a team hand-chosen by Gunn, so it seemed destined to be another superpowered hit. Instead, the movie was an instant critical and commercial flop, one likely to lose the studio $125 million. 

As it turns out, that was a shock to everyone except for the studio. The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively revealed that Supergirl had a troubled production for many months, one that involved creative clashes between Gunn and director Craig Gillespie. Warner Bros. apparently had very little faith in Gillespie, whose movie consistently received middling scores from test audiences. Eventually, the studio created its own cut of the movie, which is actually the version that hit theaters!

A Tale Of Two Cuts

Buckle up, buckaroos: we finally have some answers to why Supergirl bombed, and this is one wild ride. The first sign that the movie was in trouble was when Warner Bros. ordered four different sets of test screenings. Such screenings are often an indicator that the studio isn’t confident in the film they have made. Apparently, they had reason to be worried: one insider told The Hollywood Reporter that the highest the movie ever scored on the initial screenings was a 70. The rest of the insiders insisted that Supergirl’s score never escaped the 60s.

The studio continued to tweak the movie, and in some low screenings, it received scores in the very low 70s. However, Warner Bros. was still nervous, and they took drastic action by creating their own cut of the movie (something that had previously happened with the original Suicide Squad movie). The studio then tested their cut of the film against Craig Gillespie’s. The results were mixed: the new scores were now lower across the board. However, the Warner Bros. cut of Supergirl scored a whopping two points higher. The studio cut of the film is the one that fans ultimately saw in theaters.

Faith No More

This was, of course, the clearest sign that Warner Bros. had lost faith in Gillespie. After they finished testing (where Supergirl received similar scores to Batgirl, a movie the studio ultimately shelved), a source told The Hollywood Reporter that he had to strongly and personally advocate for any changes he wanted to make to the film. Those changes would have been made during the movie’s extensive post-production process. During that time, frequent James Gunn collaborator Jeremy Slater was brought in to write additional scenes, all of which were shot during nine days of additional photography.

How were the two cuts different? Craig Gillespie’s cut was 11 minutes longer and fleshed out the Big Bad, Krem, who is underdeveloped in the final cut.  Gillespie and Gunn also had different opinions on how to use music in the film. The studio cut has a cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” (made famous by Malcolm in the Middle) during its climactic fight scene, which may have been Gillespie’s idea. An earlier cut used a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which was reportedly Gunn’s idea. However, it’s unclear which song Gillespie put in his cut. Aside from added length and possibly different music, it sounds like the two Supergirl cuts were largely similar.

So, the moral of this storyisn’t that there’s a killer, Snyder Cut-like version out there that is dramatically different. No, the moral is that Supergirl was a hot mess from the very beginning, with James Gunn and Craig Gillespie butting heads over major creative decisions. The result was the worst of both worlds, a Gunn-style film but without the charm or the same biting humor. Warner Bros. knew for many months how bad this film was scoring with test audiences, and they ended up overriding Gillespie and forcing their own cut down our throats. Now, they have a box office bomb whose slow death may just take the entire DCU with it.