I'm a big fan of the Halo games, and when I heard that they were going to make an Animatrix-like collection of animated shorts based on the universe, I was hugely excited...
And then I got around to watching it, and I felt myself die a little inside.
Firstly, let me just say that not everything was bad. I did like how they used the same music from the games, but also added in their own music on occasion, and I thought the English voice acting was very good. However, unlike the Animatrix, Halo Legends is mostly crap, with only one or two good shorts out of all seven. Animatrix, despite some of it's shorts to be pretty mediocre, was mostly a good show.
Out of all seven shorts, only three were really good. But since Origins I and Origins II are the same thing, just divided, then let's just say only two were good. The two-part Origins segment is narrated entirely by Cortana, with good animation and music (though it only uses music from the game). It tells the history of the Halo Universe, why the Forerunners created Halo, how they died, how Humans first encountered the Covenant, etc. The other short that's worth watching is the final one, titled "The Package", is CGI-animated and loosely resembles the game cut scenes. It's about a group of Spartans, 117 included, who head into a Covenant fleet to rescue a "Package". This short is awesome because it starts off with a kick-ass space battle, gets you hyped up with a sweet guns-a-blazing race, and ends with a cool cameo appearance. It defiantly makes Halo fans feel like they at least got SOMETHING good out of this catastrophe.
And then there are the rest of the shorts...
"The Babysitter" is about a small squad of ODST soldiers who work together with a Spartan, who doesn't seem think that TALKING TO YOUR SQUAD is all that important, who are on a mission to assassinate one of the Prophets. This has really boring animation, really stupid characters, and no real redeeming features. When we find out at the end that the Spartan is actually a woman, I get no real shock. Who cares if she's a woman? We get to see the "main" character of the short, who greatly disliked the Spartan, suddenly have a change of heart because, hey, I may not like Spartans, but I can't hate a woman! "The Duel" is a like it or hate it segment. I REALLY didn't like it because of the portrayal of the Elites. It focuses on an Arbiter who is accused of Heresy, so his wife (yes, his WIFE, we get to see what female Elites look like, and let's just say, they don't look anything like Elites IMO) is killed, and he takes out a whole god-damn army of Covenant soldiers by himself. I guess what really irked me about this was how they made the Elites live in some kind of Japanese-inspired environment, wearing really uncharacteristic clothing. It just bothered me, even though I know it's a really petty thing to get upset over.
"Homecoming" is a boring pile of crap. It follows a Spartan named Daisy (ugh) who keeps having flashbacks about how she was recruited to be a Spartan in the first place. Omg, where do I start? First off, the kick-ass super-soldiers are portrayed as scrawny, angsty teens who need to serious get on some steroids, and the dialogue is all junk, sounding more like it came out of some cruddy shoujo anime than out of a HALO TRIBUTE. And the little symbolic teddy-bear key chain thing made me want to gag. And to top it all off, the animation was a major bore.
"Prototype" even though I kind of did like this one, because it had really good editing, voice acting, animation, and use of music, it just didn't seem like it had anything to do with Halo to me. It felt like more of an original segment from some mecha anime than a Halo tribute. It does a good job of making to feel sorry for the character and all, but by the end of it, all you can think of is, "oh yeah, right, this is about Halo, isn't it?" "Odd One Out" is a parody. This is this worst bag of garbage I have ever seen! Why the Hell would someone make a PARODY of Halo in a collection of SERIOUS SHORTS? I don't care if it's appropriately title "Odd One Out," it's not funny, it has horrible animation, the main character is UNBELIEVABLY annoying, and it serves no significance whatsoever to the whole project. There may be one or two jokes that are actually a little funny, but it doesn't cover up the fact that this is one of the most insulting things they could have added.
All in all, you may enjoy this if you're an anime fan, and, you know, you're stupid, but I suggest to fans of the Games to watch Origins I, Origins II, The Package, and maybe Prototype on the internet or something. Don't waste your money on the whole shebang.
And then I got around to watching it, and I felt myself die a little inside.
Firstly, let me just say that not everything was bad. I did like how they used the same music from the games, but also added in their own music on occasion, and I thought the English voice acting was very good. However, unlike the Animatrix, Halo Legends is mostly crap, with only one or two good shorts out of all seven. Animatrix, despite some of it's shorts to be pretty mediocre, was mostly a good show.
Out of all seven shorts, only three were really good. But since Origins I and Origins II are the same thing, just divided, then let's just say only two were good. The two-part Origins segment is narrated entirely by Cortana, with good animation and music (though it only uses music from the game). It tells the history of the Halo Universe, why the Forerunners created Halo, how they died, how Humans first encountered the Covenant, etc. The other short that's worth watching is the final one, titled "The Package", is CGI-animated and loosely resembles the game cut scenes. It's about a group of Spartans, 117 included, who head into a Covenant fleet to rescue a "Package". This short is awesome because it starts off with a kick-ass space battle, gets you hyped up with a sweet guns-a-blazing race, and ends with a cool cameo appearance. It defiantly makes Halo fans feel like they at least got SOMETHING good out of this catastrophe.
And then there are the rest of the shorts...
"The Babysitter" is about a small squad of ODST soldiers who work together with a Spartan, who doesn't seem think that TALKING TO YOUR SQUAD is all that important, who are on a mission to assassinate one of the Prophets. This has really boring animation, really stupid characters, and no real redeeming features. When we find out at the end that the Spartan is actually a woman, I get no real shock. Who cares if she's a woman? We get to see the "main" character of the short, who greatly disliked the Spartan, suddenly have a change of heart because, hey, I may not like Spartans, but I can't hate a woman! "The Duel" is a like it or hate it segment. I REALLY didn't like it because of the portrayal of the Elites. It focuses on an Arbiter who is accused of Heresy, so his wife (yes, his WIFE, we get to see what female Elites look like, and let's just say, they don't look anything like Elites IMO) is killed, and he takes out a whole god-damn army of Covenant soldiers by himself. I guess what really irked me about this was how they made the Elites live in some kind of Japanese-inspired environment, wearing really uncharacteristic clothing. It just bothered me, even though I know it's a really petty thing to get upset over.
"Homecoming" is a boring pile of crap. It follows a Spartan named Daisy (ugh) who keeps having flashbacks about how she was recruited to be a Spartan in the first place. Omg, where do I start? First off, the kick-ass super-soldiers are portrayed as scrawny, angsty teens who need to serious get on some steroids, and the dialogue is all junk, sounding more like it came out of some cruddy shoujo anime than out of a HALO TRIBUTE. And the little symbolic teddy-bear key chain thing made me want to gag. And to top it all off, the animation was a major bore.
"Prototype" even though I kind of did like this one, because it had really good editing, voice acting, animation, and use of music, it just didn't seem like it had anything to do with Halo to me. It felt like more of an original segment from some mecha anime than a Halo tribute. It does a good job of making to feel sorry for the character and all, but by the end of it, all you can think of is, "oh yeah, right, this is about Halo, isn't it?" "Odd One Out" is a parody. This is this worst bag of garbage I have ever seen! Why the Hell would someone make a PARODY of Halo in a collection of SERIOUS SHORTS? I don't care if it's appropriately title "Odd One Out," it's not funny, it has horrible animation, the main character is UNBELIEVABLY annoying, and it serves no significance whatsoever to the whole project. There may be one or two jokes that are actually a little funny, but it doesn't cover up the fact that this is one of the most insulting things they could have added.
All in all, you may enjoy this if you're an anime fan, and, you know, you're stupid, but I suggest to fans of the Games to watch Origins I, Origins II, The Package, and maybe Prototype on the internet or something. Don't waste your money on the whole shebang.