kevinxirau
I must say, this was quite a surprise. About a decade ago, Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionized how games, specifically first-person shooters, should be played. What followed was a succession of sequels, each being better than the last one. Inevitably, a movie was not far away. With the possible live-action movie postponed by companies fighting over it, this anime was created help satisfy fans and keep them waiting for the live-action film. It does its job well.In a style similar to "Batman: Gotham Knight", Halo Legends consists of several action-packed episodes, each made by a different studio, having its own unique artwork/animation, and basically revealing a certain aspect of the Halo universe. The episodes are Origins Part 1 and 2 (history of the Halo universe), The Dual (how the Arbiter became a title of shame), Homecoming (the horror of the Spartan II program), Odd One Out (a ridiculous non-canon episode), Prototype (the first Spartan armor), The Babysitter (ODST-Spartan rivalry), and the Package (Master Chief and company go in to retrieve a heavily-guarded package).Odd One Out is the only flaw in this movie. Everything else is excellent. Beautiful animation, wonderful music, awesome action scenes, and great stories. This is as good as the games. Fans will most likely enjoy this and so will you. In the words of the Master Chief, "... we're just getting started," because soon enough the live action movie will arrive.
blockmelater1
1) The Duel is by far the best, and only good short in this disaster. It explains the origins of the Arbiter, and why the rank was made what it was during the halo games. Personally, i loved the way it was written, how it all tied together, but the art style was off. The use of TOO MUCH Japanese art style made me think i was watching a samurai epic rather than some science fiction story. The Elites' armor were TOO influenced by the Japanese samurai armor, and it took away some of the feel for the elites' own culture. But besides that, this short is watchable and enjoyable.2) Origins is an origin story narrated by Cortana, explaining how the Halo universe came to be. I like how the animators included views of Forerunner technology and ships, and i love the way the combat skins looked. But that's as far as it goes. Don't get me wrong, this short has all its information in the right place, i just think it may have mistakenly shown us information in a different way. For example, when Cortana is narrating how the Flood returned to attack the covenant and the Humans, it showed all races fighting the Flood. This may not be entirely accurate, but the way it showed them makes it seem as if brutes, elites, humans and all others set aside their differences for the sake of fighting a greater enemy (and they all lived happily ever after). Besides that, there's not really nothing wrong with this short, except that you can read this on wikipedia rather than shell out a few bucks for it.3) The Package. I won't deny it, its fun. Its pretty damn awesome to see the spartans kick major Covenant donkey (bad pun, i know) on their own turf, but i must point out a few flaws. Arthur and Solomon, for example, died TOO damned easily. They're supposed to be spartans, the ultimate fighting machine, and they died stupidly, with Solomon charging recklessly into the inside of a Covenant cruiser only to suffer a stupid death thanks to a Covenant anti-matter charge. Where was all the military discipline? I know that time was short, but ALL soldiers are trained to work as part of a team. If your team loses, you lose, and that's something that apparently Solomon wasn't taking into consideration though. On the other hand, Arthur's 'death' wasn't visible, and it opens up a few possible stories, such as a capture and escape from Covenant space. I'd like that. 4) Homecoming. Again, where's all the discipline? Spartans are shown here to be (and i'm paraphrasing another reviewer around here) angsty teens. I know that they still hadn't had their first glimpse of battle, but why suicide? These people were trained to be the ultimate fighting machines (redundancy, i know) and some of them just killed themselves when they found out that they'd been replaced with clones. I get it, its traumatizing, but i think that if you take some things into consideration the story is entirely impossible. Most, if not all of the Spartan-II candidates were taken from the early age of 6. A child's mind is so suggestive at that age that with proper conditioning, the UNSC would've made them forget entirely about their parents and whatnot. More importantly, while i know that going back to your estranged parents only to find out that you were replaced with a clone is not exactly a happy thought, its not enough grounds for suicide. Suicide (and i say it as a person who once considered it) is a gradual thing, not something sudden. On a side note, why is Ralph-303 a marine? If he received the augmentations, the training, and the discipline, why did he not remain a spartan? Was it because of the escape? But in that case, then technically Daisy-023 should have been kicked out of the S-II program and made a normal marine as well. Oh and just to put the cherry on this, there were only 150 Spartan-II candidates, with 75 being chosen for the actual program. Why 303? Why is this short deliberately wiping its opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body with our beloved canon?5) The Babysitter. This one had *so* much potential. It is the story of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper squadron (ODST; Helljumpers) sent behind enemy lines to assassinate a Prophet. But wait, there's a twist! They have a Spartan. Now, all of you who are familiar with the Halo mythos know that ODSTs and S-IIs have a fierce rivalry, ever since John-117 (the Master Chief) killed three of them in a training fight. So, where is all this rivalry? Instead, we're stuck with this kid, O'Brian, who whines like the pre-pubescent teen he is, griping about how the Spartan SAVES HIS LIFE ABOUT 3 TIMES. This could've essentially been one of the best of the shorts, instead it plays out like that filler episode in anime, where they throw a bunch of clip shows together that adds nothing to the overall storyline. Again, on a side note, why doesn't Cal-141 ever talk to the other members of the squad? Is she suffering from PTVD, as Lucy-B091? Or did the producers want to hide the fact that there are also women serving in the front lines? Because i know women serving in Iraq right now.6) Prototype. There's nothing really wrong with this short, except that it doesn't add a damn thing to the story. Like most of the compilation as a whole.7) Odd One Out. Didn't happen, disregard it.As a whole, there's not really that many things that are wrong with Halo Legends. I do think though, that they could've made it a whole lot better.
GhostWriterX
The water colour style was just the wrong style for Dual, and both Dual and Homcoming were pretty boring. Oh sure they had their moments, but only one or two. Dual focused on one of the Prophets who accuses an Elite called Fal of heresy. Fal will not yield and the Prophet is forced to send another Elite to kill his wife in order to drag him to a trap. Homecoming focused on a Spartan girl who ran away at first but came back for some reason to fight for the UNSC. The flash backs, although interesting, became too much and confusing. All the other episodes ranged from decent to great. Orgins I and II answered questions about the forerunners, FINALLY we get to see those guys, but didn't answer much about the origins of the Covenent. How'd they meet each other? How did they develop a common interest of going on the Great Journey? Where did they get the technology to be one of the galaxy's most dangerous of threats? Anyway, Odd One Out was actually pretty funny, as it was supposed to parody the Halo series (I knew someone from Dragon Ball was involved!)As for the rest, I won't summarize them now, you can search for them, but, The Package, Prototype and Babysitter, were actually good, even great. If they had done Dual and Homecoming differently, or even left them out, I probably would have given this movie an 8. Nonetheless, I give it a strong 7; I liked it and am glad I bought it out of impulse rather than rented it. It's a fair substitute to a true Halo film that we were promised for 2008, but that won't hold up for long. We will need a Halo movie. PS: I'm not a hardcore gamer, but a casual one. Halo is cool, but it's only one of my favourite video game series, so this review is not biased to what I think of the series. I'm not a Twilight equivalent of a Halo fan (I know I keep using that, and I mean no offense, but it's the easiest example to use).
