info-12388 Oh. Right. Because of the money.If you've read the other reviews, you know the plot, so I"m not gonna rehash that. Space Cowboy tries to save the world, fails, manages to save the girl instead, and in the process saves the universe...... to which I say, "Huh?"OK, let's start with the animation: it's cheap and cheezy, even by Funimation standards. I've only seen a few of their films, but the others had at least some pretension of knowing what a human body looks like. The character designers here seem to have gotten their inspirations from fun-house mirrors, with impossible elongated torsos and teeny little heads.The mix of CG and cel didn't work for even a second. As for the backgrounds... well, the less said about those, perhaps the better.The story? Well, in the extras, one of the producers points out that he and someone else kept a file of scenes from films they both enjoyed, and after watching this... well, pastiche... I can see why they followed the dictum of only stealing from the best. A little Star Wars here, a little Blade Runner there, some Alien over there, a whole whack of Starship Troopers over there... you get the idea. There's not a single original concept to be found anywhere, just a hopeless mishmash of other people's films.The direction? Similarly dreadful. The voicing seems to come straight out of Acting 102, while the visual style relies way too much on full profile shots of clenched jaws and sad, somber eyes. Some of the action scenes are little more than a series of explosions, followed by a couple of the main characters congratulating themselves on surviving. Cut through it all, I probably should have stopped a half hour in, as I was tempted to. But I stuck it out just to see where it was going. As it turned out, nowhere all that important.

gaborzeller Paragon Lost was clearly made for the fans so if you are not familiar with the Mass Effect universe don't bother watching it (there are way too many references with zero explanation).Even so I find it really hard to write a review cause I am pretty sure it was meant for a younger audience. A 14 years old kid might find it entertaining, but sadly for me this movie was quite mediocre.So-so graphics, interesting, but really badly executed plot, stereotyped characters, laughable dialogue, plot holes here and there and so on.**spoiler warning**The only good thing in the movie is the Mass Effect-ish paragon/renegade decision at the end. The drama is well executed and Vega traveling back to the planet facing the consequences of his decision (combined with the pseudo-flashback of the colonists) is really harrowing....Until you take a few minutes and think about it. Wait what? So he is forced to choose between the lives of more than a HUNDRED of colonists he was living with for like TWO YEARS, and "that" intel.Keep in mind when Vega is making his decision, to the best of his knowledge the so called "intel" is nothing more than an antidote to the paralyzing venom that works at 70% success rate at best. Everything else on the disc (that might make worth it) is known only by the other characters and the audience if they played the game, but NOT by Vega(!).PLUS During the entire movie Vega never shuts the f*ck up about saving the colonists. He makes speeches about saving the colonists, whines about how Commander Shepherd would have already saved the colonists, reminds the audience every five minute that their objective is SAVING THE COLONISTS.I guess all the choices are clear. So long idiots, I hope all the colonists die in a horrible way....oh wait they did.

Alex L. Personal: Firstly, I need to say that I'm not the biggest fan of the game series. I have played only Mass Effect 3 and have read the first of the book series. I considered both to be quite excellent. So now that that's clear I need to say: Warning: This movie isn't worth the time put into making it. By comparison to the games and the books it's a poor excuse at an attempt to add some other media to the Mass Effect universe.Summary: The story is focused around the character Vega, which was first introduced in the game, Vega and his team are ordered to protect a researching colony that's working on figuring out some ancient alien tech. Not too far into the movie the colony gets attacked by an enemy who's reasoning and purposes are unknown.Impressions: I'll grant you the script sounds like it would've had potential in the right hands at making at least a decent action movie, however it was written poorly. Most of it isn't only predictable, it's so cliché you have to slap yourself in order not to fall asleep, not to mention Vega's character is - in the games at least, because there isn't a lot of character development to speak of in the movie - cliché to begin with. To sum him up quickly, he's the guy on the battlefield going 'Yeah! Get some!', and that is cause of a great many problems throughout the movie because when he 'falls in love'(meaning he gets a high school crush), they turn him into a lost puppy. It's like they took out every cliché attribute from Peter Parker and Chuck Norris and slammed it into one with this guy. I shouldn't even mention the fact that the way he's imagined and acted is not at all what I was used to from the game.Alright, moving on, voice acting... Some of the lines don't fit well with the stress levels in each scene, they're isn't one that's memorable and you can tell from a far they lacked directing.The animation. Oh boy! Remember the old X-men cartoons? That's about the level this is at. I'm not saying the X-men cartoons weren't great, for that time, they were phenomenal, however for 2012 this animation will feel like it's a blast from the past in a bad way. I think there might even be some scenes that are missing in-between frames, the lip sync is pretty awful and the level of complexity of the angles and scenes is Scooby Doo-ish.Conclusion: This movie is a shameful attempt at cashing in on an already established name. It has no positive side to it, except maybe giving you a good giggle, when you see just how bad it really is.

azamba89 Well when I saw the trailer for the first time I didn't give it too much attention, even being a huge fan of the game, the animation style and the main character, Vega (a playable character in Mass Effect 3), was too weak, lacking the appeal needed for an animation with the name Mass Effect on it.But like I said, I'm a huge fan and I had to watch it. So I did. And I found myself enjoying the movie more than I thought.Basically, Vega leads his squad on a mission to protect a colony on a distant planet from a unknown threat. When they finally strike and take all the colonists hostage, Vega has to figured out what exactly he's facing and save the colony from being abducted and exterminated, having to make some tough decisions on the way.The catch here is, if you have played Mass Effect 3 you already know what will happen in the movie, as Vega himself can tell you that in the game. And that may be the biggest mistake with this movie. This should've been released when Mass Effect 2 came out, back in 2010. It would make a lot of more sense, as the story here happens few months before the second game's story and would be a good surprise to see Vega in the third game after seeing this movie back then. Oh well...The animation is pretty average. There's blood and lots of action, but the style they used just doesn't fit to the Mass Effect universe. It doesn't work. Why use Anime style on this anyway? Seriously. And not a great one too. It lacked something, I can't tell exactly what. They did the same mistake with Dragon Age animated movie. EA got it right with the first Dead Space animated movie. Please, go back to that. Mass Effect deserve way better than this. But that's just me, I'm sure there are many people that will enjoy it, I suppose.All in all, this movie is mostly for fans of the Mass Effect game series. If you've never played the game, you may still enjoy this, but without knowing the universe it just wont be the same. It's a good movie, average animation, good story, but it could be a lot better. Its not enough to have the Mass Effect name on it.