Halo Legends - ArniesAirsoft

Author

Ranger_Captain

Pissin' people off one post at a time

Registered: July 2005
Location: West Point, New York
Posts: 1,229

Review Date: 20/3/10

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �12.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Attention to detail, Moving Stories, Wide Array of artistic methods
Cons:	Canonically dubious at times, Very short... even for shorts

Halo Legends

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm a bit of a Halo fanatic, despite the fact I've never owned an Xbox (I PC exclusively, so I'm still waiting on a Halo 3 port). Having read all the books, played as many of the games as I could, and gotten my hands on as much of the media related to the series, I ran to my nearest DVD store to get Halo Legends when it was released.

Hows it fair? Well if you've seen the Animatrix this will feel fairly similar. Likewise you'll probably enjoy, or not enjoy Halo Legends pending on your feelings towards the Animatrix. Some of the episodes are even total parallels of each other, Origins in Halo Legends and The Second Renaissance in the Animatrix, even done by the same Anime studio. Personally I found this to be great, Origins being on of my two favorite shorts.

That brings up my other favorite short, The Duel, which features a watercolored animation style I've never seen before which, given the Feudal Japan setting of the story, works stunningly, absolutely stunningly. It is by far my favorite animated short I've ever seen since it combines such a perfect combination of artistic style, a wonderful, yet basic and concise story, and brilliant voice acting and sound effects, everything a good short needs to be perfect.

Unfortunately though, where Halo Legends excels in a few of its episodes, some of the others don't come off as strong. Be it the poor voice acting in The Package, or the fairly flat and predictable story in The Babysitter there are some noticeable failings. Still, the range of animation styles and concepts portrayed do keep all the episodes interesting. Additionally, and this is a nitpic that only those hardcore fans will notice, but most of the episodes feature some pretty horrid tearing of the cannon. Be it the wrong armor being portrayed at the wrong point in time or weapons being under or over powered seemingly on an arbitrary basis, there are a few scenes that make you just cringe. The more casual viewer would probably never notice but it is a slightly failing that in my opinion, with a little extra attention, could have just as easily been solved.

One positive quality that they all share though is wonderfully executed sound. Voice acting not withstanding, the sound effects and music are not direct ports from the games but mastered for the shorts themselves and does add a layer I feel many Anime shorts, and some films, always fall short in. Setting the right moods in the Halo atmosphere is always a must and I feel they were spot on in every short, even the comical Odd One Out.

Speaking of mood settings, no one can review Halo Legends without mentioning these two final things. One, these stories are, for the most part, incredibly depressing. Risking a spoiler (you've been warned Wink

) other than the Master Chief, pretty much every Spartan who shows up on screen, dies. Actually pretty much every character in every story but the Chief dies, and usually in a sad, lonesome way. I understand that they are showing the horrors and obvious destruction of war, but even the games themselves have a somewhat upbeat endings. Somehow they even made the storytelling of Origins, which find to be the second most emotional charged episode, very depressing, especially the end which, if is to be taken as a cannon, has some serious implications in future situations between the two protagonists.

The second necessary mention is the so called "Teddybear Episode," Homecoming. Dealing with the origins and growing up of pre-deployment Spartan II's, I will start by saying I did like this episode, however I feel they could have done more with it. It is a very emotional episode and is probably best, most succinct commentary on the duality of the existence of the Spartans, and the ending, which is essentially speechless of a good five minutes, manages to use just the atmospheric and set pieces to sum up the entire series, there is still something about it I feel they could have done more.

Even still, I thoroughly enjoyed Halo Legends, and if you've never even played the Halo series or are a hard core fan, I believe you too will find something to enjoy.

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Never argue with a gun, it may argue back...
United States Corps of Cadets, USMA
Cadet, United States Army
2012 "For More Than Ourselves"