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Halo: Legends Reviewed
The Demon, Savoir of Mankind and the bane of The Covenant and Flood; in his reality Master Chief has some impressive accolades but he has even more in our reality. Single handedly launching the Xbox into the console space and perhaps the biggest gaming franchise in history, he has conquered numerous media formats. Games, books, comics, graphic novels, toys, boardgames and more but there are a few areas left untouched and with Halo: Legends 343 Industries takes their hero to a new place – animé.
Legends is a collection of seven short movies from numerous different Japanese animé creators in a similar vein to The Animatrix. Each tale is a stand alone story which gives us additional insight into the Halo universe or just rocks our Halo fanboy socks off.
The first movie is called Origins Parts 1 and 2 and is a basic summing up of both Forerunner and Human history so far. If you're a new comer to the Halo extended universe then this is really helpful at setting the scene for what happens in the Halo games. They're narrated by Cortana as she spends time mulling over humanities violent history while trapped with Master-Chief at the location of the destroyed Arc. A mix of fantastic art and stylish CG gives the movie a great look and Halo fans will enjoy the references to other extended universe fictions as well as the hints of rampancy within Cortana.
The startling visuals of The Duel make it really stand out.
One of the best movies in the collection is the brilliant 'The Duel' by Production I.G. Created by two of the men behind classic Japanese animés like Ghost in a Shell. Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Mamoru Oshii bring the tale of the original Arbiter which follows the tragic tale of a powerful Sangheili champion who refuses to bow to the Prophets teaching. It's a powerful story with great action and influences drawn from Japanese history. The outstanding aspect of the short film is the beautiful way in which it's rendered. With standard CG run through a water colour filter to make the whole thing look like a living water colour painting.
Creators of Dragon Ball Z, Toei Animation, contribute the rather bizarre 'Odd One Out' which stars the rather cringe worthy Spartan 1337. If you've seen DBZ then you know what to expect. A crazy plot, over-powered baddies, super-human kids and indulgent fight scenes. With some comedy thrown into the mix this one is bound to annoy the Halo hardcore but it does act as light relief from the other heavy weight tales.
Prototype is up next from Studio Bones and is an action packed piece with great Mech action. A stony cold CO takes control of a prototype Spartan suit with some serious weaponry to regain his lost honour and save his men from certain death at the hands of the Covenant. Not really a surprise that Mech combat made it into an animé compilation, and there are some strong comparisons between Platoon Commander “Ghost” and Gundam Wing's Heero Yui. A fun piece nonetheless.
Homecoming and Babysitter are perhaps the weakest on show here. The tiresome 'Homecoming' follows a group of renegade Spartans that escaped from their training to hunt out their lost lives only to find a clone has taken their place in their families. Beautiful backgrounds are ruined with some drab character designs and flat animation.
Odd One Out will probably annoy hardcore Halo fans but at least it's light relief.
Babysitter feels more like forced fan service as it features a squad of ODSTs (with a cameo by Halo:ODST's Dutch?) supporting a Spartan on a mission to assassinate a Prophet. The wimpy, naive and whining trooper “O'Brian” is the weakest aspect of the story as his character really doesn't fit in the established canon of the tough, grizzled, experienced ODSTs. Emotionally void and predictable with some vague Forerunner intrigue shoe horned in, The Babysitter is also sadly lacking in the animated originality and beauty of 'The Duel'. A surprising disappointment from Eiko Tanaka who did great work on the Animatrix.
For most the highlight will be 'The Package'. For those in the know, imagine an extended version of the awesome cut scene in Halo Wars where three Spartans take on a large group of Elite Bodyguards. From the Director of Appleseed, Shinji Aramaki, The Package is the only time we get to see Spartan 117 The Master Chief in action, joined by his closest team mates Spartans- 104 and -087; Fred and Kelly respectively.
Joined by two, sadly, rather disposable other Spartans, Red Team partake in some visually staggering CG space battles riding heavily armed flying gauss cannons before fighting their way through a Covenant Carrier and defeating hundreds of Covenant to save a rather youthful Dr Halsey. The non-stop action is intensified by some clever first person shooter perspective shots and respectable nods to the Halo universe such a Fred's proficiency with a combat knife. The whole movie rivals Star Wars: The Clone Wars in quality and raises some interesting questions.
The Package actually feels like a pilot for something much bigger. It introduces new and unique features to the Halo universe such as Red Teams own cloaked cruiser, establishes opposing Covenant characters and with Peter Jackson's seemingly long lost Halo:Chronicles in mind – could we see a Halo TV series?
Halo Legends is a thoroughly enjoyable package which also features 'Making Of ViDocs' for all the movies and Audi Commentary from Frankie O'Connor and Producer Joseph Chou. Disappointing Blu-Ray menus and the odd Halo canon howler can be ignored thanks to the sheer class of other movies. Highlights like 'The Package' and 'The Duel' make this a must own for Halo fans and a great buy for animé lowers worldwide.
Legends is a collection of seven short movies from numerous different Japanese animé creators in a similar vein to The Animatrix. Each tale is a stand alone story which gives us additional insight into the Halo universe or just rocks our Halo fanboy socks off.
The first movie is called Origins Parts 1 and 2 and is a basic summing up of both Forerunner and Human history so far. If you're a new comer to the Halo extended universe then this is really helpful at setting the scene for what happens in the Halo games. They're narrated by Cortana as she spends time mulling over humanities violent history while trapped with Master-Chief at the location of the destroyed Arc. A mix of fantastic art and stylish CG gives the movie a great look and Halo fans will enjoy the references to other extended universe fictions as well as the hints of rampancy within Cortana.
The startling visuals of The Duel make it really stand out.
One of the best movies in the collection is the brilliant 'The Duel' by Production I.G. Created by two of the men behind classic Japanese animés like Ghost in a Shell. Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Mamoru Oshii bring the tale of the original Arbiter which follows the tragic tale of a powerful Sangheili champion who refuses to bow to the Prophets teaching. It's a powerful story with great action and influences drawn from Japanese history. The outstanding aspect of the short film is the beautiful way in which it's rendered. With standard CG run through a water colour filter to make the whole thing look like a living water colour painting.
Creators of Dragon Ball Z, Toei Animation, contribute the rather bizarre 'Odd One Out' which stars the rather cringe worthy Spartan 1337. If you've seen DBZ then you know what to expect. A crazy plot, over-powered baddies, super-human kids and indulgent fight scenes. With some comedy thrown into the mix this one is bound to annoy the Halo hardcore but it does act as light relief from the other heavy weight tales.
Prototype is up next from Studio Bones and is an action packed piece with great Mech action. A stony cold CO takes control of a prototype Spartan suit with some serious weaponry to regain his lost honour and save his men from certain death at the hands of the Covenant. Not really a surprise that Mech combat made it into an animé compilation, and there are some strong comparisons between Platoon Commander “Ghost” and Gundam Wing's Heero Yui. A fun piece nonetheless.
Homecoming and Babysitter are perhaps the weakest on show here. The tiresome 'Homecoming' follows a group of renegade Spartans that escaped from their training to hunt out their lost lives only to find a clone has taken their place in their families. Beautiful backgrounds are ruined with some drab character designs and flat animation.
Odd One Out will probably annoy hardcore Halo fans but at least it's light relief.
Babysitter feels more like forced fan service as it features a squad of ODSTs (with a cameo by Halo:ODST's Dutch?) supporting a Spartan on a mission to assassinate a Prophet. The wimpy, naive and whining trooper “O'Brian” is the weakest aspect of the story as his character really doesn't fit in the established canon of the tough, grizzled, experienced ODSTs. Emotionally void and predictable with some vague Forerunner intrigue shoe horned in, The Babysitter is also sadly lacking in the animated originality and beauty of 'The Duel'. A surprising disappointment from Eiko Tanaka who did great work on the Animatrix.
For most the highlight will be 'The Package'. For those in the know, imagine an extended version of the awesome cut scene in Halo Wars where three Spartans take on a large group of Elite Bodyguards. From the Director of Appleseed, Shinji Aramaki, The Package is the only time we get to see Spartan 117 The Master Chief in action, joined by his closest team mates Spartans- 104 and -087; Fred and Kelly respectively.
Joined by two, sadly, rather disposable other Spartans, Red Team partake in some visually staggering CG space battles riding heavily armed flying gauss cannons before fighting their way through a Covenant Carrier and defeating hundreds of Covenant to save a rather youthful Dr Halsey. The non-stop action is intensified by some clever first person shooter perspective shots and respectable nods to the Halo universe such a Fred's proficiency with a combat knife. The whole movie rivals Star Wars: The Clone Wars in quality and raises some interesting questions.
The Package actually feels like a pilot for something much bigger. It introduces new and unique features to the Halo universe such as Red Teams own cloaked cruiser, establishes opposing Covenant characters and with Peter Jackson's seemingly long lost Halo:Chronicles in mind – could we see a Halo TV series?
Halo Legends is a thoroughly enjoyable package which also features 'Making Of ViDocs' for all the movies and Audi Commentary from Frankie O'Connor and Producer Joseph Chou. Disappointing Blu-Ray menus and the odd Halo canon howler can be ignored thanks to the sheer class of other movies. Highlights like 'The Package' and 'The Duel' make this a must own for Halo fans and a great buy for animé lowers worldwide.
