Paul Lancione Halo Legends ReviewVideo Games are growing rapidly as a medium, and in turn the games are growing larger in their own respects. An example of one of these franchises is Halo. While to many it's just a series of shooter games, it actually has a complex story arch and an incredibly vast universe. Halo Legends explores this aspect of the series through animated shorts. These shorts vary from more serious and dramatic pieces, to more light-hearted shorts. While there is certainly room for improvement, Halo Legends can certainly hold its own as a great staple of the Halo franchise. Each short is directed by a different director that is well known for their skill in animation. The project was led by Frank O'Connor, the creative head of the Halo Franchise. Some of the other directors include Shinji Aramaki, Hideki Futamura, Toshiyuki Kan'no, and Yasushi Muraki. The shorts feature many voice actors, including Josh Grelle, Greg Ayres, Luci Christian, and David Matranga. Halo Legends allows the viewer to explore the expanse that is the Halo universe from multiple different perspectives. These perspectives vary from an Arbiter struggling with the conflict between his beliefs and the beliefs of his superiors, to a squad of ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) following a Spartan on a mission to take out a prophet.None of these scenarios seem too far-fetched. They all feel at home in the Halo universe, and for the most part it seems as though the directors did their research. Having different directors for each short was the right call. It gives each short a distinctive voice, and makes each perspective feel unique. Something else that I enjoyed about the shorts were the animation styles. Each short has its own distinct style of animation, to help create the unique atmosphere of each short. The animation is beautiful in its own respect, but it also helps accomplish the goal of setting the atmosphere quite effectively. One short, The Duel, fell short in this. The animation itself was fine, but there was a filter over the whole short. This made the short look blurry, and it became annoying to watch after a while. A creative decision that I feel was intelligent was the decision to use the pre-existing Halo score instead of writing new music for the shorts. It helped make the shorts feel more at home in the Halo universe, and gives the viewers who are familiar with the Halo franchise a greater emotional response. That, and the Halo score is some of the greatest music ever written. An issue that I had with the film was how some of the directors ignored integral aspects of the Halo lore. I have previously stated that the directors did their research, which is a statement I stand by, but there were a few moments that left me puzzled. The most obvious examples of this are when certain characters interact that could never have been able to interact based off of the previously established lore. All in all, Halo Legends is a great film. The directors took great care in producing stories that fit well into the Halo cannon, and it holds up as an animation regardless. That being said, there were some creative decisions that were detrimental to the overall quality of the film. While my opinion may be biased, I would give Halo Legends a solid 7.5/10.

moviecyborg This series of seven stories can't be beat. I love every minute of this series and I still can't believe how good the finale was. The animation is amazing and the voice-overs were excellent. The lipsyching is a little off but I don't care. The action is awesome and the "camera" angles are fantastic. The Package has amazing CGI and when the Spartans are completely covered by their armor they look real. The cartoons are incredibly detailed and so is the blood. The paintings for the duel are great and the energy swords look great. You need to see Halo Legends I gave it a ten out of ten and if that doesn't persuade you to see it I don't know what will. Overall Halo Ledgends is a must see for anyone who enjoys action movies but be forewarned Halo Legends is rated PG-13 for a reason.

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).

Reviewafilm This is truly pathetic. Why make a movie from a milked game? Especially since they haven't even bothered to use real actors, oh no, they decided to make an anime film. Anime has to be the worst kind of film there is. Its bad enough they made the film, but they fact they made it in Anime shows that they can not do anything they originally planned to do. It is a truly terrible movie, even for Halo fans. If you are looking forward to this film, kill your excitement now so you are not let down while you watch it. Truly a terrible film at best. Why did Bungie even bother trying to milk the Halo franchise this far? It should have been left as a game. Save ourself the money and don't buy it.