Red vs. Blue

I'm not fond of the XBox/PC game Halo by any means. I consider it a very average and unremarkable shooter, save for its use of vehicles. But even with that said, the satirical machinima series Red vs. Blue will always occupy a place in my heart.

The show is shot entirely using the XBox version of Halo, albeit with the game's HUD cropped out. (The aiming reticule is still there, and although it can be a bit distracting at first, you get used to it, and it's part of RVB's "independent film" appeal.) Other than some visual touch-ups, everything there is real and can be duplicated. Also, all of the characters look alike, so they are differentiated via the colors of their armor.

So what's it about? The series lampoons numerous things, including shooters, military life, sci-fi culture, and Halo itself (Church: "These arms aren't that flexible!"). It's set in the rather plain box canyon known as Blood Gulch (a multiplayer map in Halo) during the period between Halo and Halo 2. At one end is the base of the Blue Team; at the other, the Red Team base. Both sides are caught in a fierce deadlock during a capture-the-flag game. In reality, both teams are incredibly inept and would rather spend their time bickering, finding ways to kill time (such as tossing rocks through a teleporter), or just sort of spying on the other team.

On the Blue Team is Church, the sarcastic, impatient leader; Tucker, his somewhat serious-minded partner; and Caboose, the scatterbrained rookie who is often the origin of RVB's many famous quotes.

The Red Team is not much better, though. There's Sarge, a sergeant (duh) with an outlandish Southern American accent; Grif, the soldier who is the butt of most of Sarge's criticism; Simmons, a soldier who gets respect from Sarge and is accused by Grif of being a kiss-ass; Donut, a weird newbie in pink/lightish red armor (even though he's a guy); and Lopez, a robot whose speech unit shorts out later in the series, allowing him to only speak Spanish.

The teams don't stay put, though, and before long, all sorts of weird things happen. The Reds receive a Warthog-class jeep, leaving the Blues to compare it with their own tank in terms of attracting girls. Caboose inadvertently kills Church by blasting him with the tank. Church, now a ghost, possesses Sarge's body and makes him spit inside his own helmet. And that's just the first 19-episode season. But what really makes RVB shine is its great writing, scripting, and voice work.

My brother's friend had a DVD laying around next to his HALO game. He brought it over to my house and I ended up watching it with them. I get introduced to a civil war between the red team and the blue team. Other than subtle differences, they have similar characters- trigger happy warmongers Sarge and Tex, sarcastic slackers Grif and Tucker, oddballs Donut and Caboose, with Simmons and Church as the only guys with any amount of common sense in the box canyon with no way in or out.

I love everything about this series. The rivalries the teams have with each other, within the teams themselves, there is never a dull moment. Even in its third season, it still makes me laugh despite being a little juvenile. If you ever take a break from the story, be sure to watch the Public Service Announcements they offer, especially the holiday ones. I have tried to spread the word about this series, now my other brother is a fan. I highly recommend it.

Red vs Blue is a fanfiction (I refuse to call it mechanimation or whatever) detailing the goofy exploits between a red and blue base of soldiers from the game "Halo." Made by a bunch of geeks (who happen to have an awesome sense of humor), it definitely shines where other fanmade projects fail.

The show has 9 defineable characters. On the blue side, there's Church, possibly the only sane character on the planet with an attitude problem; Tucker, his "friend" (tentatively speaking) who tends to be bullied a lot by Church; Caboose, the new guy who's blissfully unaware of everything that's happening; and Tex, the mercenary who is hired to assist the Blues.

On the red side, there's Sarge, the gung-ho, Texas-accented stereotypical drill sargaent character who also happens to be severely messed up; Grif, a talkative, somewhat absent-minded guy who's picked on by Sarge a lot; Simmons, possibly the only other sane guy on the planet who also has his nose shoved up Sarge's rear; Donut, the somewhat stupid, but well-meaning new guy; and Lopez, the silent but efficient robot built by Sarge.

Each character is brought to life very aptly by their actors, who manage to make it more believable by adding an effect to the voices that make it sound like they really are communicating through radio headsets. For the most part, the acting is very believable and real, all of the characters are well portrayed, adding to the enjoyment of the show.

Each episode is hilarious for at least a dozen reasons, the story is well thought out, using twists and turns and referring to things that could have easily been discarded as a throwaway joke. The show also has a wit to it that could appeal to a broad range of audiences, though most tends to rely on gay humor that may be offensive, but anyone who's watching a parody of a videogame should be pretty loose when it comes to humor, anyways.

There's not much else to say about the show, it has a solid storyline, highly above average acting, manipulates the graphics of Halo very well, and is generally light hearted and fun. With that, I leave you with these parting words:

Sarge - See these tire hooves? They look kinda like tusks, what kind of animal has tusks? Grif - . . . A walrus. Sarge - What did I just tell you about making up animals?!

I love it. These guys are hilarious, and even though a lot of it is basically dumb humor, that's what makes it so funny. Even if you've never played Halo, you'll enjoy these, since they often are playing off some of the elements in games that don't make the most sense - example- "A dry creek bed in a box canyon, no discernable way in or out" and the deal with the flags (capture the flag)...it's all great. The characters are all awesome, even the vehicles - the warthog and the tank, have character, believe it or not. And it's quotable, they have some great quotes...."That is not how you were trained to do that!"

RedVsBlue is great. I'm a mondo Halo fan, and this is the best short webshow I've seen in ages.

I had heard about the "Red Vs. Blue" thing from G4 a few times. They use a process called machinema where you use prerendered game engines for the movie. These people did Halo, and placed it in Gulch, a multi-player map in Halo. They recorded all this stuff and stuck it together into these short web shorts that would eventually make a season, which is more like a feature length movie, about and hour 1/2.

I have dial-up so it took forever to get the first few videos and for me it wasn't worth it. So whenever it came out as a movie on DVD at gamestop, I had to go get it! I was blessed ten fold from what I expected! It is hilarious! Most of the jokes are really funny and some try to be funny, fail, and are still funny! It does have many Insiders so I might advise watching the commentary after you've watched the original movie.

Everything has character and personality. Its not what you would expect a Halo movie to be about. It does have a little combat but just a little. Its all about the funny in this movie. Itis about these two groups of Spartans, one is Red and the other Blue (hence the name) and somehow they are in this civil war in the middle of a canyon fighting for flags. OK the fighting for flags is awesome for multi player games, but not for a story line. The awesome thing is they admit it! When asked why they needed the flag and why it was important they didn't have an answer! They just stuttered and said something like its the flag! We've gotta have it! So if you are out looking for a gift for the Halo fanatic in your family or just anyone ready for a good laugh, pick this one up. Caution, it cusses...a lot...but its still funny :D