Voltes V: Legacy

FINAL UPDATE: First early episodes sucks balls. Bear with it, it gets better, it gets really really better, just ignore the bad acting of some parts

All budget went to CGI, CGI was good for a filipino film but everything else was bad, acting was cringe except for the veteran actors like Dennis Trillo etc., the storyboarding and the cinematography was awful, there are scenes which the context was skipped, alot of scenes which badly executed, couple of dead air shots without sense, the sound design is extremely painful, There are times where you wont hear any sounds, the environment is silent, only voices are heard, the gun firing sounds sounds like it was just put there on top of the clip not matching the shots. Terrible ending per episode, They cut like this was a 1 Full movie and cut to episodes, there are no cliffhangers on end of episodes so far to excite the viewers for the next episode, it just randomly cuts and show credits.

I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt as this is a daily episodic series, but unlike other daily episodic series, this was given time and budget to release a finished quality product, no reason for them to release a trashy series.

I blame GMA for still getting Mark Reyes, cuz he is old school and never evolved, unlike Hollywood directors which are timeless(Scorsese,Tarantino,Spielberg etc.) Quality Films even at age 60-80.

Filipino old directors never tend to evolve in directing style, writing and etc. I hope they've given this project to a younger director with fresh ideas and relevant writing. Zig Dulay excecuted Maria Clara and Ibarra very well given the daily episodic setup, Although major scenes in MCI were not perfect, I appreciate the cinematography and the concept of what Zig is trying to send, also MCI was unexpectedly unpredictable.

I've actually defended this from other bashers during the trailer release as I was hyped and surprised about the CGI quality but got really disappointed of the finished product.

I get how foreign people support this as this is a first in Philippine Cinema, and people praise this as support, But lets be real here, Aside from the CGI, nothing was good here,. Even the ColorGrading was awful, it looked like a cheap oldschool Encantadia palette (which was very untimely now) very old school TV look very 2005-2007 GMA 7 Fantaserye vibe.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for this, but I wont be blinded and fake praise this just for the gist of it. I'm criticizing this to make sure the next one would be better. If people think this is good, then future films wont make improvements

Lihim ni Urduja was waaay better in quality/writing/cinematography compared to this. Sad to say but Kick out Mark Reyes.

PS: Changed my rating, Story picked up Pace after at episode 10 Action made up for what was lacking, even the cringe acting became somewhat acceptable in some parts. STILL Sound Design is trash, acting overall is trash, but the storyboarding improved Not sure if this will be consistent, hopefully it will. The Color palette still looks awful some scenes look like they are oilpaintings. And this Telenovela Colorgrading should be removed from TV.

Another Update: OK I was wrong but the early episodes were really trash, I must say this has gotten awesome.

An honest review from a long time fan from the late 80s. VVL has managed to meet my expectations with the robot model, the base and most of the technical elements of Voltes V. The CGI is far better than anything we have seen so far from Philippine film and television. Though still needs a lot of improvement to be at par with international standards, but they are getting there. Now on to the story. I find some elements added to the original story like the romantic links between several characters (which I will not mention anymore as they are very easy to spot once you watch) are unnecessary and kind of derails from the original story which did not have any romantic links with the main characters as Voltes V was created with the intent to focus on family love, brotherhood and camaraderie and the Armstrong brother's longing to be with their father hence the original closing theme was titled: Chi chi Wo Motomete ("I Want Father") to emphasize the focus of family love instead of romantic love. We still at episode 19 so there are still a lot to see if the PH live-action adaptation will stay true and canon to the original story or will it be just a revised NON-Canon version of Voltes V from an alternate verse. I will update my review once we get halfway through the series @ ep 40. 😉

Who never knew that one day, our childhood memories will be on live action!

The graphics are beyond the expectations!

The building up of characters are well detailed, from the introduction up to the identification of the individual characters.

Voltes V es importancia!

You made the Voltes V and the Voltus V fans around the world experience the sweet childhood memories! All of memories are coming back once again.

A lot of questions from the Original animation was answered by the show.

The story is like box of gifts, full of surprises and more unexpected things!

Whoever did this adaptation needs warmest salutations!

To be honest I love the anime version. This live adaptation is quite different from the original version. There are too much romantic scene between Isabel ortega and Miguel Tan Felix. The dirdctor puts too much unnecessary scenes and deviates from the original. Changes are ok as long as it's good but that is not the case. That is the reason why it will end sooner than the likes of Abot kamay na pangarap.

Another thing I don't like is putting elle villanueva as ex lover of Miguel which never happened in the original series. They are just doing this to give the actress exposure.

When the robot fights, they put too much emphasis on the pilots rather than the robot. Those who watched the anime don't appreciate this. Only fanboys and fangirl of the actors and actress will like those things. I hope they put more emphasis on the robot fighting rather than showing the faces of all pilots each time the robot makes a move.

My 2 kids and I were so hyped when the show was announced however after few days of watching we no longer want to watch it because of the said reasons above. My kids prefer watching netflix YouTube instead or play outside. They said there are too much conversation between the cast and there are too few fighting scenes.

Remember we want to watch voltes V because of the fighting scenes not because we want to see the actor and actresses talk. They are like making voltes V a telenovela.

While this show is still a little far from what Hollywood movies can offer, this is definitely a 10/10 as a Filipino Show. Darna TV Series is nothing compared to this even the fact that it was highly anticipated. This is 10 times better than what the Filipinos are used seeing production wise. This deserves a huge support and I hope this will just be the beginning of something great for the Philippine Entertainment Industry.

I can just imagine how better this could have been if this was a movie instead. As I watch the episodes, I notice how dependent to post production this show is. The witty thing I notice is that they focus on perfecting the VFX for the essential scenes and that's a great decision considering the budget.

I just really hope this would be the start of bigger things for Filipinos. The Philippine Entertainment Industry should take risks like this because if they don't who will? And if not now, when?