Halo Legends

I must say, this was quite a surprise. About a decade ago, Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionized how games, specifically first-person shooters, should be played. What followed was a succession of sequels, each being better than the last one. Inevitably, a movie was not far away. With the possible live-action movie postponed by companies fighting over it, this anime was created help satisfy fans and keep them waiting for the live-action film. It does its job well.

In a style similar to "Batman: Gotham Knight", Halo Legends consists of several action-packed episodes, each made by a different studio, having its own unique artwork/animation, and basically revealing a certain aspect of the Halo universe. The episodes are Origins Part 1 and 2 (history of the Halo universe), The Dual (how the Arbiter became a title of shame), Homecoming (the horror of the Spartan II program), Odd One Out (a ridiculous non-canon episode), Prototype (the first Spartan armor), The Babysitter (ODST-Spartan rivalry), and the Package (Master Chief and company go in to retrieve a heavily-guarded package).

Odd One Out is the only flaw in this movie. Everything else is excellent. Beautiful animation, wonderful music, awesome action scenes, and great stories. This is as good as the games. Fans will most likely enjoy this and so will you. In the words of the Master Chief, "... we're just getting started," because soon enough the live action movie will arrive.

I always applaud companion content to a beloved story, so I was kind of having high expectations about Halo Legends. Unfortunately, it all felt really cheap and uncoordinated.

You get seven animated stories in two hours, with various animations styles, various directors and so on, made by Japanese animators. With the considerable talent they've got over there and the resources of 343 Studios and Microsoft, this should have been amazing. Instead, the 2d animation felt like some 1980 anime and the last one, a 3D animated segment that looked like made with the Halo engine, was pretty weak.

But the problem was not really the animation, because I don't care about that, it was the stories. There were not bad per se, but they were not even close to special either. Probably the one with the Arbiter was one of the best, but the animation style was weird and took me out of the story - also it needed a lot more context to be understood, even if you know the lore. I liked the sniper mission one the best, but the childish dialogue again ruined it.

Bottom line: some entertainment value, but ultimately cheap looking and boring.

I played a fair few Halo games in my gaming days (mostly Combat Evolved, Halo 3, ODST, and then Halo: Reach), but I have to be honest: I never really got into the story or background all that much for any of them. Maybe I should've, because the first two parts of Halo Legends proved very interesting, and made me appreciate the universe and backstory of this series a great deal more.

After that, the remaining five shorts are a bit of a mixed bag, as is to be expected from an anthology film, but I generally found more good here than bad. The most memorable of the bunch, beyond Origins, is probably the wacky very anime-esque episode following Spartan 1337. That one was actually pretty funny, though I can imagine it annoying series diehards, because it kind of makes fun of the Halo series in general.

Halo Legends fluctuated between the most and least seriously I've ever taken a piece of Halo media, and for that, I have to hold a weird amount of respect for it.

this is a good movie overall but is lacking the necessary fast paced action that halo fans have learned to love and deserve. you can checkout www.streamhalo.com to checkout the latest and best live gaming streams of all the halo titles!!so you can watch a slow story based movie or you can jump in and watch some of the fastest paced and best players in the halo universe.

HALO Legends is like Batman: Gotham Knight and The Animatrix in that it is a anthology movie that contains eight episodes chronicling the much beloved HALO video game universe. The tales told include (but are not limited to): A soldier with no emotion fighting off Covenant forces in a badass power armor suit, a group of ODST's and a SPARTAN assassinating a Prophet, the origin of The Flood and The Forerunners, and a SPARTAN down on his luck. All of the episodes are well animated, containing some breathtaking moments, and the many action scenes are pure eye candy. The dialogue is well penned and well voiced, with the strongest episode being the origins of the SPARTAN program. However, the one episode that really sticks out in a "not so god" kind of way is the one about the unlucky SPARTAN, in that it tries to be all jokey and stuff. Problem is, not all of the jokes are funny. But despite the one episode being mediocre, the rest of the episodes are incredible and should be seem by anime fans, and if you are a HALO fan like me this is a must buy.