Gamer Films: Halo Legends

A Halo goes round and round.  Today's film is Halo Legends, a film that I've put off watching for a long time.  Why?  Well, I can break it down into a series of facts.  One- I'm not a huge fan of the game series.  I've played them all to some extent, but I'm not really a 'fan' of it.  Second- I'm still not a huge Anime fan either.  Third- I liked Batman: Gotham Knight (which was a very similar concept), but wasn't 'in love' with it. I like Batman a hell of a lot better than I do Halo too.  So, having said all of that, what did I think about the film?  It's...got its moments.  I'm still not a huge fan of these Character/Series Anthology Films, be it this film, Knight or Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (creative title, huh?).  There's a place for those stories, but I prefer a film to have ONE story.  I'll take DC's more narrative films like Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths or Batman: Year One.  The film attempts to explain the back-story on the overall series in two parts, but mostly just tells random stories for the rest of it.  For a more complete break down, read on...

'Origins' tells the back-story on the series'...um, origins.  It's a lot of neat filler to explain who some aliens called Forerunners are.

If you want closure for this story, apparently you need to play Halo 4...maybe.

'The Duel' is a neat story of the Arbiter- a secondary lead from Halo 2 and on- fighting for honor.

The problem for me, however, is the weird Watercolor filter put on it.  It looks neat...for a few minutes.

'Homecoming' is a neat tale, but weirdly-schmaltzy.  The tone is really bleak here and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel.  I'm...confused by this one a bit.

'Odd One Out' is my favorite story tone-wise.  It's a mildly-goofy comedy tale about Spartan 1337- which is Leetspeak talk for 'LEET'- fighting a giant monkey-alien thing.

It's funny, but I was expecting something more like Red vs. Blue.  Oh well.

'Prototype' is a good segment for Action, but bad segment for emotional-writing.  There's sub-text so forced and blunt that it is pretty much just text-text.

As I said, good action though, even if it did remind me of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.

'The Babysitter' is a decent little tale about Space Marines learning not to necessarily feel challenged by the Spartans.  Again, it beats you over the head with the emotional weight and just feels forced.  It's still not *bad* though.

'The Package' is the best part of this.  It's the most interesting-looking CG animation here.  It stands out for using 3-D modeling.

It's action-packed and worth seeing this film for.  It's the equivalent of the Tyrant fight from Damnation.  The End.

It's a mixed-bag with no real bad parts.  I liked this Anthology...but I'm not in love with it.  There's usually more of a connection in these Anthology films.  In Gotham Knight, it's a series of scenes set in mostly-chronological order.  In Emerald Knights, it's famous Lanterns telling their exploits as they prepare for the fight of their life.  In this film, it's just a bunch of Halo shorts.  Like I said, there are no bad parts.  The problem is that there is no Framing Device of any kind.  If you watched the first four shorts and got bored, there's no story element to keep you watching.  It's almost like it was made to be sold together and then immediately separated.  I guess that's okay, but this is generally presented as a 'film.'  I'm nitpicking a bit, but I can't be the only one to have this problem.  If you like the franchise, you'll have more of a connection to the individual tales.  If you're a fan of the individual Anime Studios, you'll like seeing their work.  If you fit into neither category, you'll be of a more mixed opinion like I was.  It does give us this great shot though...

Next up, I give thanks by watching something bad.  Have fun diagnosing that logic while you stuff your face with Turducken!  Stay tuned...