Guns Blazing: A Review of Halo Legends

I had been meaning to watch Halo Legends for quite some time, but for various reasons not worth getting into didn't for a long time, despite it even being available for instant streaming on Netflix.

However, I finally got around to it. Overall I'd say it was pretty good, but similar to the Animatrix, it's hard to judge the collection as a whole, since they are all quite different (not just in terms of tone, but also animation style, studio, etc.) Instead I'll be doing a series of short thoughts on each of pieces.

[Spoilers in all the following, so if you care, don't read]

Prototype

This was probably one of my favorites from the entire set. The flashback at the beginning felt a little funny, and I felt there was more room to explore and I kept expecting to get a bit more detail, but whatever. The important point is we got a super nicely animated giant robot not centered around an character-less Spartan, which made for a very nice change. It didn't have a lot that really shouted "Halo" at me, except for the character designs and the Covenant, but it managed to give a nice, short glimpse with some terse combat and fighting that I quite enjoyed; perhaps I even enjoyed it a bit more because it wasn't trying to force itself too heavily to be obviously Halo, and instead just set a story within the universe and let it play out. Either way, a good little piece.

The Package

This episode I actually saw a few months before watching the rest, and at the first viewing I really disliked it for a number of reasons. On a rewatching, I have to say honestly that it didn't really improve at all. To begin with, unlike the other pieces, The Package uses CGI, so it comes across as a kind of glorified cutscene, which is somewhat disappointing. What is essentially attempts to do is render what Master Chief and the Spartans are always depicted as in-lore as a scene that would be appropriate in-game, even so far as having a few brief moments where you get a 1st person POV shot from some of the Spartans, and naturally it mimics the Halo game HUD. However, this whole set-up just feels forced and contrived to me. 

The biggest problem I have with it, though, like the problem I had with Reach, is that is completely disregards 'canon' in a number of ways and is completely unapologetic about it. I actually really like the lore and universe that Halo uses, despite the fact that not much of it shows up in-game; some of the novels and similar products are actually really good. However, like Reach, this episode takes the time fans spent reading those books and gives them a giant middle finger. How was Dr. Halsey captured by the Covenant? Why is she so young? Why are these Spartan IIs going on a mission that is decidedly unlike their normal modus operandi? None of this is really explained, and instead the episode comes off like a bad Hollywood action flick where all the focus is on the explosions, and the story falls completely to the wayside and decides to incorporate some of the less interesting aspects of the video game. 

The episode has redeeming qualities, to be sure, but these flaws were far too glaring for me to truly enjoy it.

The Duel

Initially this episode threw me off a bit, since it by far has the most unusual art style of the entire set. Once I got into it though, I was able to appreciate a very well-crafted story from a non-human point of view, which was again a nice change. I don't think I can actually say I liked the art-style, per se, but I appreciated what Prodution I.G. was trying to accomplish, and it certainly is not bad. 

The one thing that bothered me was I felt the timelines jumped a little too much, and given that it is very hard to distinguish the Sangheili from one another without armor, I was slightly confused about some of the secondary characters. 

Again though, like Prototype, the episode tells an interesting story with excellent action scenes that's very different than what you get in the video games, which is exactly what secondary material like this DVD are supposed to do. It's not a fantastic episode, but it's definitely solid.

Homecoming

I would probably say Homecoming was my 3rd favorite episode from the set. Again, it told an interesting story that addressed a point I had wondered briefly about long ago, the fact that all the Spartan candidates had been stolen and replaced with flash-clones. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to see this issue addressed in a very interesting manner, and to suggest that not all of the Spartan candidates adjusted to the fact that they were ripped from their families, never to see them again. The books just give the perspective of John, who is all about honor and duty and sees his selection as a chance to serve humanity, but it definitely makes sense that every child did not feel that way. 

Again, I will levy the complaint that I felt the episode jumped around a tiny bit too much and seemed more jarring that comparing. I was also a bit confused with the suggestion that a Spartan drop-out would join the Marines, which is never very clearly explained. However, the episode attempts to do a more sympathetic story of a Spartan, which I appreciate a lot, and does it quite well.

Origins: Part 1 & 2

Origins was definitely my favorite of the set, which isn't too surprising since the similar two-part backstory anime in the Animatrix was likewise my favorite of that volume. The episode deals with a lot of the backstory that comes across to a degree in the novels, but is barely scratched in the games (or only thinly implied), and so it was very nice to see a nice, artistic depiction of those events. It also felt like it would be a great intro into the universe. I don't really have a lot more to say; if anything, my only real complaint is some of Cortana's lines felt a bit weird, but that is a very minor point. Definitely enjoyable.

Babysitter

I'll admit I was intrigued on an episode focusing on the ODSTs, badasses that they were supposed to be. Overall the episode didn't really disappoint in that regard, although I questioned how such a whiny main protagonist could be an ODST as they are depicted in the novels, but it's Japan so it's only to be expected. The big drawback that I felt this episode suffered from was once again having personality-less Spartans. Although in this case she was being purposefully silent in order to make the surprise reveal towards the end more impactful, instead what it ended up doing for me is just making me care almost nothing for her character. I'm not sure if the overall sort of "meh"-ness of the episode was just a personal thing, or a flaw in the writing (it did feel pretty formulaic) but whatever the reason, it just didn't really click for me. Again, it's not a bad episode, it's just not great.

Odd One Out

I get what they were trying to do here: make a comedic, tongue-in-cheek send up of Master Chief, complete with internet meme references. However, to cut to the point: it just didn't work for me. The jokes all fell flat, the action was silly (not in a good way), and the voice actor for the main character annoying (maybe he was supposed to be, and  if so he definitely was). Nothing really worked for me at all, which makes this episode easily my least favorite of the set. 

Overall I'd say Halo Legends is solid; not fantastic, but a bit better than I was expecting. I think the Animatrix is a slightly better collection considering the two were attempting to do something very similar, but if there's a lead it's a very close one. If you're at all a fan of Halo lore it's definitely worth watching, but I'd also say one or two are worth skipping depending on your interests and whether what I've said resonates with you. 

-HTMC