Escape to the Movies: Halo Legends

[solidstatemind]

The whole reason I laid into Bob was because his entire "review" really came off as a tirade against the subject matter, and left out any commentary about aspects which would be relevant to someone who didn't necessarily agree with his perspective about that subject matter. To me, that is when it ceases to be a review and becomes evangelism against the movie in question.

So? He did not like every bit of the movie but he praised the parts that according to him were considered a success. That's just HIS opinion. And again, I did not see any tirade. Just an opinion.

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you, but- to me at least, and I don't think I'm completely off my rocker here- his positive comments were all in the vein of 'this was cool/funny because it subtlely ripped the subject matter.' There was no discussion of editing, storyline, production values, direction, organization, etc. etc.

Look, as I said: I've got no problem with Bob ripping movies a new asshole, what I have a problem with is when he completely neglects to discuss objective aspects of moviemaking that might be relevant to those who may not agree with his subjective opinion about the material. The bottom line is that exact neglect shifts him from critic to demagogue.

I am consistent in my stance: I (and several others) tore into him about 'Book of Eli' because he spent the vast majority of his "review" ripping it apart because of the premise, and- literally- spent 15 seconds saying that it was generally well-acted and well-directed outside of that. Given that I don't carry the same prejudice against the 'post-apocalyptic bible salesman' theme, I was able to say to myself "I probably will enjoy this movie, even if I disagree with Bob about the premise". And I went. And you know what? I liked it. Not earth-shattering, but it was worth my time and money.

But Bob has ceased to even provide the 15 seconds of objective discussion. My guess is that he is following Yahtzee's lead and shoveling steaming mounds of vitriol to the masses in the pursuit of page-views. This is really, really fucking sad. You know why? Because I watched Bob's review of 2012 and thought to myself "wow, for the first time in my life, I can feel comfortable with a reviewer because they actually involve and discuss the technical merits of a film, instead of just telling me 'I liked this story/actor/director' or 'I hated this story/actor/director', and leaving me to determine if I think I will agree or not, which is something I expect to do with my friends' opinions, not that of a 'professional critic' who I don't even know."

I suppose I'll just quietly adopt the same attitude that I have with Yahtzee when I click on a MovieBob review: it's only entertainment and rarely if ever will offer any useful information for making a purchasing decision. (But wait! Isn't that the definition of demagoguery? You see where I'm going with this?) Honestly, that is just sad. Pathetic and sad, because I have thousands upon thousands of sources of entertainment, and- now- not even one person who has great knowledge of cinema and can advise me about the aspects and qualities of a film that I might otherwise be unaware of.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not expecting Bob's reviews to consist only of a dry 'film-school' dissection of the technical merits of each film, but dammit, I expect at least some discussion of those aspects.

 

[wildcard9]

Okay, as an assumptive fellow English major and a fellow opinionated person myself, I'd like to put my 2 cents in on Bob.

Bob is a biased individual. There's no disputing that. He's an old-school geek and a fan of genre films, Nintendo, and comic books. He dislikes derivative works such as Halo, especially setting the standard for other works to be just as derivative if not more so than the former. He's especially caustic towards the fans who impose such mediocre works as being superior to the others.

What we also have to realize is that every person is biased, especially reviewers. What sets them apart from the others is the ability to check their biases at the door and try to view a work neutrally in order to give a sound review. If the work in turn defies their biases and actually turns out good, they find it as an especially good work. If it affirms their biases, they find it as an especially bad work.

Bob's biases are very apparent, and we as viewers have to keep them in mind when viewing his reviews. His views on a work are going to be drastically different from some of us and closer to others. We just have to be aware of them when seeing a review and make our own judgment based on his view as opposed to ours. I respect and rather like his opinion and thus enjoy his work. If you disagree strongly with his work, I'd suggest to find another reviewer unless of course you like the contrast to your views.

I am rather indifreent to the Halo series and while I can't give a strong opinion on the series, I do veiw it as just an above-average work with a conventional story that refuses to break convention. There's no denying the franchise has grown stale, even stagnated over the years and deserves either a complete reinvention or must be put down like a rabid puppy. I am however impressed that a person with such strong views against the series can still view a work based off the former to be rather good intriguing and look forward to watching it, and perhaps making a review of my own.

 

[gamegod25]

Ok, I'd like to start by saying I agree about the animation of part 1. The designs are cool but some of the effects are just.... bad. Part 2 is shockingly shinier and uses 3-D animations alongside traditional animation. Just an FYI.

Now, to (and, no offense here) pick appart your comment. Fair warning, it's gonna get really nerdy in here, so if people aren't interested in the depth of the Halo universe (shut the fuck up, haters, yes there is depth, read one of the fucking books) I suggest you move on.

As for the humans being Forerunner, it does kind of hint to that, but I'm pretty sure it's more that the Forerunners loved Earth as the humans there were the closest to them, genetically, that they've ever found, and Earth is very similar to their home planet. That's what I think, at least.

Next point: yes, the Halos were activated millenia ago. 343 says "100,000 local years" meaning the years around that specific Halo, giving us a bit of leeway in saying how long it's been on Earth. Let's just say that it was about 70-80 thousand Earth years ago... Humans were around back then, just very primative. In fact, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
A friend of mine had to point this out to me, but the guys over at Bungie timed this extrodinarily well. During that event, humanity died off to anywhere from 20,000 to just 1,000 people. Of course, it's all theory, but to consider that to be when the Halos were activated is a pretty cool thought.

As for why they couldn't make a weapon to wipe the Flood, it's a simple thing of "we just can't". They couldn't find a way to make a weapon that targeted smaller life forms but not larger ones... that's how the Flood infection forms survived.

Now, as for preserving their entire race, let me give you an example grounded in real world... Let's say you are in command of an army. You're winning. You see no WAY you could possibly lose. But, one day, you recieve word that your enemy seems to all be running and hiding in a place you thought they wouldn't have a foothold. You go there only to find out that not only are they all hiding there, but they're creating a weapon that could decimate your armies, costing you the war. "Well, god DAMN!" you'd say. "It's a good thing that I saw them coming here!" And then you'd blast them to kingdom come, destroying them and their weapons. The Forerunners had to stay locked in combat with the Flood in order to distract them from the overall plan. They also couldn't evacuate civilians or else the Flood would have gotten sight of that too. The Halo strategy had to be carried out swiftly and without being noticed. The time between when the Halos were sent to their respective parts of the galaxy and when they were activated was probably a total of a couple hours. They had no time to save themselves.

Now, I'm not trying to completely destroy whatever your view of the Halo universe is. I'm just sharing what I've seen and been led to believe myself. In fact, Origins could be wrong. Cortana said herself that a lot of it was guesswork. But hey, we'll all find out soon enough... a trilogy of books are being written right now. The Forerunner Trilogy. We'll all see who's right then

No offense taken. Also I just rented Legends from a local rental place and just saw the second part. It does look better though I have some story nitpicks and general complaints for that one as well, but maybe some other time.

Anyway I've played all three games as well as read the secret terminals in Halo 3 and they still point to humanity being forerunner. They metion finding earth (dubbed eden if I recall) but no mention of any sentient life on it. That the planet was so similar to their own would explain why the surviving forerunners would settle there and why the portal to installation 00 would be located on earth. And again if humanity is not forerunner as Origin says then why can no other race activate the Halo arrays?

You misunderstood what I meant about saving themselves. Yes obviously they could not save everyone, but they could still save their race from going extict. They had the technology to preserve enough of a species to be sustainable. So why nt do the same for their own? We know they made shield worlds (Ghosts of Onyx) so why not use them?

As for the weapons both that excuse and the weapons they showed in the anime are a cop out IMO. They could build entire ring worlds but those puny laser pistols were the best they could do? So much for them having combat armor six times more powerful than a spartans MJOLNIR armor lol. Also it made no mention of an AI going rogue and joining the gravemind.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that IMO there are a lot of plot holes and continuity errors if Origins is to be believed. Maybe they have since decided to retconn the story. But at the end of the day all that matters is that Halo kicks ass despite what Bob might think ^_^

 

[nightwolf667]

If you think Gears of War and Halo are the only Western games out there Bob, then I think it's time you payed a visit to ANYWHERE THAT SELLS VIDEOGAMES. If you do, you'll see a wide range of titles with a wide range of characters in a wide range of genres that you appear to have missed.
Let me name a few that break your stereotype that are sitting on my shelf right now.
Brutal Legend
Mass Effect 1 and 2
Assassin's Creed II
Dragon Age
Uncharted 1 and 2
Bioshock
So...yeah.

You know, there are Western video games out there that break MovieBob's stereotype. You haven't named one yet. Actually, you've proved his point.

So...yeah.

 

[theultimateend]

Despite MovieBob's discrepancy for Halo who on earth plays Halo for the story?

Me?
A hell of a lot of people

That's why I quit playing.

The first game had a story, the second game had a commercial. I didn't even care when the third hit. I figured the trend would be the third would have a single player option that you click and Master Chief wags his hand at you disapprovingly.

Was a shame too because, other than the flood, I really enjoyed it. The multiplayer didn't feel any more refined than most shooters I had played up till that point so I'm still largely shocked it became such a cult phenomenon.

 

[helium sasquatch]

yay movie bob. another non-beleiver in the halo phenomenon (sp?)

 

[Canid117]

You do realize that not all Halo fans are raging dickholes right Bob?

Yeah, but the vast majority of them are.

I could say that all anime fans are annoying Otakus and I would be just as wrong as you are now.

 

[Talo_AML]

I think when Movie Bob says "While Japan is represented by...well everything else." I think he meant pre-teen girls pretending to be men.

 

[RTR]

I have to admit I was expecting Cop Out or The Crazies. I mean, it's a Kevin Smith film and a remake of a lesser known George Romero film. That's movie geekdom right there.

 

[cieply]

Just watched it. Complete and utter shit. I almost never have to force myself to watch a film but here it was a chore.

 

[MattZero]

I must say I like the way MovieBob approached this review. While Halo Legends certainly isn't anywhere near as good as Animatrix (particularity owing to, lets face it, the dull source material that is the Halo franchise), it's an interesting experiment and bizarre social turn-around. I can't even remember the last time Japan took a crack at an American franchise (at least, since the Animatrix).

It's almost as if Japan is getting revenge on the West for turning it's numerous franchises into dull Americanized remakes, a revenge that we've admittedly had coming for quite some time (see Silent Hill: Homecoming and the U.S. remake of One Missed Call if you're not convinced).

Despite MovieBob's discrepancy for Halo (which I'm willing to tolerate because, quite frankly, who on earth plays Halo for the story?) I think he nailed this review. Well done!

In addition to MovieBob's statements, I'd recommend Halo Legends to any Halo fan who wants to convince himself that the franchise still has some storytelling merit. It's no masterpiece, but unless you're a brainless idiot (like the majority of the underage Halo populace) you might enjoy it, or at least recognize it as a decent work of animation.

I feel that there is a bit of a reoccurring misunderstanding about the Matrix and the Animatrix in these posts. The live Matrix movies were basically live action reimaginings of anime. The Wachowski brothers commissioned the Animatrix from anime creators who had influenced their creation of The Matrix and oversaw the whole thing and they wrote several of the short themselves. That's partially why the Animatrix seems better than Gotham Knight and Halo Legends to fans of the franchise. Its as true to the source material as possible. The films are based on anime and an anime based on the films with the same writers/directors is going to be more of the same. With Gotham Knight and Halo Legends their source material has nothing to do with anime so while the Gotham Knight shorts were mostly written by comic book writers the art styles they ran with didn't fit traditional Batman ideas and Halo Legends has the same sort of problem. This is why The Animatrix seems "right" while Gotham Knight and Halo Legends feels like a "Mash-up".

I'm only really commenting on "Japan takes a crack at American Franchise"

 

[Badassassin]

Does anyone else see this as a terrible idea to start out with. Think of it this way, we all know movie games suck a big hollywood cock, right? Well why should it be any different the other way around? I mean, the only reason people make movie games (and this is just my opinion) is to please the fanboys who wanted to play as a 10 foot tall blue kitty kat person (just an example) no matter how much the actual game sucks.
So the only reason someone would think that a halo movie would be good, logically, is if they were uber fans, and japan even fucked up that. Why would they bastardize the story of halo when the people who will end up seeing the movie are the people who will get pissed at everything in it.
That's why this movie (short stories, whatever) utterly fails, if you're going to make a movie import of a video game maybe stick to the actual story word by word, or else the following you were hoping for will just turn out to be an angry mob.

 

[Awexsome]

Wow. This really has the haters of a lot of things out in force doesn't it?

Well I for one love Halo's storyline. You just have to look beyond the games. As for Legends I still need to see all of them (I missed the S-1337 episode dammit!) but I did catch, among a few, the Duel and I loved that one. In fact I'd say that the best part of the Halo series is the Covenant's side of the story since even though the SPARTAN's have a good storyline in the books there's no way around the 'manly space marine' mentality that people get.

Although I've seen more JRPG bashing low-lifes out in force in this thread. Anyone who bashed that picture of the two sides' good games as nothing being good on Japan's side is just a hater. Plain and simple.

 

[Enosh_]

meh personaly I tought Duel was very weak, didn't like the art style
The Odd one out, Homecoming and Origins otoh were siply amazing
the others were okay-ish

and your bias for Japanese games is simply laughable

 

[Badassassin]

Wow. This really has the haters of a lot of things out in force doesn't it?

Although I've seen more JRPG bashing low-lifes out in force in this thread. Anyone who bashed that picture of the two sides' good games as nothing being good on Japan's side is just a hater. Plain and simple.

Yeah I agree with that. I'm not saying it's bad because it's anime, that's just 12 year old xbox live bullshit. I'm saying it's bad because video game movies suck (despite the whopping 5 bob posted in the intermission). I think reality should go like this: no video game movies and no movie video games. It's like someone said before, video games are a medium. We don't need to be redundant by just bringing it to a new medium.

 

[rddj623]

Interesting, as always your opinion is appreciated Bob sounds like I'll check this one out at some point.

 

[s_glasgow99]

Sorry Bob,
I gotta second solidstatemind's opinion. The last couple of reviews have been... opinions, not the analysis that I have loved you for in the past. Your review on the reworked Star Trek comes directly to mind. It understood your preconceived opinions (hell, you opened the first half of your review with them) and then jumped into a brief analysis of script, acting, effects, set pieces. These analysis included jokes, but they didn't separate from the subject i.e. THE FILM ITSELF, not the subject it was based on, not the series it spawned from, not the actor's background or track record (btw, i personally think that Pegg could have phoned in Scotty's role and fans still would have loved because it's SIMON 'FREAKING' PEGG! Geek humor's only staple right now with Bruce Campbell doing crap all... haven't seen Burn Notice yet but I'm trying) wow... i meander as much as you do Bob...
That brings me to my next point. What I loved about Moviebob is the same thing I loved about GameOverthinker, it was an analysis, a frequently humorous one mind you, but still, an analysis.
I understand the limited timeframe of the creation of these segments mean that not as much depth is to be expected, but at least try man, because I love your stuff, and I want to keep loving your stuff.
Scott Glasgow

 

[Doug]

I think when Movie Bob says "While Japan is represented by...well everything else." I think he meant pre-teen girls pretending to be men.

Indeedie. Or rather, cartoon versions of pre-teen girls pretending to be men.

 

[Badassassin]

I think when Movie Bob says "While Japan is represented by...well everything else." I think he meant pre-teen girls pretending to be men.

Indeedie. Or rather, cartoon versions of pre-teen girls pretending to be men.

Or rather, all the characters he put when he said "while japan is represented by... well everything else"
not just preteen girls T_T