By Chris Snellgrove
| Printed
The time period “online game movie” makes many film lovers shudder, and for good purpose: field workplace historical past is crammed with terrible recreation variations, together with the notoriously grungy Tremendous Mario Bros. and the confusingly disjointed Wing Commander. Between these and different flops (together with Double Dragon and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), it’s simple for avid gamers to suppose there are not any good movies based mostly on their favourite titles. Nonetheless, the proper online game film dropped 15 years in the past, and it’s been quietly gaining a cult following ever since.
That film is Halo Legends (2010), an animated anthology that explores the world of Grasp Chief; he’s a Spartan charged with defending humanity from an encroaching alien menace, however even he can’t tackle a whole area empire by himself. This can be a movie that helps you study extra in regards to the fictional universe of Halo, bringing to life one of the crucial profitable franchises in online game historical past. Whether or not you wish to assist Grasp Chief “end this struggle” or simply vibe out to lovely animation and killer struggle scenes, you need to stream Halo Legends totally free on Tubi!
Time To End The Combat
The solid of Halo Legends is filled with some enjoyable surprises for anime followers, together with David Wald (finest identified for voicing the titular protagonist of Golgo 13) as Grasp Chief. In the meantime, Atsuko Tanaka (finest identified for voicing Main Kusanagi in Ghost within the Shell) performs Dr. Haley, Chief’s mom determine and the creator of Cortana. Talking of which, Ai Maeda (finest identified for voicing O-Ren in Kill Invoice’s anime sequence) performs Cortana, Chief’s personal AI-powered Woman Friday.
There isn’t any singular premise for Halo Legends: reasonably than telling one story, this anthology is damaged up into seven smaller movies specializing in totally different features of the Halo universe. A few of these are lore-heavy movies that develop our data of every thing from Covenant tradition to the connection between Flood and Forerunners. Different quick movies are simply cool facet tales that includes marines, Spartans, Helljumpers, and extra.
Little Film, Massive Affect
Regardless that it went straight to video, Halo Legends rapidly proved itself a Spartan-sized monetary success. It earned $11 million in DVD and Blu-Ray gross sales, and it was ranked because the second top-selling Blu-Ray the week of its launch. Sadly, this formidable anthology by no means bought a sequel, although most Halo followers will surely desire these animated adventures over the later, live-action sequence.
When Halo Legends got here out, it proved to be a success with a very powerful viewers of all of them: the followers. On Rotten Tomatoesthe movie has an viewers rating of 72 p.c, with viewers praising it for its distinctive mixture of various animation types and totally different tales. In response to most who watched Halo Legendsthis strategy helped to flesh out one of many coolest fictional universes (online game or in any other case) ever created.
A Buffet Of Cool Animation Kinds
Even if you happen to’re not an enormous fan of the online game franchise, it’s value watching Halo Legends for a similar purpose it’s value watching any good anthology: there’s a bit one thing for everybody! Like The Animatrix earlier than it, this movie presents a sequence of various vignettes in several types and even genres. It’s possible you’ll not like each quick movie, however you’re positive to like no less than just a few of those slickly-produced tales.
Talking of slick, the animation and manufacturing high quality are excessive all through everything of Halo Legends. The quick movies every feel and look totally different, however what they share in widespread is killer animation and immersive voicework. Even if you happen to’ve by no means picked up a controller and walked within the digital boots of Grasp Chief, this film is a good way to find what makes this fictional universe so compelling to its legion of followers.
Rocking Some Massive Sword Power
If you’re already a significant fan, although, you’ll possible take pleasure in how Halo Legends expands the lore of Spartans and Covenant in new and fascinating methods. Certain, a few of this data is buried within the sturdy library of Halo books, however let’s face it: it’s cooler to see the deep background of this action-centric sequence dropped at life in a extra visceral manner onscreen. In spite of everything, it is a gaming franchise based on the holy trinity of “run, shoot, and toss grenades,” and it’s enjoyable to see Halo’s signature frenetic gameplay dropped at life briefly movies like “Prototype” and “The Package deal.”
Will you agree that Halo Legends is the proper online game, or would you prefer to tag this nostalgic anthology with a sticky grenade? You received’t know till you seize the distant (you left it between the Assault Rifle and the Battle Rifle) and stream it totally free on Tubi. Whether or not you’re one of many avid gamers protecting Halo Infinite alive (there are dozens of us, dozens!) or are utterly new to this sci-fi franchise, this anthology is assured to shock you proper up till the credit.
