Escape to the Movies: Halo Legends Pages PREV 1 . . . 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 . . . 15 NEXT | |
As I pointed out in the two replies above this, I really DON'T think that the sole mission of a 'critic' is to tell us what to like and what to dislike. I can figure that out on my own, thank you very much. I rely on critique to illuminate me on those aspects of filmmaking (or game production) that I am either ignorant of, or not likely to consider. I will admit: I am far more familiar with games than I am with films, so perhaps I place a larger burden on (and expect more from) MovieBob than I do Yahtzee, but I don't think that I'm out of line here-- 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. | |
Ok Moviebob... Bu-bu-but Bioshock?? And I know you like that game from your overthinker vids....>=/ Hey wait a sec?? Have ever played System Shock 2, Dues Ex, Thief 2 even??? | |
Well done, Bob. Another good review. Wasnt bad, but wasnt worth owning, | |
I thought it was pretty good, I find that the chapter entitled "The Duel" far out shines any of the others. The watercolor art is just beautiful, and the story is epic, it kinda reminds me of those old cheap samurai movies, which is weird since its Halo. Overall, I'd say buy it, I can see myself watching it multiple times, and I really didn't enjoy the games all that much. I've finished them all, but I don't own them. | |
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. | |
Eversince I first came in contact with the Moviebob reviews I got stuck. A very charming and humorous way to talk about visual media. What I'd really want is for the Halo franchise to be something more then just a fun FPS serie, it can actually focus alot on immersion by having a setting and story that makes the audience ponder. A deterioating alien empire trying to keep itself together by claiming to have dangerous enemies, resulting in genocide of never-before recorded magnitude in human history. I'm surprised over that the atmosphere after Halo: CE didn't shift into a darker, more hopeless tone. As by that point only Earth itself remained populated by humans, all of the colonies had been turned into glass-covered ruins with billions after billions of people that had perished with it. Were the ones who did this sadistic monsters? No, they were mostly honor-focused minds that even had chivalarious ideals (reffering to Elites here.), or simply having no other choice but to obey. They allowed themselves to be blindly guided on a path of terrible destruction, certain of that they were working for the greater good. There is potential for the Halo franchise to develop into a deep story. Things like what I mentioned above are what could make a Halo movie really, really good if you ask me. Perhaps I used the wrong words to describe my interpretation of this anime collection. Of course it's alot of "Hack and Slash", but as I mentioned about my dislike for japanese animation culture, I can't see Halo and anime mixing together. It doesn't go with my taste. Infact I think this is what the Halo franchise needs the least if its universe is to be taken seriously (By me atleast.). About the Spartans. Of course they still have the same intellectual capacity of any other human being, but I was reffering to their anatomy. The amount of hair on them is just impractical for combat, and wouldn't they be rather pale having spent their time in those suits for a rather long time? I can imagine the Spartan working scheduele to be nearly non-stop during the war against the Covenant. Sure, this might be an unimportant detail, but for me it becomes dumbed down. They're not what I'd imagine a Spartan looking like. Their skelleton was given metallic layering, muscle development was increased to an extensive level, tons of implants were placed all throughout their bodies. How could they avoid not looking like post-suit Darth Vader in some degree? Curiously enough, the picture lordlee showed with Western RPGs on the right side and with Japanese RPGs on the left side on page 4 of this thread had me cringing when looking on the left side with the right side being a fine collection of quality games to my eyes. My dislike for JRPGs are probably, at its core, that I don't see any intellectual value in it. Atleast Halo had me think about something, as my previous post and this one clearly demonstrates. | |
People keep comparing Yahtzee and Moviebob, I don't think that's fair at all, Yahtzee isn't a critic really, he's more of a stand up comedian, he could "review" a game that dispensed blow jobs on command and did your cleaning at the same time while having the best story ever written and he'd still find a fault in it. That's the whole point of ZP, I don't know about you guys but I like watching him rip a game apart, even ones I love, like the man himself said people don't come to him for the good stuff about a game, they come for the brutality of him ripping it a new one. Moviebob on the other hand... well I like his gameoverthinker stuff to a degree, even if I think he's way too biased to be conducting "analysis", and lately he's been getting worse, this movie here is a perfect example, it's suppose to be a review of the content not a rip on the source material, or his personal hate for the genre of games that inspired it. | |
I wonder what Bob thought of The Animatrix? Although I haven't seen Halo Legends (not going to either) 'The Duel' sounds like it has a lot in common with 'Program' and 'Origins' sounds eerily similar to 'The Second Rennaissance' (even down to being narrated by a computer). | |
I can't really blame you for getting tired of everyone saying b-b-but Half Life all the time. I admit ValVe is one of the few game developers that have made a large number of great FPS but you when all you go on a bout is Half Life it makes it sound like it's the only good FPS ever. There are good FPSs but you have to really look for them. | |
A good review, although i feel u under represented a significant segment of the fanbase (the "oh god this is probs gonna fail, but lets watch anyway" segment) whihci fall into. All in all i have to agree it was interesting to see, particuarly enjoyed "the package" even with the wince worthy cliche lines. Claimin Halo series to be one dimensional only really works if u completly deny the books though. That said moveBob u only review movies, so this is to be expected. | |
Not really your finest review. I don't really agree with you at all on the "western vs japan" thing. It overall doesn't feel like a "big thing". I dare say sense I have played most halo games that a lot of that fanbase appricate the idea of turning it to an anime than some "hollywood-thing". I could agree with you that consols vs other consols is a war of hate. But pretty much all of them as a fair amount of western and japanish games. And western does matcho shooters and Japan everything else? Thats just feels very shortsighted. And it really feels like you focus way too much trying to piss some "lonley fan" of latly. Would be nice with a review where you avoid saying how much fans the subject has that are idiots, and how much you don't care about their comments. At least their not fans of Tiger woods. | |
"while Japan is represented by...uh, everything else" *cue dozens of various anime heroes* <3 the humor | |
I liked Halo 1, great gameplay, solid AI decent designs all around it started to suck when they tried to make 2........ oh and MP sucks..... any game reliant on MP alone should be called an EP....hence Halo ep 3..... Halo 1 is for the most part not just another FPS, they did more with the level design and AI than most FPSs even other to do, now Halo 2+ is your generic FPS fodder that is best forgotten since they stopped trying to make a good game and a solid experience. And that lack of care and design is why most new games suck..... build game themes to arbitrary and generic story/genre/gamepaly condemnations is getting quit tiresome.... And yes...I the great game hater just defend a game.... | |
I rather liked them all except the water color one it just kinda gave me a headache with its almost dream sequence like almost fuzzyness I also felt that they added nicely to the halo story that i was already a fan of. | |
I actually watched these and found them pretty good :). The arbiter is a trillion times more bad ass after watching Legends | |
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 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 :D | |
Fire Emblem is the shit. That is all. | |
You don't need to tell me, I was hooked from his fifth Game Overthinker (I was introduced to him quite a while before his Escapist series thanks to Screwattack's Submission Sunday).
Again, my reply to this will be kind of wonky as I never played the Halo games through. That out of the way, that really is an interesting way to look at the Covenant, and demonizing the Prophets, while forgivable as a result of the game fundamentally being an FPS, wasn't the best way to convey that view. I'm thinking you might be a fan of the books like a few users earlier. As for the movie, I'm rather doubtful, but if you use the backstory well I wouldn't say it's impossible.
Yeah, regardless of medium, something based on an FPS will be rather hack and slash. That aside, I was pretty surprised myself when I learned of a Halo anime, and it really seemed contradictory like Moviebob said. Of course, to see how well this went I'm gonna have to see it myself, and I have to note that the short where the anime thing would hurt the seriousness seems to be Odd One Out, and again that's a parody.
I wouldn't see the hair as much of an issue, actually, since they're wearing helmets. Other than that, though, you bring up some accuracy issues with the Halo universe, though I have to say I'm still for the general idea of Homecoming.
I'll say this about those four games: Tales of Symphonia is intentionally rather cliche, as is the Tales series for that matter (though I personally loved Symphonia). Soul Nomad is made by Nippon Ichi, that's all I need to say (if you don't know about them, look them up, they generally make rather silly games). Final Fantasy V, from what I've heard (I just started playing it), is kind of a self-parody and, yes, would have a lighthearted and cliche story as a result. That leaves Fire Emblem, which still has some rather young heroes and JRPG-fantasy conventions, but the cast is generally comprised of adults and it avoids the things you're probably annoyed by in JRPG's. It's not a philosophy-fest, but maybe you should try that one, at least for the strategy gameplay. On the WRPG front, I really need to get around to Fallout 2. Maybe I'll also try Mirrowind, but Oblivion left a bad impression on me (ironically, I liked Fallout 3, which is quite similar gameplay-wise). Edit: Oh, and KOTOR. I think my brother's hard copy is lying around somewhere.
At the risk of being cliche, I have to wonder what JRPG's you have played. Part of me thinks they were earlier Final Fantasy games, which aren't exactly the most though-provoking experiences. Maybe we should discuss this with lordlee, since like last time he's more qualified than me. Oh, and trust me, your dislike of JRPG's is not unshared here. | |
"With Western gaming represented by one-dimensional-steriod-injected-gun-toting-muscleheads and digitized athletes, while Japan is represented by, uh, EVERYTHING ELSE" lol. Great review, I really liked hearing your stance on the Halo series and it's fanboys, damn them, we need more people playing TF2 D: | |
but the people that are truly as you put it, are in the minority. take me for example, Im a Halo fan but you don't hear me tearing into Bob for mostly loathing the collection of shorts presented on the disc | |
Shining force>Fire Emblem ,that is all.... | |
Me? The review was better than I expected, but it is fairly annoying that moviebob clearly has no knowledge of the halo mythology outside of maybe one or two levels of the games, which if you pay attention is brilliant within itself, throw in the expanded universe and the halo universe is one of the largest and most amazing of the lot. As for the "grunting testosterone fuelled characters" I am going to have to disagree there as well, at the very worst we have a generation of humans that have only ever known war and are on the brink of destruction, the marines HATE the covenant, which is completely justified based on what they did, and the spartans themselves are not very emotive because of the modifications that happened to them and the effects of their training, it is fairly difficult to see the true depth of the spartan characters without having seen the expanded media I will admit, but it is still extremely annoying that this reviewer behaves like his opinion on a series is justified when he clearly has absolutely no real knowledge or understanding of it. That said, I still enjoy many moviebob reviews, but his halo bashing is pointless and really grating, I know it is "cool" to be like yahtzee and dislike halo, but the difference between yahtzee and moviebob is that yahtzee explains that he has a lack of foreknowledge of the mythology of the franchise that may have affected his enjoyment or understanding of it, whereas moviebob who clearly doesnt have a clue acts like his opinion is the only correct one, which is big headed even for him. | |
Well phrased point. I agree entirely. | |
Wow I honestly thought you were joking when you mentioned the diversity, and I'm genuinly surprised by the varying narratives. I'm still waiting for the inevitable mutated brute 'Shoop Da Whoop' comparisons. | |
I'm not even going to touch it... | |
When I originally heard about Halo: Legends, I didn't care either way. But now I'll probably rent it. looks entertaining. | |
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. | |
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. | |
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 ^_^ | |
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. | |
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. | |
yay movie bob. another non-beleiver in the halo phenomenon (sp?) | |
Ugh. If there's one thing I hate more than an anti-Halo fan, it's an ill-informed anti-Halo fan. Plenty of us are fans of anime, or at least not "Japanophobic" as you so colloquially refer to it, and plenty of Japanese are fans of Halo. Any Halo fan worth his salt knows at least some of the backstory, and/or has read the novels, in which case "Oh-Em-Gee It's A Girl" is hardly a shock. The Elites (Sangheili) have a well-established tradition of warrior culture, so samurai-esque armour isn't really that big a stretch. Spartan 1337 is fairly stupid, I'll give you that one. There were only 70-odd Spartan-II's, each numbered up to 160 or so, if my memory isn't failing me. Spartans are hardly machismo'd up robots. Anyhow, in the end, you come off as an arrogant, Halo-hating, self-aggrandizing wanker. If that was your original intention Movie Bob (if that IS your real name!! -drama-), then I commend you on a job well done. | |
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Excuse me... did you say something? Because I think- "Anonymous Source"- that you haven't earned the right to be an... <COUGH> arbiter of right and wrong here; at least not yet.
Last time I checked, it was a reviewer's responsibility to discuss all aspects of a film, not just those that he didn't care for... which is exactly what I was trying to take MovieBob to task for... a review focused on his distain for the subject matter, while neglecting to mention anything that might be useful to a person who would think "Gosh, he clearly doesn't like Halo, but I do, so I wonder if the continuity (or whatever) was good..."
Pressing the play button doesn't mean absolute acceptance of the product revealed, fool. And you can't call me a moron until you prove yourself to be an intelligent and thoughtful member of the community. I don't care that your (likely) teenaged brain may tell you differently.