Entertainment
Forgotten Anthology Is The Perfect Video Game Film, Now Streaming Free
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The term “video game film” makes many movie lovers shudder, and for good reason: box office history is filled with awful game adaptations, including the notoriously grungy Super Mario Bros. and the confusingly disjointed Wing Commander. Between these and other flops (including Double Dragon and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), it’s easy for gamers to think there are no good films based on their favorite titles. However, the perfect video game movie dropped 15 years ago, and it’s been quietly gaining a cult following ever since.
That movie is Halo Legends (2010), an animated anthology that explores the world of Master Chief; he’s a Spartan charged with protecting humanity from an encroaching alien menace, but even he can’t take on an entire space empire by himself. This is a film that helps you learn more about the fictional universe of Halo, bringing to life one of the most successful franchises in video game history. Whether you want to help Master Chief “finish this fight” or just vibe out to beautiful animation and killer fight scenes, you should stream Halo Legends for free on Tubi!
Time To Finish The Fight
The cast of Halo Legends is full of some fun surprises for anime fans, including David Wald (best known for voicing the titular protagonist of Golgo 13) as Master Chief. Meanwhile, Atsuko Tanaka (best known for voicing Major Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell) plays Dr. Haley, Chief’s mother figure and the creator of Cortana. Speaking of which, Ai Maeda (best known for voicing O-Ren in Kill Bill’s anime sequence) plays Cortana, Chief’s own AI-powered Girl Friday.
There is no singular premise for Halo Legends: rather than telling one story, this anthology is broken up into seven smaller films focusing on different aspects of the Halo universe. Some of these are lore-heavy films that expand our knowledge of everything from Covenant culture to the relationship between Flood and Forerunners. Other short films are just cool side stories featuring marines, Spartans, Helljumpers, and more.
Little Movie, Big Impact
Even though it went straight to video, Halo Legends quickly proved itself a Spartan-sized financial success. It earned $11 million in DVD and Blu-Ray sales, and it was ranked as the second top-selling Blu-Ray the week of its release. Sadly, this ambitious anthology never got a sequel, though most Halo fans would certainly prefer these animated adventures over the later, live-action series.
When Halo Legends came out, it proved to be a hit with the most important audience of them all: the fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an audience score of 72 percent, with viewers praising it for its unique combination of different animation styles and different stories. According to most who watched Halo Legends, this approach helped to flesh out one of the coolest fictional universes (video game or otherwise) ever created.
A Buffet Of Cool Animation Styles
Even if you’re not a huge fan of the video game franchise, it’s worth watching Halo Legends for the same reason it’s worth watching any good anthology: there’s a little something for everyone! Like The Animatrix before it, this film presents a series of different vignettes in different styles and even genres. You may not like every short film, but you’re sure to love at least a few of these slickly-produced stories.
Speaking of slick, the animation and production quality are high throughout the entirety of Halo Legends. The short films each look and feel different, but what they share in common is killer animation and immersive voicework. Even if you’ve never picked up a controller and walked in the virtual boots of Master Chief, this movie is a great way to discover what makes this fictional universe so compelling to its legion of fans.
Rocking Some Big Sword Energy
If you are already a major fan, though, you’ll likely enjoy how Halo Legends expands the lore of Spartans and Covenant in new and interesting ways. Sure, some of this information is buried in the robust library of Halo books, but let’s face it: it’s cooler to see the deep background of this action-centric series brought to life in a more visceral way onscreen. After all, this is a gaming franchise founded on the holy trinity of “run, shoot, and toss grenades,” and it’s fun to see Halo’s signature frenetic gameplay brought to life in short films like “Prototype” and “The Package.”
Will you agree that Halo Legends is the perfect video game, or would you like to tag this nostalgic anthology with a sticky grenade? You won’t know until you grab the remote (you left it between the Assault Rifle and the Battle Rifle) and stream it for free on Tubi. Whether you’re one of the gamers keeping Halo Infinite alive (there are dozens of us, dozens!) or are completely new to this sci-fi franchise, this anthology is guaranteed to surprise you right up until the credits.
