Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

*This is only my second review so some feedback would be nice so I know how to improve my reviews in the future!*

I'd say I'm quite a fan of the Mass Effect universe. It's huge and is filled with amazing planets, alien races and ancient evils just begging to be used on another medium. When I heard about a Mass Effect anime I was ecstatic! I really liked Halo legends when it came out so why shouldn't I have been excited? How brutally disappointed I was...

The story... like I said The Mass Effect universe has so much potentia,l it's great source material for an anime. ... The movie is set between the 1st and 2nd game. Commander Shepard is believed dead and a pro-human anti-alien organization known as Cerberus is on the rise. That was fine I had no problems there. What I did have problems with was everything that came after. The plot became predictable and awfully generic as well as an awkward and totally unneeded forced romance. It really just took different scenes from other sci-fi's like "Aliens" but adding the Mass Effect backdrop. If it wasn't for the character designs and the title it could easily have some other sci-fi anime it just didn't feel like Mass Effect. Then the ending... I preferred the ending to Mass Effect 3 over the way this ends it just felt very unnecessary.

The protagonist!!! Again, the Mass Effect universe is huge there are so many interesting characters to choose from! Who do they pick as the lead for this movie? James Vega!? Why? James Vega is the most uninteresting character in the game why make a movie about his past? He is uncharismatic, lacks any real leadership qualities and makes the most ridiculous out of character decisions. The only explanation for this was because Vega wasn't Shepard. The whole anime focuses on this. Vega is the paragon lost because he's flawed and isn't able to be the same man that Shepard is. Fair enough but then Commander Shepard is a god amongst men with the fate of the Galaxy in his hands! Of course Vega can't match up to him and you don't need to make him out as the shittest marine in the galaxy to do it!

The supporting characters are your average generic marines (Aliens) whom you can predict they're dying order most of the time. You really don't feel anything for them or for Vega when they die because character development is so poor, in fact some of them I couldn't wait until they had been killed off. They were boring and unemotional at the final battle I wasn't rooting for anyone I wasn't invested in the characters enough to care it's a damn shame.

The saving grace however would have to be the art. I liked it, if Mass Effect was going to get more anime this is how I would want it to look. The action scenes looked good and were enjoyable to watch just a shame they are ruined by the story and characters.

It did have some of the soundtrack from the games playing during which is always going to be good. Some of the VA could have been better but I put this down to a poor screenplay more than anything.

Apart from the action scenes there is really nothing worth watching here. If you are a big Mass Effect fan you will probably watch it anyway. I'm not telling you not to this is just my opinion I think you should take a look maybe you'll agree with me when I say that this was a wasted opportunity. Despite how bad this movie was I'm still open to more Mass Effect anime but I'm saddened to say that it probably won't happen due to this first attempt being so poor. It is such a great universe I don't understand how they could have came up with such a generic plot with really dull characters. I hope there is a second chance for a Mass Effect anime and I hope they do better.

I'm more than just a mass effect fan. I'm a massive mass effect fan! I've probably played the trilogy through about 6 times by now. Time well spent.
I saw this quite a while ago, but I will do my best to give my impressions.
When this was going to come out, I was very excited about it! I get excited about any mass effect related news. I remember seeing all the synopses on the wiki, and the trailers, and getting quite hyped. After all, in Mass Effect 3, when we suddenly see Vega on the Normandy, we think 'who the hell is he'? And I'm glad ... this movie came along to answer our questions - even though his backstory was explained in an okay way during the game.
That said, he's probably the last ME character I'd choose to make a movie about. If this was a move 100% about Garrus or Wrex, I would probably have been so biased I'd give it 10/10 on everything.
Story - 8
Okay, onto the review of the actual movie. I think that anyone who is not a mass effect fan would have difficulty understanding all the story and the significance of the collector threat. But Bioware is known for being particularly talented with narrative, and I think that they did do well to vary the kinds of action that went on, as well as not making it feel too dumb with fights for the sake of fights. What really got me was the choice Vega has to make at the end. It's why Bioware called the movie "Paragon Lost," because what he does is most certainly a renegade move. I like a bit of grey morality in my movies, and this is something that Bioware can sometimes do very effectively, such as in the end of the movie. I always play as a Renegade, and I'm glad to see Bioware turning renegade themselves.
Art - 6
Having seen a lot of anime, I can't exactly say the art is brilliant. It's not bad. But seeing the 3D Vega translated into 2D was somewhat offputting. The explosions are average. The character design isn't particularly attractive, nor is it ugly. I mean, it would be wrong if they turned Vega into a bishonen, so I'm not complaining.
Sound 8
The music isn't anything memorable, especially compared to the glorious ME3 and ME2 scores which will always remain on my ipod. But the voice acting, on the other hand, is very good. I don't really like watching anime in English, but the VA's did a really good job. This is probably because Bioware called in Funimation, who, in my opinion, do the best dubbing of any studio. Plus they got Vic Mignoga to be in it, which automatically makes me think higher of it. Think I recognised J Michael Tatum, too. They managed to make english language anime actually sound somewhat cool.
Character 8
Bioware is good at characters when they really put their mind to it, but I think that in the space of 1hr30 they don't have the time or resources to flesh out any new characters so much. If it were a Bioware game, I would give it 10/10 on character. This perhaps suffered from having too many characters, such as there wasn't time to make them all good. A lot of the squad played on stereotypes and didn't really break from them. The Krogan acted like any Krogan ever.
Enjoyment 7
Without having references to collectors, Krogan, Asari and Turians, I would probably see this like any generic sci fi anime. Without having played the games, I wouldn't be able to pick out anything particularly unique about it. There's nothing that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Nothing groundbreaking. I would say that you would only possibly enjoy this if you've played the games. I think it would be quite a waste of time to watch it without having the interest from the games.
Overall 7 - I'd call this decent. It is an additional part of the mass effect world, and therefore it is worth watching any day. But it could have been a hell of a lot better if Bioware had decided to go out of their comfort zone and introduce some new themes, rather than just following the backstory Vega explains to us on the Normandy to the letter. It is by no means essential. If you'd rather go and watch the 5 minute scene from ME3 that Vega has explaining all this to Shepard, you will get exactly the same information than if you watch the entire movie.

With the recent release of the remastered Mass Effect trilogy, I couldn’t help but have Mass Effect on the mind once again. As any fan of the series would know, the biggest appeal to Mass Effect is the lovable cast of characters and the story that unveils with them by your side (minus the ME3 ending, we all know that could have been better). This reputation left 'Mass Effect: Paragon Lost' with some big shoes to fill.

…& unfortunately, this movie is a far cry from what the Mass Effect trilogy has previously accomplished. Granted, not that you could even expect that level of story-telling after ... seeing the choice of main character for this film. Out of all the characters that exist in the Mass Effect universe, they choose the most generic “bro” of them all - James Vega (give me a Garrus movie though & I’m all yours). Just as the MC is the most basic human space marine you could find, the story itself is nothing spectacular. Vega and co fight some Krogans, protect a colony from some Collectors, and reference Shephard a million times to possibly trick the viewer into into liking this movie. That’s about it. It’s a generic space action movie with weak dialogue and lackluster art that’s only standout feature is that it’s wrapped in a Mass Effect skin.

Overall, 'Mass Effect: Paragon Lost' is a generic space action movie at best and a regrettable installment to the Mass Effect franchise at worst. If you - like me - have been back in the Mass Effect mood due to the recent game releases, then I say you’re better off just playing the games again than expecting this to satisfy your Mass Effect craving.

Mass effect is one of the most in depth gaming universes out there, and paragon lost certainly honors that heritage. To understand this anime you must play the games first or you will be lost. The anime builds on the background of James Vega, one of your companions from mass effect 3, playing the game you build a sense of comradery with him and he tells you one of his war stories, and paragon lost builds upon hist tale. It's one thing to hear it told in the game, but now you can watch it all unfold and truly understand the difficulty of his decision.

The ... anime throws you right into the action with no real background, so again to understand you must play the games.

Not my personal favorite art style, they went with a more realistic appearance.

Some things didn't make sense in the mass effect universe, such as how the alliance marines were using the a variation of the M-76 Revenant when the standard issue alliance assault rifle is the M-8 Avenger. But small details such as this can be overlooked and will really only annoy hardcore mass effect fans.

The special features on the DVD were enjoyable if run of the mill, yknow the usual tour through the offices, and making of vids.

All in all this is a very good anime to watch, if you enjoy the action genre, And a must for any hardcore fan.

I didn't know what to expect going into this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. While most of the movie seems to drag on at a slow pace, the climax more than makes up for it and makes playing Mass Effect 3 that much more enjoyable. It was a treat to get to see what made James Vega the person he was in the game. I would recommend watching this after beating Mass Effect 2 and before starting Mass Effect 3.

The Mass effect series was in its hey day one of the most beloved series on the Console market, having amazing gun play interlaced in a complex world and story that grew more interesting as the games went on. And excluding the most recent title the games prided themselves on there ability to make the player have tough decisions that had no real right answer. Now I will say that I genuinely thought this movie captured that what mass effect is all about, and this is why. See when it comes to the movie I will be the first to admit that the art direction ... was not the best adaptation of the source material, and the majority of the characters in the movie had private Jenkins levels of development. But the movie makes up for all of that with its story, the story of a man like commander Shepard who fought against impossible odds against the collectors in a believable scenario that any veteran of the mass effect series would tell you canonically makes perfect sense. But the real reason why I think liked the story is that the ending truly captured a mass effect moment. When Vega had to chose who to save I was genuinely surprised at the direction the movie chose to take, and respected the movie for not sugar coating the impact that Vegas choice had on both him and the two surviving members of the colony. In short the reason why i like this movie is that unlike mass effect 3, the most villified ending of all time, the ending felt like it was from a mass effect game, hard decisions and all.

"Out here, our choices affect not only our lives but the lives of all the people we've sworn to protect. We can only hope... we make the right ones."

Firstly, Happy N7 Day commanders, we finally got our remastered trilogy! Secondly, this is so much more satisfying upon playing the game before and after, since it gives so much more depth to the character of James Vega.

Exploring James' backstory only hinted at during the events of Mass Effect 3, it gives us the full-on explosive adventure full of loss and brutal decisions in typical Mass Effect fashion. Taking place in 2183 to start with a fantastic ... action sequence on Fehl Prime before jumping forward 2 years to 2185 taking place at the same time as the final sequences from Mass Effect 2. Production I.G. (most known for Ghost in the Shell, FLCL, and that animated sequence from Kill Bill), gives their usual high levels of effort in terms of animation, CGI and 3D camera movements, popping with some beautifully horrifying details.

In terms of the cast, well it's certainly a mixed bag. Freddie Prinze Jr. delivers a brilliantly heartfelt performance as Vega and the utterly chilling performance by Vic Mignogna as Messner. However, on the other end of the spectrum is the completely flat and dull performance by Monica "Jelly Bean" Rial as Treeya. Also, this film made the cardinal sin of recasting some of the main supporting cast of the games, with Dr. Liara T'Soni being the main offender as instead of the beautiful vocals of Ali Hillis, you are left with an incredibly disinterested performance by Jamie "False Accuser" Marchi.

The film definitely benefits from the musical talents of one of the composers from the games, David Kates, bringing over the main themes from the games and giving them his own twist thanks to the combined efforts of him and Joshua Mosley. Topped off by the use of Warning Signs by The Anix to complete the experience.

While Paragon Lost may not be perfect, it delivers a horrifying and heartwrenching story with such effort it's hard to stay mad at it, it hits all the right notes in a way only a true Mass Effect product could.

"What kind of a question is that? You're speaking to a Krogan... We live for weapons."

Plot: C Set in the same world as the Mass Effect Videogames, the movie Mass Effect: Paragon Lost follows Lt. James Vega an officer in the Alliance and some of the adventures he goes on prior to becoming one of Commander Shepherd's crew members in Mass Effect 3. It takes place at some point during Mass Effect 2's timeline. I will say that if this is cannon, and Vega found out the information about the Collectors that he did in this, then the Alliance leadership on Earth are bigger idiots than I thought they were. This movie is saying that the Alliance was presented with ... proof of the Reaper's existence and they still denied it in the beginning of ME3.

Visuals: F *That's not a "press f to pay respects" that's a straight-up f. Awful animation style. Why did it look so blurry? It was so ugly to look at.

Voice Acting: B- *I'll give credit where credit is due. The voices were pretty good. There was no one super annoying and the obnoxious screaming was kept to a minimum unless it was warranted. Although the little girl's voice was super annoying and the screams at the end when it was meant to be sad and dramatic were super goofy which is a shame because, from a narrative standpoint, that was a really sad ending.

Film Score/Soundtrack: C- *It wasn't awful, but there wasn't anything memorable about it which is a shame since the music is an extremely impactful part of the games.

***My favorite track: N/A

Characters: C *They're pretty bland for the most part. Although I thought that the Liara cameo was pretty cool and I liked Treeya. (Hey I swear it's not because they are both Asari it was mainly because they are both scientists and their first instinct is to study something while a grunt's is to destroy it) I could do without the forced romance, but the characters were serviceable enough.

Cringeworthy Anime Moments: Get ready for some cringey one-liners. And enemies having an opportunity to kill the heroes but choosing to talk about it instead of actually doing it.

Opening Titles: N/A There was no epic title sequence which is a shame.

Final Verdict: 4/10 *Since Vega is a companion in Mass Effect 3 and he briefly talks about the events in this movie in the game, it is neat to get a little bit of a backstory on him to see how it happened. Not essential to watch at all, but if you're a big Mass Effect fan, I've seen much worse movies. The bad animation and the lack of attention to detail in the world really tear down what could have been a decent film.