Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

So I was scrolling through movies on Hulu Plus the other night and came across Mass Effect:Paragon Lost.  Since I hadn’t seen it yet I decided to watch it.

I can’t say I’d recommend this animated movie to a Mass Effect fan.  I wouldn’t use it s an introduction to Mass Effect for a noob either because they most likely won’t be coming back to ME.

First off I thought the quality of the cartoon graphics was on the low end.  It just didn’t look high speed.  The facial structures had that Anime look to them if you know what I mean. (Generally I'm not a fan of Anime.)

This animated movie is supposed to be a prequel to Mass Effect 3.  However it seems like it is just a rehash of part of Mass Effect 2.  At its core the producers just picked a segment out of Mass Effect 2 and made a cartoon. 

The story line was confusing even for somebody like me who has played the games, read the books and comics because it didn’t seem to match the timeline in the games.  In Mass Effect 2 Commander Shepard discovered that the Collectors were harvesting Alliance colonies and ultimately undertakes the "suicide mission" to stop them. The Mass Effect 2 story centers around a Collector attack on an Alliance colony to capture humans, using insect drones to paralyze them, and then process them into DNA to use in creating a human Reaper.  Sound familiar? 

And I thought Commander Shepard had already been there and done that...

If you think about the “Remember the Normandy” pin Vega wears and other plugs in the script about Commander Shepard being dead you could take a leap of faith that Paragon Lost is happening after the opening of Mass Effect 2 when the Normandy is destroyed and before Mass Effect 3.  But if that is the case why does Cyberus have to send the reconstituted Commander Shepard to find out why Alliance colonies are disappearing when Vega and the Alliance have already discovered the answer?

Glad I saw this on Hulu Plus and didn’t pay to see it, my Hulu Plus subscription withstanding.

If a Mass Effect movie ever comes out I hope they do it justice.  Maybe a HBO series; something like they did with "Game of Thrones" instead of a movie?

How awesome would be if a great studio produces the movie?  It could be a epic summer movie block buster spawning several sequels, think Batman or the Transformers.  Hopefully like the new Star Trek movies or Star Wars in quality. The other side of this equation is to think of all the bad sci-fi flicks you've seen in your life; weak animation, script writing, actors and producers etc. 

I guess only time will tell.