Mass Effect: Paragon Lost (2012 Video) User Reviews

Pretty decent story...with average animation style.

[azamba89 · 6/10 · 19 December 2012]

Well when I saw the trailer for the first time I didn't give it too much attention, even being a huge fan of the game, the animation style and the main character, Vega (a playable character in Mass Effect 3), was too weak, lacking the appeal needed for an animation with the name Mass Effect on it.

But like I said, I'm a huge fan and I had to watch it. So I did. And I found myself enjoying the movie more than I thought.

Basically, Vega leads his squad on a mission to protect a colony on a distant planet from a unknown threat. When they finally strike and take all the colonists hostage, Vega has to figured out what exactly he's facing and save the colony from being abducted and exterminated, having to make some tough decisions on the way.

The catch here is, if you have played Mass Effect 3 you already know what will happen in the movie, as Vega himself can tell you that in the game. And that may be the biggest mistake with this movie. This should've been released when Mass Effect 2 came out, back in 2010. It would make a lot of more sense, as the story here happens few months before the second game's story and would be a good surprise to see Vega in the third game after seeing this movie back then. Oh well...

The animation is pretty average. There's blood and lots of action, but the style they used just doesn't fit to the Mass Effect universe. It doesn't work. Why use Anime style on this anyway? Seriously. And not a great one too. It lacked something, I can't tell exactly what. They did the same mistake with Dragon Age animated movie. EA got it right with the first Dead Space animated movie. Please, go back to that. Mass Effect deserve way better than this. But that's just me, I'm sure there are many people that will enjoy it, I suppose.

All in all, this movie is mostly for fans of the Mass Effect game series. If you've never played the game, you may still enjoy this, but without knowing the universe it just wont be the same. It's a good movie, average animation, good story, but it could be a lot better. Its not enough to have the Mass Effect name on it.

Pretty good! ... But probably only for ME-fans

[ode_for_cruelty21 · 7/10 · 3 January 2013]

As a huuuuge fan of Mass Effect and its universe/lore, i was pretty damn skeptical going in to this movie. Pretty much anything i saw in the trailers beforehand (especially the cheap animation) did not impress me one bit. I'm glad to say most of my biggest fears were in vain. Well, the animation isn't exactly Studio Ghibli -like eye candy, but i got used to it pretty quickly.

My other main concern was main protagonist, James Vega, who's probably the most boring and generic character in the games. Or at least out of your squadmates. They manage to make him likable though, someone you could really root for. The voice acting wasn't as top notch though, and the same goes for pretty much every character. Still, it is adequate.

What it comes to the most important thing, which is of course the story, it's quite... Good! It's structured kinda like a handful of missions and cut scenes in the game, and you can almost see in the eyes of your mind how these events would be handled in a game. The dialogue should get a couple of chuckles out of ME-fans, and the ending is actually quite moving, yet fitting. The games are all about big choices, after all.

I could nitpick on some minor things, like the Krogans who didn't look much like Krogans and so forth, but i don't really feel like it. It was faithful enough to keep me well satisfied.

If you're a fan of Mass Effect, at least give Paragon Lost a chance.

Ah! The delicious taste of irony.....

[Rob_Taylor · 5/10 · 19 February 2013]

So, let me start out by saying I'm a Mass Effect fan. I've played all the games and I count the series as one of the best interactive gaming experiences going.

So, quite what Electronic Arts were thinking when they farmed out this movie concept to Funimation is beyond me. I'm not even sure if they even had a target demographic beyond "Mass Effect fans".

The animation and artwork is of poor quality, really. Certainly sub-par for a franchise like Mass Effect. I can only guess Funimation did this on the cheap. There are some scenes - shuttle flights etc, where the animation is much, much better than that used on the characters, which is a little puzzling.

Whatever happened, the animation is uneven, jerky, and very much in the (entirely inappropriate) style of anime that characterizes much of Japanese animation. And old style anime, too, not the more modern style.

This makes the movie hard to watch. I had it on in the background whilst I was doing other things, and that helped a lot. Listening, with the occasional glance up at the screen, made it seem better than if I plonked myself down in front of the screen and watched avidly.

Voice acting is somewhere between poor and acceptable. The same actor voices Vega in this movie as did the voice work for the game (ME3), but I really couldn't tell it was him until the credits rolled, so make of that what you will.

Plotwise, the story is set between the events of ME1 and ME2, with the story being a rehash of some of the events of ME2, involving the Collectors and such. It's relatively simple and, for the most part, does its job competently.

However, it is formulaic and would be forgotten if not for its one saving grace - the ending.

Having sat through an hour and a half of poorly animated film, our hero (James Vega) is faced with an impossible choice. A personal no-win scenario that even Kirk would blink uncertainly at. Save the hundreds of colonists, or save the girl with the information that could turn the tide of battle. He can't do both, seemingly. I admit, I expected some miraculous macguffin, or Deus Ex Machina to allow both, but, to its eternal credit, this story doesn't let that happen. Vega makes his choice, sacrificing the colonists so that the information the girl has can be utilized.

And that brings me to the delicious irony of this story.

Those that have followed the Mass Effect games already know about the terrible ending that was foisted off on the fans at the end of ME3. The game itself was reasonable, but the ending sucked. With Paragon Lost, the movie as a whole was weak but it was redeemed by the no-win ending to a great degree. Looking at the writer of this movie, who had nothing to do with ME3, I'm forced to wonder what sort of ending he might have come up with for the game series. It seems he knows what he's doing in that regard.

Anyway, irony aside, Paragon Lost is a poor movie, mostly down to the bad animation and some dodgy voice work. It's worth seeing it once, if you are a fan of Mass Effect, but it won't be on anyone's rewatch list. If you hated ME3's endings, stick with ME:PL until the bitter-sweet end and wonder what might have been.

SUMMARY: Terribly ironic addition to the Mass Effect universe, marred by shoddy animation and dodgy voice acting. It does have a good ending (at least in my book!) which redeems it somewhat, but it will never be watched more than once.

Great story and acting with better than average animation

[mergatroid-1 · 7/10 · 5 January 2013]

I'm not a "fan" of the Mass Effects games, although I did play the second one all the way through. The third one seems to have gotten mixed reviews, but I have been thinking about picking it up anyway.

When I caught this movie, I didn't know what to expect. The story was easy enough to follow, and the art and animation art easy on the eyes. The acting was OK, and overall I enjoyed the movie right to the end.

Anyone who has played the games will be familiar with the universe and some of the characters mentioned in the movie, not to mention the main antagonists. People who have never played the games should have no problem with the movie as a basic history is explained as the movie progresses, with the audience learning all they need to know for the plot to work.

Basically, there have been reports of colonies being wiped out, or disappearing. A squad of marines is sent to one planet to try and stop an attack. They succeed, and are ordered to stay and protect the colony. As they work to repair and upgrade the colonies defenses, they are again attacked by an unknown enemy, one that none of them had seen before.

This universe makes use of a technology left behind by an ancient dead race to power pretty much all their tech. Throughout the movie it is speculated that this new enemy may have been responsible for the disappearance of the ancient race.

As the enemy tries to abduct the colonists, it's up to the heroes to stop them, the main character must make a decision that will haunt him for ever.

The good thing is that the story, script and acting are all done well enough to give you some feeling for the main characters.

Overall, fairly well done. I'll definitely watch this one again.

A non-fan review.

[scorp76 · 6/10 · 11 February 2013]

First off, let me state I only played half-way through the first game and didn't touch the second or third. I despise the cheap emotional and sex ploys employed in the game just to beef up a weak story.

So when watching this amerime my sister who is a bigger fan (1st and 2nd game and novel) sit with me so I can check with her some facts about the story.

So here is my impression and opinions of the Paragon Lost: The art was inferior to what other game franchises put out i.e. Halo. And sometimes highly inconsistent.

The director had either very bad storyboards or was left to his own imagination on how each scene was to be played out that you will encounter a lot anime art (gestures, postures) tropes you in fast and cheap anime series.

The story overall was dull and weak. There was not much on character backgrounds or settings and with even that it felt dragged out.

The voice acting ranged from OK (Freddie Prince Jr, Laura Bailey and Monica Rial) to 1990s-2000s style dubbing (Jad Saxton biggest offender no offence to her). I totally blame the voice director.

With all this in mind I would have right this movie a 3 or 4 but and there is a big but I follow one rule, "The end justifies the means." Which means that no matter crappy the beginning and middle of a story is, the ending if it is good will allow forgiveness for the rest.

And I must say the ending did not cop out despite the red herrings in the 1st and 2nd act would like you to believe. The ending shows a realistic and only logically conclusion to the time and situation present for that I am grateful.

If I would recommend this movie to buy it may, just maybe for the ending that is similar to the choices you have to make in the games time and again. But if you are not a fan then rent it. The ending is much better that most other sci-fi movies that have great 1st and 2nd acts but fails to pay off in the final 3rd act which always leaves me angry (like all the hype build up just to be disappointed when you finally see the crap product).

Goes against the ME series

[amichnea · 3/10 · 24 December 2012]

Oh boy where do I even start on this one, not worth seeing for anyone that actually did play the games ME1 ME2 and ME3 specially a few times. Putting aside that the graphics aren't that great, could have at least attempted a cell shading approach the story goes against ME2 and ME3. Vega's actions put him ahead of Shepard.

Spoiler: The problem with this movie is that Vega single handed with a old beat up shuttle goes inside a Collectors ship, yeeees straight through their impenetrable shield and hull something the Normandy 2 with plated hulls and super shields could not achieve. The Collector ship that you could not even approach hence why you could only do that by catching them off guard in their sector and only once the Normandy and your team was 100% upgraded and focused choosing the best of the best for that suicide mission.

Somehow Vega manages to just kill all the Collectors even some massive GIANT humanoid collectors (no idea where they came from never saw them in the games, same as the normal troopers but 10 times bigger) and not only that but talk with and kill the Overmid or whatever you call the General guy that takes over collectors on the battlefield and destroy the collectors ship.

If I was Shepard I would have said sorry send Vega he obviously knows what he is doing with less equipment and a inferior team so why bother me and in ME3 hell just send Vega to recruit and sort out the reinforcements since again he is the best. I think because in the game they didn't quiet state how Vega destroyed the Collectors ship, how and what data he did gather the makers blew everything out of proportion. As an added minus point Vega was never asked to join N7 before ME3, he got the offer whilst working with Shepard.

This is taken straight from the game so Vega's actions were left to interpretation however there was no way in hell Vega did what he did in the anime too OTT:

When the Collectors attack, determined to capture the population, Vega and his squad were tasked with protecting the civilians. James narrates that his old CO, Captain Toni, a "hard-assed son of a bitch" but a "good leader" in Vega's words, was killed along with most of Vega's squad while the squad was protecting a civilian colony from a Collector attack. The leadership vacuum caused by Captain Toni falling in battle was filled in by Vega himself, and he had to make a choice between saving the colony or saving the intel the squad had recovered that could be used to destroy the Collectors. Vega chose to save the intel, but found out far too late that his choice was rendered completely unnecessary since Shepard managed to destroy the Collector threat without the intel Vega saved, which meant that Vega allowed the colony to die for nothing. Eventually, Vega asks to speak to Shepard privately in Shepard's cabin.

After Shepard invites Vega to the Captain's Cabin using the intercom, Vega will explain that he has been approached with an offer from the Systems Alliance to undergo N7 training. However, Vega is unsure whether or not to accept the offer since N7 training is a lot of work, and Vega humbly wonders why he was even approached, given his past failure, hence the private conversation. He also confesses that during that mission, his team was betrayed by a colonist who was actually a Cerberus spy working with the Collectors. Vega had no choice but to kill the spy and destroy the Collector ship, which left himself and one other squad member as the sole survivors of the mission. Shepard can either encourage Vega to go for it without hesitation or tell him that such a decision should not be taken lightly.

Not bad, but...

[klusik · 7/10 · 25 December 2012]

I have no problem with story, as a huge fan of whole series, it was my duty to watch that.

Characters are fine, but very stupid and "cliche" acting, that is the most minus thing I've noticed. Stupidness of some things even make me believe scenarists and writers did not even know what (or where to) they are doing, what is conclusion of that story and they just "put it there" to enlarge video length to 90 minutes or so. But maybe that's just my opinion.

Next thing I did not like is the very own graphics style and animation. It looks like kind of "ducktales" from 90s' :-) Why the asari have lips as big as some kind of porn-star? That was my first thought when I saw her for the very first time. Other characters are only a little bit more "normal", but still better than asari with big... blue... eyes of hers. In the original game there is theory asari looks "sexy" to all species, so krogan sees asari like "blue krogan" etc. (Refering to "bachelors party" at Ilium, ME2). Maybe we see asari like Vega's dreams "sexbomb" may appear and in games we see asari like Shepards ;) But I don't like this asari, I like Sheppards more.

Next thing I have to mention here is some illogical bits and pieces of story. I don't want to make spoilers here, but just... I think some things there are written in original game better and more smooth. E.g. after watching I still don't know relation between ending of this movie and start of ME3 game, how and where J.V. met Sheppard.

And last thing -- dubbing. I think it is just horrible. At game JV has more "acted" voice, here I have feeling it is just read from script. And other voices are... just... strange. I don't think bad, just strange.

But after all, I think this movie is worth of it, it is not just some great "megafilm", only a little movie most for fans of games.

Does not live up to the game

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 26 October 2013]

The game is incredible (to many people, you might not like it as much, though it would make no sense checking the movie, if that is true), but the animated movie (with a sub-story involving a major character from Mass Effect 3 (but not Shepard himself) is nicely told, but there is never a real Mass Effect feeling. It never got hold of me that is.

The cartoon style is made differently than the one of the game on purpose. You might find that one of the reasons you might not connect. You cannot deny EA that they were trying. There is some fun dialog in the movie, but it never evolves to anything more. The question also would be, does it make sense watching it before Mass Effect 3 or after you played it? I watched it after, it's OK as companion piece, but I won't revisit this again (which cannot be said about the games ... re-playable a lot)

It's not perfect, but can still be worth your time

[bittenhui · 7/10 · 2 May 2023]

I really enjoy the original videogame trilogy. And having learned that there is also an anime set in this universe, I was extremely surprised and didn't know what to expect, good or bad. But I was pleasantly surprised when I finally saw it. The story takes place before the beginning of the second game, when nothing was known about the collectors. I will not spoil what and how it happened, despite the fact that almost the entire plot is already explained in the game. This anime only delves into this storyline a little deeper.

The plot is basically what you can expect from Mass Effect. It was nice to see the characters from the game, especially the ones I've become attached to. It definitely help you empathize with the main character. I think the best part of the anime is the ending. It calls back on the original trilogy, following the theme of hard choices, tragic consequences and humility. All the things that many fans of this franchise love so much.

The soundtrack is also pretty good. Nothing outstanding, but it definitely flows well with the rest.

However, not everything here is perfect. The animation itself is not of the best quality. Some character designs and dialogues could've been done way better, but nothing terrible.

There are other minor issues. Some races have changed their appearance a little, which looks very strange and unusual. Sound effects are weird. For me, if you decide to take sound effects from the game, then you should go all out. It is strange to see a submachine gun or an assault riffle sound like a shouriken. But this is just some minor nit-picking.

All in all, it's still a decent prequel. A nice present for all fans of the franchise.

Fails to please both the fans of the game and the newcomers

[Vartiainen · 4/10 · 6 October 2015]

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is by no means the worst video game movie adaptation I've seen in my life, but it's the only one we have of the Mass Effect universe, a game series published by Bioware. The problem is the quality of that game series. Mass Effect is all about the story. It is a vast, epic saga of galaxy in peril and is to be counted, at least in my opinion, among the greatest of space operas, along with Star Wars and Star Trek. So you can imagine that in my honest opinion a cheap anime-style direct-to-video tie-in doesn't quite cut it.

Taking place during the events of the second game and telling the backstory of one James Vega, an eventual teammate in the third game, the movie admittedly has a few good things going for it. The character animations and designs, for one, are mostly pretty good. They look like the characters from the game, the facial expressions are evocative and the action scenes work. I have no idea why they made the krogans and the collectors appear almost twice as big as they are in the games, but that's a nitpick.

The ending is also surprisingly good, capturing the essence of the Mass Effect games and their tendency to make you face extremely tough choices, usually between the good of the individual and the good of the society.

But then, the downsides. While the characters are animated decently enough, given the budget, the backgrounds are pure guano. They're cheap CGI garbage, clash horribly with the actual characters and don't convince for a second. Every single background in the actual games was more convincing than anything in this film. And the first one of those came out five years before this film.

The story is also lame, aside from the ending. It shows us nothing new of the Mass Effect universe, thus failing to please the existing fans, and it is pretty much inscrutable by anyone who has not played the games. There are few cutscenes to the previous events, and they're so quick that they don't help much. And it's not like it would have been hard to include a brief segment in the beginning. Like: "In 2147 humanity found a cache of alien technology on Mars. A decade later they managed to join the larger galactic society, which had flourished in the ruins of the civilization that came before them, the Protheans. Later this new galactic society was threatened by an ancient threat, known as the Reapers, led by Sovereign, a dreadnought spaceship of vast technological superiority and might. It was eventually beaten by the joint taskforce led by Commander Shepard, but his warnings about the eventual Reaper invasion were dismissed. And now he is believed dead." See? Not that hard, and would have made the whole movie infinitely more watchable to newcomers.

So yeah, while Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is not as bad as it could have been, it's certainly not good either. That's mostly due to the limitation of the budget, I believe, but it still means that I cannot in good conscience recommend this to anyone. Not fans or newcomers. If you're a die-hard fan of the Mass Effect universe, you're going to see it anyway, in which case I can say that at least there's some good in it, but trust me, it's not worth it.

Love Mass Effect and Loved this Movie

[FreedomFighter08 · 10/10 · 16 March 2014]

This movie is about James Vega, for those who don't know him he is a companion in Mass Effect 3 video game, you don't know much about him. But he loves earth and he is just as loyal as Shepherd and he wanted to make a difference so he decided to join the best, The N7, he stands for the earth's greatest contribution just like Shephard for humanity. This movie made me respect him a lot more and I decided to always take me with him, the more you progress in the game and the more you talk to your companions the more you hear about their background stories and what they've been through. He was not my favorite companion to bring along to missions but after have seen this movie it built up a lot of respect for him so I decided to take me with him even more and he suddenly became my favorite companion, he only hints small information about his background story and you can guess it was something terrible that happened to him and his squad, but you never knew what it was until this movie came. Now when I've seen it I could never have guessed how tragic it was for him to experience what he did. I'd say this movie represented his background story to the fullest. I gave it a 7/10, I had no problem with the cgi/animation and I loved the story, Mass Effect is about tough choices, what you believe is to be the best possible outcome, sacrifice and gain. The movie title speaks for itself. James Vega has my respect, thumbs up for this movie, bring us more Mass! Effect!

Even if you are a Mass Effect fan you might find this disappointing

[gaborzeller · 4/10 · 26 December 2012]

Paragon Lost was clearly made for the fans so if you are not familiar with the Mass Effect universe don't bother watching it (there are way too many references with zero explanation).

Even so I find it really hard to write a review cause I am pretty sure it was meant for a younger audience. A 14 years old kid might find it entertaining, but sadly for me this movie was quite mediocre.

So-so graphics, interesting, but really badly executed plot, stereotyped characters, laughable dialogue, plot holes here and there and so on.

**spoiler warning**

The only good thing in the movie is the Mass Effect-ish paragon/renegade decision at the end. The drama is well executed and Vega traveling back to the planet facing the consequences of his decision (combined with the pseudo-flashback of the colonists) is really harrowing.

...

Until you take a few minutes and think about it. Wait what? So he is forced to choose between the lives of more than a HUNDRED of colonists he was living with for like TWO YEARS, and "that" intel.

Keep in mind when Vega is making his decision, to the best of his knowledge the so called "intel" is nothing more than an antidote to the paralyzing venom that works at 70% success rate at best. Everything else on the disc (that might make worth it) is known only by the other characters and the audience if they played the game, but NOT by Vega(!).

PLUS During the entire movie Vega never shuts the f*ck up about saving the colonists. He makes speeches about saving the colonists, whines about how Commander Shepherd would have already saved the colonists, reminds the audience every five minute that their objective is SAVING THE COLONISTS.

I guess all the choices are clear. So long idiots, I hope all the colonists die in a horrible way....oh wait they did.

A lazy addition to an otherwise sterling series

[oli-reed · 3/10 · 29 January 2013]

Anyone who is a fan of the Mass Effect games and has played the last one is already familiar with James Vega and is somewhat aware of the story of his lost platoon. Though James Vega is by no means a favourite character of mine, he still is a fun and worthy addition to the amazingly diverse roster of characters offers up in the ground-breaking game series.

However, this spin-off animation does not live up at all with the original three games cinematic style, characters, story or story telling. I know it is a slightly difficult comparison to compare a game to an animation, however when a feature that has to focus more on combat than story has a more fuller narrative then you know it is bad. Even compared to the third game - an ending that is regarded as one of the worst game endings ever feels more satisfying than this.

The animation felt the laziest aspect of the whole production and offered nothing special to fans. When the main character's neck is bigger than his head then you know how poor quality the animation is.

Not only is the animation lacking, but the characters provided for the viewer to be emotionally invested in were two dimensional and bland for the most part, not forgetting some very dodgy voice acting and impressions of old characters, as well as a PAINFULLY obvious 'bad-guy'. Not forgetting massive plot holes e.g. why didn't Essex go after the asari and save her with biotics, or why was it so easy to get out of the pod chambers, even when they weren't paralysed).

There were some parts I liked and the end felt somewhat satisfying and the beginning and end felt reasonably satisfying, however from a name this good, fans and newcomers should justifiably expect something more.

I know this is based on a comic, so the production cannot be blamed entirely, however this could have been a lot more of an exciting tale if executed directly. As well as this, why they chose this piece to do as an animation is beyond me. They could have just as easily animated a satisfying alternative ending to the series (although that would be hard to execute well), or create a fresh narrative from the plentiful world that mass effect has created (pre, post, or parallel to Shepard). I would have personally liked them to create a narrative from the Rachni Wars.

OVERALL LAZY AND DISAPPOINTING WITH THE POTENTIAL IT HAD

Why did they bother?

[info-12388 · 1/10 · 6 September 2016]

Oh. Right. Because of the money.

If you've read the other reviews, you know the plot, so I"m not gonna rehash that. Space Cowboy tries to save the world, fails, manages to save the girl instead, and in the process saves the universe...

... to which I say, "Huh?"

OK, let's start with the animation: it's cheap and cheezy, even by Funimation standards. I've only seen a few of their films, but the others had at least some pretension of knowing what a human body looks like. The character designers here seem to have gotten their inspirations from fun-house mirrors, with impossible elongated torsos and teeny little heads.The mix of CG and cel didn't work for even a second. As for the backgrounds... well, the less said about those, perhaps the better.

The story? Well, in the extras, one of the producers points out that he and someone else kept a file of scenes from films they both enjoyed, and after watching this... well, pastiche... I can see why they followed the dictum of only stealing from the best. A little Star Wars here, a little Blade Runner there, some Alien over there, a whole whack of Starship Troopers over there... you get the idea. There's not a single original concept to be found anywhere, just a hopeless mishmash of other people's films.

The direction? Similarly dreadful. The voicing seems to come straight out of Acting 102, while the visual style relies way too much on full profile shots of clenched jaws and sad, somber eyes. Some of the action scenes are little more than a series of explosions, followed by a couple of the main characters congratulating themselves on surviving.

Cut through it all, I probably should have stopped a half hour in, as I was tempted to. But I stuck it out just to see where it was going. As it turned out, nowhere all that important.

Ending ruining the entire movie!

[allenknott3 · 3/10 · 29 May 2021]

The ending decision, which is wrong in my opinion, ruining the entire movie. Vega only saved the Asari because of his romantic feelings and let all of the peoples aboard the Colonist ship died because of it, including the little girl, April and her mother. Also, the move does not really fit into the canon of the games.

paragon has been lost. i loved this movie

[nasirasadansari · 10/10 · 11 November 2016]

before i get into this review id like to state the difference between paragon and renegade in the mass effect series as a whole. paragon and renegade choices aren't supposed to be simply as good vs evil. paragon represents Idealism a.k.a. the Socrates school of philosophy and Renegade represents Pragmatism a.k.a. the Machiavellian "Ends Justify The Means" or in simpler terms for you numnuts out there, paragon is lawful good and renegade is chaotic good. when playing the mass effect trilogy as commander Shepard i usually mixed these up and played as either a paragade or a renagon, essentially a mix of both moralities to make both a realistic and idealistic protagonist.

now onto the review, first of all the story:(SPOILERS AHEAD)

this film is essentially part of the backstory of alliance marine James Vegas deployment on a colony planet and his encounter with the collectors from mass effect 2. one thing you will notice about James is his good leadership skills and combat expertise. another noticeable trait from James is his admiration and idolization of commander Shepard from the mass effect trilogy, going so far as to wear a badge commemorating the remembrance of the ssv Normandy. members of Vegas squad, his captain and even admiral Hackett mention this. either teasing him for it or warning him that "greatness like that comes at a great price". the other characters were well created and felt like real people in a terrible and life threatening situation. tough not everything was combat and action, there were both fun and lighthearted moments between Vega, his squad and the colonists and some very emotional and heart breaking moments such as the death of one Vegas squad member and James final decision near the end of the film. id say that this was a 10 out of 10 for me, being a fan of the mass effect franchise as a whole i loved it. the animation was very good and the soundtrack was phenomenal.

also the reason why the movie is called "paragon lost" is because James Vega himself is a very paragon character. its the reason why he admires and looks up to commander Shepard because Shepard saved the galaxy against impossible odds in mass effect 1 and became regarded as a true hero around the galaxy. near the end of the film Vega had the choice of saving the colonists or saving the intel on the collectors. James made the renegade choice, he saved the intel at the cost of the colonists, as such he lost his paragon. even tough James greatly admires Shepard and wants to follow in his footsteps, he has no idea what its like to be Shepard. when playing as commander Shepard in the mass effect trilogy i had to make dozens of tough choices and decisions both good and bad and live with the consequences. when James went trough the exact same ordeal it emotionally destroyed him, ironically making him experience what its like to be Shepard. when you meet him in mass effect 3, he still admires you but after experiencing firsthand what its like to be him Vegas idolization has been replaced with respect and relief of not being commander Shepard who he sees as a "loco"AKA crazy. for the things that the commander has done. its a very a mentor protégé like relationship between those two and part of the reason why i love his character.

Jump on the cash cow and squeeze some moar!

[Anticute · 3/10 · 23 December 2012]

Personal: Firstly, I need to say that I'm not the biggest fan of the game series. I have played only Mass Effect 3 and have read the first of the book series. I considered both to be quite excellent. So now that that's clear I need to say:

Warning: This movie isn't worth the time put into making it. By comparison to the games and the books it's a poor excuse at an attempt to add some other media to the Mass Effect universe.

Summary: The story is focused around the character Vega, which was first introduced in the game, Vega and his team are ordered to protect a researching colony that's working on figuring out some ancient alien tech. Not too far into the movie the colony gets attacked by an enemy who's reasoning and purposes are unknown.

Impressions: I'll grant you the script sounds like it would've had potential in the right hands at making at least a decent action movie, however it was written poorly. Most of it isn't only predictable, it's so cliché you have to slap yourself in order not to fall asleep, not to mention Vega's character is - in the games at least, because there isn't a lot of character development to speak of in the movie - cliché to begin with. To sum him up quickly, he's the guy on the battlefield going 'Yeah! Get some!', and that is cause of a great many problems throughout the movie because when he 'falls in love'(meaning he gets a high school crush), they turn him into a lost puppy. It's like they took out every cliché attribute from Peter Parker and Chuck Norris and slammed it into one with this guy. I shouldn't even mention the fact that the way he's imagined and acted is not at all what I was used to from the game.

Alright, moving on, voice acting... Some of the lines don't fit well with the stress levels in each scene, they're isn't one that's memorable and you can tell from a far they lacked directing.

The animation. Oh boy! Remember the old X-men cartoons? That's about the level this is at. I'm not saying the X-men cartoons weren't great, for that time, they were phenomenal, however for 2012 this animation will feel like it's a blast from the past in a bad way. I think there might even be some scenes that are missing in-between frames, the lip sync is pretty awful and the level of complexity of the angles and scenes is Scooby Doo-ish.

Conclusion: This movie is a shameful attempt at cashing in on an already established name. It has no positive side to it, except maybe giving you a good giggle, when you see just how bad it really is.

Poor animation and story plot goes against the story in the game series

[tylerflint49 · 3/10 · 31 May 2018]

When i heard about this movie i was expecting for it to be a really good movie. This movie sucks cuz the story plot goes against the story in the game series and the animation is horrible not to mention that one of the characters in this movie made a disrespectful comment about commander Shepard to Vega saying "Sucks for you that Shepard's dead"

This ain't it chief

[ararebreed · 1/10 · 10 August 2019]

Maybe the worst animation in a feature length movie I have ever seen.

Not Good

[xTkAx · 5/10 · 14 December 2023]

Don't watch this before playing ME3, watch it after, and only if you're bored.

Even then it's not good - it wasn't set well, brings nothing new, rehashes elements from the games, and generally spoils some plots of the game. It also was not anything like James Vega, nor the collectors from the video games. It also had a very bad and forced sad ending.

You would be better off skipping this film entirely and playing the video games again. It really brings nothing new to the table, and ultimately is a waste of time.

As a result this film cannot be recommended because it was a big hore to watch.

Just amazing...

[commando-razor · 8/10 · 31 December 2012]

Well, I am NOT a fan of this saga, neither have I played any of the games (I've bought the first one on Steam 10 minutes ago because of this movie) and I have to say that this was beautiful.

I mean, the art style was meh, just like any other anime if you ask me, also the 3D graphics were a little crappy (mostly in lighting), but the story was just perfect... The first 40 or 50 minutes were dull and boring, yeah, but then it got WAAAAY better, and my favorite part was between the minutes 50 and 1:20. It was awesome, action scenes (maybe one or two that were quite boring though), but... I dunno, these 30 minutes made this movie worth it, totally, and the ending? I just love bitter endings, it was really sad, and I liked it.

Recommended? Of course I will recommend it. I don't know why people hate this movie so much, it's pretty good.

Also, I've read that some people have played ME3 BEFORE watching the movie. Well that's just, you know, your problem, right?

Where are the female leads?

[JohnnieBluez · 1/10 · 3 August 2021]

No but seriously. You could make a movie about Tali or Liara. James? Really?

True to mass effect choices

[xaydin-81973 · 8/10 · 19 November 2019]

Dont listen to what others say about this not being true to mass effect. I found it entertaining and funny and the fighting was great. Choices are made and the last one will get you. Recommended for anyone, not just fans of the games.