Red vs. Blue: The Recollection – DVD Review
Aside from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Red vs. Blue: The Recollection is the greatest action trilogy to be released this decade. I personally never thought I would write those words but it’s true damn it. No other series I’ve seen in recent years so perfectly combines action, comedy, and epic storytelling like Recollection.
The trilogy is comprised of the season 6, 7 and 8 of the internet machinima series Red vs. Blue. Based on the Halo game series (specifically the multiplayer mode, which much of it is shot in) the series is comprised of multiple 5-6 minute long episodes that are released regularly on the internet. They are presented over the three discs as three complete features, running between 90 minutes and 2 hours each. What is amazing is how much these three seasons work as full-length features. Normally with serialized internet shows there’s some sort of disconnect between each episode but Recollection manages to edit the episodes together seamlessly, as though they were always intended to be full-length films. The only indication that these were ever separated comes in Reconstruction where each segment begins with a voice-over conversation between two high ranking military officials.
Red vs. Blue’s format is pretty simple. It takes basic elements from the game (the red and blue armies, the environments, etc.) and makes its own story. Instead of trying to replicate some portion of the game it makes new characters and settles on briefly referencing events in the Halo timeline. The original nature of the story means that they have nothing to remain faithful to and are free to create their own world within the Halo universe. This freedom has allowed them to create a perfectly paced film trilogy that really feels like a film (as opposed to a non-playable video game). In Reconstruction the familiar soldiers of the red and blue armies learn of a new threat and join up with a new character in order to take down said threat. While earning a major victory they learn new information regarding a secret government project that spawned their new enemy. Recreation and Revelation follow the team dealing with these new discoveries and eventually facing off against their enemy in a final showdown. The story works so well in this series that it’s mind boggling to think that no other video game adaptation has followed this format.
In my review of Revelation I mentioned how startling the change in animation was. It works even better watching these three as a whole. The first two films are entirely done with in game animation. The action isn’t extremely compelling in these installments so they let the dialogue and the story take over, getting us involved in the storyline. When Revelation comes around, we’re expecting a big pay off to the epic story that’s been laid out before us. So when we get our first taste of the new digitally animated RvB action scenes it’s jaw dropping.
Each disc comes packed with extras and surprisingly, none of them are fluff. We get commentaries for all three films. The commentaries are all interesting and engaging due to the conversational tone of the creators. The best one goes to Season 8 though as it’s both fun and really informative in revealing the process of adding the digital animation and turning the series in a new direction. Reconstruction and Recreation both come with prequel mini-series detailing events that happened in between series. These are required viewing as they explain certain plot points and feature returning characters. Each disc also has deleted scenes, outtakes, and special videos that are unrelated to the rest of the rest of the series.
If you’re a fan of Halo, or just sci-fi, action and comedy in general, Red vs. Blue:The Recollection should be in your collection. Unless you already own a few of the single discs there’s no reason not to buy this complete set. It retails at less than twenty bucks at most places and gives you almost six hours of awesomeness plus tons of extras. Here’s hoping that the series continues in its new direction and continues to kick monumental amounts of ass. I can’t wait to review the next one.
Rating: 
Join Us On Facebook
Advertisement
