User Reviews

Credible, entertaining, and perfectly paced, "The Legend of Vox Machina" on Amazon Prime Video brought with it a small world of creative character-driven storytelling that I've seen abundantly in PC games. Crisp animation, great editing, and superb writing rendered this show a worthy animated series deserving of its own franchise.

Remarkable directing by a team of sharp minds - Sung Jin Ahn, Alicia Chan, Young Heller, Stanley Von Medvey, and Yu-Won Pang. Praiseworthy screenplay by Brandon Auman, Marc Bernardin, Ashly Burch, Kevin Burke, Mae Catt, Jennifer Muro, Sam Riegel, Eugene Son, Travis Willingham, and Chris Wyatt.

Neal Acree's musical scoring brought a deep sense of immediacy and fun to the show. Todd Raleigh's editing saved it in more ways than one. Superheroic work on art, animation, and VFX.

Voice acting was instrumental in conveying the manifold magical splendours of "The Legend of Vox Machina" on Amazon Prime Video.

Taliesin Jaffe (as Percy de Rolo) was quite good. Laura Bailey (as Vex'ahlia) was great. Liam O'Brien (as Vax'ildan) was noteworthy. Ashley Johnson (as Pike Trickfoot) was amazing. Marisha Ray (as Keyleth) was superb. Sam Riegel (as Scanlan Shorthalt) was outstanding. Travis Willingham (as Grog Strongjaw) was memorable. It was hard to choose a favourite when each character felt so distinct.

All other voice-artists did notable work for various characters in Season 1 of "The Legend of Vox Machina". The villains Silas and Delilah Briarwood (voiced by Matthew Mercer and Grey Griffin) were great. Lesser baddies like Duke Vedmire (voiced by Rory McCann), Professor Anders (voiced by Stephen Root), Kerrion Stonefell (voiced by Darin De Paul), and General Krieg (voiced by David Tennant) were great. Sovereign council member Lady Allura Vysoren (voiced by Indira Varma) was memorable. Archibald Desnay (voiced by Dominic Monaghan) was remarkable.

The first season was off to a promising start. Plenty of humour and action, with enough gore and explicit content to keep adult viewers entertained. I loved some of the Steampunk inspirations as well. The characters were well-crafted and their interactions, wholly convincing. The show also contained 'real life' moments - modern swearing, nudity, and more.

Despite being an animated series, every episode felt real because of such elements. Some nice "Final Fantasy", "Game Of Thrones", "Lord of the Rings", "The Witcher", and "Dungeons & Dragons" vibes as well. I can't forget to mention the many funny moments that prevailed in this show, imparting perfect humorous balance to an otherwise dark and bloody tale.

In the "The Legend of Vox Machina", you'll find an unemployed and disreputable gang of mercenaries faced with the prospect of saving the kingdom of Exandria. Misfits in every way, their quest held great symbolic significance. Not all heroes wear capes, indeed.

Critical Role did excellent work creating this masterpiece. The show's almost cinematic fight choreography, outstanding musical scoring, and witty as well as humourous writing more than made it worthy of multiple seasons. That jaw-dropping cliffhanger of a finale included.

This is one of the rare occasions when knowing what happened in the stream hurt my enjoyment of the story.

By continually throwing Vax's crush on Keyleth up in everyone's face, there's a lot of people who end up finding it annoying and creepy. They could have shown Scanlan's ability to heal, but no. They had to make it all about Vax's undying unrequited love. *sigh*

The whole Percy fighting his demon was interesting for a bit, but it went on WAY too long. I did like that they included Vex saying "Darling, take the mask off" because that was an important moment from the show. But the whole struggle just went on and on. And then he just learns to forgive? How are you going to explain his sudden need for vengeance if/when they meet Ripley again? He didn't really earn that character growth.

And finally, the dragons... That could have been so much better! If they had chopped 2 or 3 minutes from Percy's whole struggle, it wouldn't have been missed. They could have put that time into the arrival of the dragons. Build up the bells, let them hear screaming coming from outside the walls, have the shadow of a dragon pass over the courtyard, hear crashing from all directions. Finally end it with a giant dragon perched on the wall looking down on the people below. Then a shot looking up at the dragon as it releases it's breath weapon into the crowd and fade to black. Show the true terror, leave those who don't know wondering how any of them could have survived that moment just to have to wait for the next season to find out. They did SO good with cliffhangers up until this point! I was so disappointed that they left it on such a comparatively weak note.

All that being said, these are things that if I didn't know the live stream I probably wouldn't catch on to. I would be blissfully unaware of how good it could have been, and I probably would have given it a high rating. I hope people DO enjoy the episode and feel anxious for Vax and Keyleth, relieved that Percy has conquered his demons, and scared for their favorite band of misfits. Sadly, I was just left with a feeling of "Meh. It was pretty good, I guess... Could have been better." Still can't wait for next season, though.