“Red vs. Blue – Season 8 (Revelation)” DVD Review
As great as Red vs. Blue has been over its various seasons, it’s simply a show that you would never expect to last eight whole seasons and keep a fresh quality that you can continue to rely on. It’s a difficult feat even for professionals with large budget shows, and yet, Red vs. Blue keeps on going. In it’s eighth season, they have even taken the leap into a new approach for filming their series, which goes far beyond the capabilities of what they could do in previous seasons. This results in some epic, and truly amazing fighting that takes a lot of work to think of a rival; the choreography of these epic battles is simply mindblowing. Granted, there aren’t too many of these sequences, but that just retains the awesomeness of the few there are.
Synopsis
As former alliances are betrayed and friends become enemies, the Reds and Blues find themselves in an impossible predicament; in order to save the universe this time, they can’t be totally incompetent. While on the run, the two teams must find a way to put aside their past differences and figure out the mystery behind Project Freelancer once and for all. Then they can get back to their past differences. The entire cast of RED VS. BLUE returns for the most hilarious and eye-popping season to date. With a unique combination of machinima from the blockbuster video game Halo®, and stunning new animated sequences, this is RED VS. BLUE unlike anything you’ve seen before. Prepare for a REVELATION…
Returning once more to their classic characters, the voice cast are all present and come across as their best performances throughout the various seasons. Even Caboose, who understandably can be difficult to consistently hit his complicated tone throughout a season, rarely has an off moment. As it has evolved throughout the previous seasons, the writing excellently reaches a peak with the mystery and plot twists laid throughout the season, and continues to keep things unpredictable as they unfold. The characters even manage to show more significant development with themselves than in past seasons, and admittedly this is the first time that it never felt forced.
As previously pointed out, the engine that they’re using now to film Red vs. Blue allows them to create unique character movements that wouldn’t normally be possible with a normal game engine. This allows them a wide range of potential for scenes ranging from subtle character actions to full blow epic fights – and they are quite epic. Each one revolving around the troubled freelancer Tex, this is the first season in which we’re truly introduced to why she is supposedly such a dangerous force that you don’t want to get in the way of. This manages to add a whole new dynamic to the character, and even enhances the presence of her character in previous seasons as you know what exactly she is capable of.
Overall, if you’ve enjoyed the previous seven seasons, then I know you’ll enjoy this one plenty. If you’re just getting into the show, then you will be completely and utterly lost – but you will be wowed from the use of amazing fight choreography and most likely enticed into watching the previous seasons. Highly Recommended.
The DVD
Here I thought the five season set released last month was the whole series—turns out there are another two or three seasons (possibly four, who knows) of Red vs. Blue and they’re both coming out separately rather than as part of a box set…strange, but more publicity for the series is always a good thing I guess. This season is a single disc release without any fancy slipcovers, inserts or anything. Video is on par with previous seasons and it looks and sounds great. I’m not sure if this was even available in HD online, but this is as good as we’re going to get on DVD and in that regard I’m satisfied with it.
Extras are bountiful as always and include:
Director’s Commentary
Special Videos and PSA’s
The RvB Holiday Miniseries
Outtakes
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Breakdown
Cast Interviews
It’s nice that they load these DVD releases up with bonus content considering you can access these episodes online and the commentaries and outtakes alone are worth the price of this disc.
Overall a Recommended release for Red vs. Blue fans.
Red vs. Blue – Season 8: Revelation arrives on DVD on September 21st.
Season review by Andrew
DVD review by Zach Demeter