The Legend of Vox Machina

This show took me by surprise, I had never listened to the DnD campaign by Critical Role so I went in completely blind. This show has been hilarious, entertaining and scratches an itch for dnd / high fantasy / and comedy. If you have Amazon Prime, this is very much worth your time.

I found this series fun for the first few episodes. Then all the shortcomings started to emerge. It's generic. That's it's biggest flaw. While sprayed with the occasional "The Boys" humor it all feels already used. I know it's generic in some areas due to D&D foundations, but that doesn't excuse it for being boring and predictable much too often. The animations are nice at moments, but also very uneven. The fact that the dragons are animated in a completely different way doesn't sit well with me, to be honest. It was an okay watch, but nothing spectacular. If you're a D&D fun, you'd probably give it a bit higher rating.

The efforts of overpaid TTRPG nerds and overworked Korean animators give us a juvenile saga that aims for subversion and settles for irreverence. Its like throwing a TV-MA on Shrek.

Some professional reviewers must have had a sizeable donation from Uncle Amazon, before putting in their scores, it seems. That's the only reason I can think of for grown adults giving something so basic, such glowing reviews. If you're a kid between the age of 12-17, you might really enjoy Vox Machina. The extremely cliche, trope-driven story and characters might not put you off and the script that substitutes swearing for jokes, might make you laugh a little. If you're an adult or just a mature kid, Vox Machina is unwatchable after a few minutes. The artwork is decent, if not stellar and the animation is low-level Saturday morning cartoon, but it's passable. Voice acting is also passable, there's some bad accents in there (but that's par for the course for the genre) but the cast do their best with the bad script. Unfortunately, however, the whole thing really comes down to that script and it is a stinker. It's beyond childish and whilst a similar project, Invincible, has a great time taking tropes and subverting them, and using harsh language and mature themes and using them with subtlety and wit to craft a show that's entertaining to all audiences, Vox has clearly been created by a different level of writer. Perhaps one that hasn't yet made it out of primary school?

Woke, written by edge lords, and generally formulaic. Sure they pepper it with swear words, and the occasional flash of nudity, but that is just to earn the adult tag. The cool trailer happens in the first minute, and never reaches that height again in the first three episodes. The art is good, as is the voice acting. But bad stories, woke agenda (especially in a fantasy setting), and juvenile antics from supposed adults robs this of any entertainment.