There are going to be one line reviews on either end of the fence for this animated movie, none of which are particularly constructive, so I'll post some of my thoughts after having spent $20 on the Blu-Ray/DVD combo and watching the movie twice.
Bottom line, the movie is enjoyable. I don't regret the money I spent, and what it sets out to do, it does well: give James Vega (a character that didn't get enough screentime in Mass Effect 3) compelling development and a fleshed out backstory. Hints of James Vega's past excursions and adventures on Fehl Prime were mentioned in Mass Effect 3 but largely glossed over because hey, Reapers. There were hints at a larger story but there was never a payoff, and that's where Paragon Lost comes in. The subtitle foreshadows the movie's inevitable conclusion very well, and I won't spoil it here, but I honestly really liked the final moments of the movie highlighting Vega's inner conflict and turmoil. For a character that was relegated as 'Jersey Shore trash' by much of the fandom when he made his debut in Mass Effect 3, it goes a long way towards redeeming his character, narrative-wise.
The other characters are mainly a vehicle for Vega's development and are really just kind of one-dimensional. If this had been a series I could see them getting really good development a la Full Metal Panic (one character even acts like Kurtz, which I found immensely amusing), but as a movie they're little more than generic NPCs to drive the plot. Some important characters from the games make short cameos, and while it's nice to see them, it'd have been nicer if they had gotten the original actors to reprise their roles - the substitutes do an admirable job but Patrick Seitz can never replace Keith David as Anderson.
Those invested in the Mass Effect lore and story, however, will notice glaring inconsistencies. Some come at the very end, so I won't spoil them here, but other minor-to-major lore hiccups are rather obvious and bizarre. As an example, Collectors (which, as shown in Mass Effect 2, are of roughly human size) tower over the main cast, with some - but not all - standing at almost three stories tall. Biotics need 'power cells' to fuel their attacks (which should be a natural extension of their nervous system). There are more minor ones, but those who heavily invest themselves into the lore of the series will find a lot to dislike about the movie. It's not as bad as, say, Mass Effect: Deception, but like I said, glaring mistake that any fan of the series will notice. For my part, I don't really mind and take it as the writers being not entirely familiar with the source material, as the movie is all about Vega. I imagine BioWare gave the writers an outline of what the story should be about and let them write the rest themselves. On one hand, creative freedom! On the other, mistakes aplenty.
The aesthetics of the movie are hit-or-miss. Mass Effect as a whole doesn't really lend itself well to anime, being hyper-realistic hard sci-fi, and some of the downright absurd gymnastics and physical feats that the characters perform in the movie may fit well in anime, but does not really fit into the Mass Effect mythos. Animation is smooth and decent, but honestly, could have been better. The art style is okay, but I have seen better, and I'm not a fan of how Vega was drawn in the movie. The other characters look great though, especially the Asari character Treeya, who I found to be the most well-drawn character in the movie. The music is great but I found a startling lack of any of the Mass Effect themes - I would've liked if they had played the ME1/ME2 ending theme at the very end of the movie, it would've been fitting. The lip-syncing can get weirdly off at times, which confuses me, because I assume this was voiced in English first, so there shouldn't be any problems of that sort.
All in all, it's not a failure - but it's not exactly a resounding success, either. The production values seem a bit low for a Mass Effect movie, but the storytelling - which, let's admit it, is one of the bigger draws of the Mass Effect franchise - is compelling and well-written. It adds depth and development to a character that desperately needed it (because seriously, we can't all be Garrus Vakarian, bro-ing it up with Shepard over the entire trilogy), but in the process leaves some seriously head scratching lore and story inconsistencies. The animation and sounds could honestly be a lot better, considering what we've seen come out of the Mass Effect franchise.
My opinion? Buy it. It's honestly a decent movie. But BioWare, you need to improve from here on out. Next time you release a Mass Effect film/movie/animation/whatever, I might not be so charitable.
