What makes it different from others?

Such a frustrating disappointment

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

I grew up in the 80's and the OG Voltron was one of my go to shows back in the day. I even remember the other Voltron too, the one with the vehicles. I had both Voltron toys as well. Safe to say, I was a fan. This new show is everything it should and needed to be. It reintroduces Voltron to the kids of today, while properly paying homage to original show.The spirit of what made Voltron so popular in the 80's was kept well in tact. You have the same lion pilots (now called "paladins") but they are each given more of a backstory. Even the villains are more captivating, as they dive into their pasts and what motivates them to do what they do. The animation is stunning and Voltron itself does not disappoint. There is also more a season by season storytelling arc, as opposed to the old series, which was more episodic - team has to get the lions, robeast is sent, form Voltron, form blazing sword, strike, day is won. The new show managed to do the seemingly impossible - make the new series good like the old one was, while also doing something new, deeper and unlike what we've seen before in the franchise.I look forward to each new season, which thankfully are not very far apart. Highly recommend for any Voltron fans!

Finished season one and two in the span of one week. Have re-watched it about 3 times now and strongly anticipate season three as well as the rumored live-action movie that's coming. Did not watch the original shows it spawned from but still completely understand and enjoyed every single bit of the series.

Spoilers I will make will be in referencing Go Lion! Old enough to have watched the original Voltron, I finally watched this on Netflix. Needless to say I found it good enough to binge the entire two seasons very quickly.Legendary Defender (which I will abbreviate as LD here on) improved upon many things.To start with, a few years back I watched Go Lion! (via Crunchyroll) and found that the story was far far better than Voltron. (As I'm a huge Macross fan and know the horrors of Robotech, I wasn't surprised by the changes to Go Lion!) Go Lion! was much darker than Voltron, and LD brings some of that feel back. While Go Lion! killed off that annoying snobbish maid Hys, original Voltron wouldn't dare, and thankfully LD doesn't have her in it at all.Loved the fact that they used the name Shiro (Go Lion!) instead of Sven (original Voltron) for the character. And the fact that Shiro is the leader. This sets up something many people may have missed ....Original members outfit matches the color of their lion! Yeah, a very minor detail, but I liked it. Now if they change lions, the different color outfits make sense.Some have commented about the lack of the original Voltron music (i.e. the very generic sounding rift also used in Robotech), I agree music is missing, BUT ...Go Lion! had an epic opening, epic songs for each lion, and one for Go Lion (Voltron) itself. I was hoping they would have added the music for the lions at least.Overall Voltron: Legendary Defender is worth watching, better than the original Voltron and even though the story is changed more, it is actually closer in spirit to Go Lion! than the original Voltron! And if you need something to watch while waiting for Season 3, I highly suggest watching Go Lion! (Yes it is subbed, but well worth it)

Before I explain, you should know I was born in 94, so Lion Voltron was before my time. I was 2/3rds of the way through the first episode of the 80's Voltron, trying to enjoy it, but I stopped watching because I couldn't find anything I liked about it. If you expect your audience to like your show, you have to make a compelling first episode, otherwise you'll lose half of them (and that's the realist truth there is). Ironically, everything that I hated about the 80's version made me love the 2017 version even more. For starters, the characters' personalities are well developed from the get-go, but they expand as the series progresses. In the 80's version, everyone has a 2 dimensional, clichéd, and lacking personality.The voices are WAY better and MORE realistic in this version. In the 80's version, the voices for the paladins are just bland. Keith in this version sounds more determined, while in the 80's version, he sounds like a stereotypical boy scout who points out the obvious every time he opens his mouth. Bex Taylor-Claus voicing Pidge was an interesting choice, and she portrays the character well. In the 80's version, Pidge literally sounds like Jar-Jar Binks, and that immediately made me cringe (seriously, why didn't they make him sound like a human being?). While Hunk is quite whiny and cowardly in this version, it's not at all annoying, and there's times where he rightfully-so can be taken seriously (like when he was rescuing the Balmaran people). In the 80's version, he just sounds like a stereotypical tough guy from New York City. Because of all of the hell Shiro went through before joining the Voltron force, he rightfully-so has developed a commanding-sounding presence in his voice, whereas in the 80's version, he just sounded like a random foreigner. While Lance is loud, a little annoying, and talkative in the version, he's more interesting to listen to than his 80's counterpart that was just boring. I should also mention the supporting cast too. Allura having a British accent in this version is kind of clichéd, but its not overly clichéd, because she has a developed character. While I'm not a huge fan of Cree Summer's voice acting, I like the dark presence she has in her voice when playing Haggar. Zarkon sounds more menacing (which is what I like about Neil Kaplan as a voice actor) than he did in the 80's version.Speaking of Zarkon, I only two things I don't like about him is his character design is unrecognizable from his 80's counterpart, and he commands a gigantic ship instead of a castle. However, I think that was created intentionally. Perhaps in the 3rd season, his red suit will be removed and he'll resemble his 80's counterpart more, and he'll command from a distant castle instead of a ship.The animation is much more sleeker, colorful, and fluid, while the animation of the first episode of the 80's version was dreary and quite stiff. While this version is considered an anime, at least it portrays itself as it's own thing, compared to the 80's version where the animation style in a lot of 80's cartoons looked very similar to each other (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Spiderman and his Amazing Friends, etc).The new look of the lions and Voltron are awesome. Sure the transformation sequence is like Power Rangers where they expect RoBeasts or the Galra to wait a minute or two for the robot to transform (Keith happens to mention this as (I guess) a forth wall reference towards the end of the second season).I also love how it combines magic and science, making it more of a science-fantasy-action than a science-fiction-action show.The story alone of this version will make you binge-watch this show because it's so compelling, doesn't fall flat, and makes you come back for more. The pacing of each episode plays at a regular speed. The first episode of 80's version does the opposite.It just amazes me how many years after a (in my opinion, shitty) make-or-break episode of 80's show was made, someone comes along and makes an adaptation that's actually worth watching. I know that the fan base of any franchise is what makes or breaks a franchise, and no doubt the biggest part of that were the toy sales of Voltron action figures. As far as storytelling goes, I'm sure fans of the toys who hated the 80's version of the show wrote fan-fiction to make up for the shitty writing on the show. That would explain how this show is WAY better than what created it many years ago.Hell, if this version had existed back in the 80's instead, Voltron would be a much stronger franchise now more than ever.