Halo Live Acction Series Pilot

[Majin Gojira]

It's currently available from Paramount Plus, but they have it up on Youtube to entice people. They clearly consider this their 'killer app' like the original Halo was for the original X-Box.

And, after viewing it, I have... conflicting opinions.

It looks good, it's competently made, the characters are engaging, and the arc makes sense.

But oh man, they really wanted to tell their own story and go down their own path and it is NOT working. I understand wanting to deviate from the story as established in the games, and even the tie-in media (Yes, I read the in-between novels and even I-Love-Bees radioplay stuff back in the day) but this...

This is ...

It's route. It's common. It's dull. A Dime-a-dozen "Supersoldier begins questioning orders, military over-reacts and throws a hissyfit" with one or two minor tweaks. We've seen this movie before. In fact, I can point to the 1998 film Soldier and say "This is far too similar, boys" and it's a bad fit for the base concepts of the Halo franchise as a whole. Not in a "They deviated from the LORE!" way, but in a "The goofiest of the anime shorts made for the franchise a few years back is more in line with the themes of the franchise than this"/'Red vs Blue is more in line with the franchise than this!"

Given the run time, if this was a 2-hour movie and this was only the first hour, I'd be okay with it. But this is supposed to be the pilot for a series, and they already let a huge shoe drop in the first episode.

So far, I'd rate it as still a 'good' videogame adaptation, but I'd rank it at the bottom of the 'good' ones. Like, below It Came From The Desert and Rampage.

See, when Rampage deviated, at least it did so within the framework of the original. All that was missing was the more overt satire. This? This is just basic and I'm annoyed at it for being so basic on a budget that big.

[ray245]

I'm fine with it. My problem is the most interesting thing about Halo is not well fleshed out so far. In the games and the lore, the covenant are waging a war of genocide against a hopelessly outmatched humanity.

There's no real hint of the sheer desperate war humanity is waging. The outer colonies are still apparently intact, at least enough of them were. We hear a bit about some planets being glassed, but there's still no real sense given to the viewers that humans surrendering is not an option.

Maybe once we get to the fall of Reach the story will really pick up and showcase the sheer lengths the Covenant will go to wipe humanity off the galaxy.

[bilateralrope]

but there's still no real sense given to the viewers that humans surrendering is not an option.

At this point, it doesn't even feel like a war. It feels more like the Covenant mostly leaving humans alone unless the humans are too close to something the Covenant wants. Add in how authoritarian the human government is and it's really hard to find anyone to root for here.

But I'm coming into this as someone who hasn't played any of the games.

[ray245]

but there's still no real sense given to the viewers that humans surrendering is not an option.

At this point, it doesn't even feel like a war. It feels more like the Covenant mostly leaving humans alone unless the humans are too close to something the Covenant wants. Add in how authoritarian the human government is and it's really hard to find anyone to root for here.

But I'm coming into this as someone who hasn't played any of the games.

The series should have adopted a more "band of brothers" approach imo. There's a lot of focus on John's personal story...but that really takes away the Convenant threat.

And at no point has the writing team been able to depict how desperate humanity really are.

[Kurgan]

Announcement of this show inspired me to go and play through the Halo games (previously I'd only played 1 and 3 and only a handful of multiplayer matches). Yes, Halo passed me by because I wasn't one of these kids who grew up playing the Xbox (the Jedi Knight series were my bread and butter online games and the PC was the proper place for a first person shooter with mouse and keyboard). I think I dismissed a lot of the hype early on as the GoldenEye syndrome... people liked it just because they didn't have a lot of other FPS choices on a console of that level of quality. But Halo influenced other games like Unreal Tournament 2004 (for the better; and Unreal Tournament 3 for the worse, IMHO) and Republic Commando (whose multiplayer could have used MORE copying of Halo's components), and retains some nice things of its own. Firefight was a great mode for coop or solo challenges even more fun than the coop campaign or the (inferior) Spartan Ops missions in Halo 4. Those who criticized part 4 (343's entry in the series after Bungie was taken out of the equation) have a point. Despite beautifully upgraded graphics, the game feels a lot more generic and even stripped down compared to Halo 3 and Reach. I'm not done playing it yet, but the confusing menu system doesn't help matters. Unreal Tournament certainly had a leg up on this series because of the presence of scalable AI Bots, though at least the FireFight mode gives you some semblance of that for Halo. It shocked me to learn that Halo 2 was an afterthought, mostly built on cutting room floor content from the first game. But the rest was history and Master Chief ruled the gaming world with an iron fist. Despite the "doomed soldier squad" nature of Reach, I really enjoyed that game, and really what it was all about was the multiplayer matchmaking. The presence of a story with an actual character certain gave it a leg up on an attempt to make "Doom" into a movie (I guess we won't be getting a "Wolfenstein" or "Duke Nukem" movie anytime soon, will we? unless it were Uwe Boll coming out of retirement to direct).

When a franchise installment comes out that appears disappointing and derivative (apparently designed to appeal more to those who don't like or don't know the lore, and yet using that as a hook to draw in hardcore fans... and thus pleasing neither) I am pointed back to the source material.

Will it improve? Time will tell. But to me it sounds like another dull attempt to portray the memory erased loner renegade anti-hero struggling to find his identity with a little help from plucky sidekicks and kids and maybe cash in on the Mandalorian's success. Then again what little I've seen seems to confirm that idea that these adaptations are afraid to portray the IP accurately, they always seem to want to fit the thing being portrayed into some existing hollywood tropes to make it more "realistic" (and thus boring). At first glance this tendency seems to have been less in this new show, but not enough to make me care. Adaptations of video games don't have to universally suck (look at the first Mortal Kombat movie, it was awesome), but have a lot working against them, and it pains me to think that games with good stories and characters will be dismissed by cultural critics while the substandard hokey adaptations of them as big (or small) screen dramas made to cash in later will be taken seriously.

Wake me up when it's over!

[bilateralrope]

And at no point has the writing team been able to depict how desperate humanity really are.

They haven't even tried yet.

At this point, it looks like the Spartans were designed to fight human rebels. Especially how panicky everyone got when John misbehaved.

[Lord Revan]

And at no point has the writing team been able to depict how desperate humanity really are.

At this point, it looks like the Spartans were designed to fight human rebels. Especially how panicky everyone got when John misbehaved.

Well that was true in the game lore as well (the Spartan IIs were just so new that had maybe gotten one mission where they were used for their intended purpose before being shifted to anti-Covenant work)

[His Divine Shadow]

As crap as this is, Halo is still one of the top three best shows I've seen in the last year.

[Gunhead]

As crap as this is, Halo is still one of the top three best shows I've seen in the last year.

Which are the other two? I do agree the pilot of HALO was a dumpster fire with dog shit sprinkling on top and I have no confidence it will improve from that, I am curious how in hell did it make into top three of anyone?

-Gunhead

[Agent Fisher]

I'm mostly Meh so far. I will say, I actually find Kai to be far more compelling and interesting than Chief. BUt we'll see where it all goes.

[His Divine Shadow]

As crap as this is, Halo is still one of the top three best shows I've seen in the last year.

Which are the other two? I do agree the pilot of HALO was a dumpster fire with dog shit sprinkling on top and I have no confidence it will improve from that, I am curious how in hell did it make into top three of anyone?

-Gunhead

There was the mandalorian at least (which I only saw half a year ago) and the boba fett miniseries.

But when you take this show and compared to it stuff like Picard, Halo is fine writing. I mean there are some real stinkers out there so a show can be crap yet still rank high. I also

[Crazedwraith]

I've a hard time beleiving this is better than Picard but then I never was a Halo fan.

[His Divine Shadow]

I'm not really a halo fan either, I only ever played the first game back when. To me Picard is like pissing on the grave of something I liked, so it's personally offensive in a way Halo cannot be. It's just a cookie cutter sci-fi bang bang show.

[Gunhead]

I'm not really a halo fan either, I only ever played the first game back when. To me Picard is like pissing on the grave of something I liked, so it's personally offensive in a way Halo cannot be. It's just a cookie cutter sci-fi bang bang show.

It is really less than cookie cutter. HALO exemplifies how trash big studio writing, characterization and world building is. I'm not a HALO fan, but anyone with a functioning brain could have scraped together a B- scifi shooty shooty bang bang show from all the available material.
I haven't watched Picard, mostly because I've never really cared about Star Trek but also because everyone I know that does have basically said it's a pile of shit.
Incidentally, if HALO, Mandalorian and BoBF are your top three, allow me to shine a new top place holder for you. Arcane, this show has no business being as good as it is, but it stand tall as an example what can be done when competent and talented people set their mind to create a quality show.

-Gunhead

[Crazedwraith]

To me Picard is like pissing on the grave of something I liked, so it's personally offensive in a way Halo cannot be. It's just a cookie cutter sci-fi bang bang show.

... it isn't though? It has some bang bang sure (so did TNG esp the movies) and was oddly mass effect inspired in it's first season but the denoumont of said season was pure Star Trek.

[ray245]

I'm not really a halo fan either, I only ever played the first game back when. To me Picard is like pissing on the grave of something I liked, so it's personally offensive in a way Halo cannot be. It's just a cookie cutter sci-fi bang bang show.

It is really less than cookie cutter. HALO exemplifies how trash big studio writing, characterization and world building is. I'm not a HALO fan, but anyone with a functioning brain could have scraped together a B- scifi shooty shooty bang bang show from all the available material.
I haven't watched Picard, mostly because I've never really cared about Star Trek but also because everyone I know that does have basically said it's a pile of shit.
Incidentally, if HALO, Mandalorian and BoBF are your top three, allow me to shine a new top place holder for you. Arcane, this show has no business being as good as it is, but it stand tall as an example what can be done when competent and talented people set their mind to create a quality show.

-Gunhead

That is very clearly just your opinion and there are plenty of people who disagreed with you.

Which means your assertion that people who enjoyed it don't have a functioning brain is of not value other than being a rant coming from a Halo fanboy.

[Gunhead]

That is very clearly just your opinion and there are plenty of people who disagreed with you.

Which means your assertion that people who enjoyed it don't have a functioning brain is of not value other than being a rant coming from a Halo fanboy.

At no point did I berate anyone for enjoying it. Go back and read again carefully, my criticism was directed at the people who made the show. Yes I think the pilot was such a pile of mediocre shit that I will not waste my time on the slimmest of hopes that it will improve. You want to enjoy it? Go right ahead, I'm not stopping you.
Your assertion that I must be some Halo fanboy is also a pile of shit. You're just butt hurt because I dumped on a show you evidently like and then try to champion your cause by accusing me of being a Halo fanboy? Trust me, if I was a fanboy of anything, it would be something far more interesting than Halo. Me agreeing in a very broad manner with someone else doesn't mean I otherwise hold similar views or even care about the subject matter to the same degree and there are about as many people who agree with me as there are those who don't.

-Gunhead

[ray245]

That is very clearly just your opinion and there are plenty of people who disagreed with you.

Which means your assertion that people who enjoyed it don't have a functioning brain is of not value other than being a rant coming from a Halo fanboy.

At no point did I berate anyone for enjoying it. Go back and read again carefully, my criticism was directed at the people who made the show. Yes I think the pilot was such a pile of mediocre shit that I will not waste my time on the slimmest of hopes that it will improve. You want to enjoy it? Go right ahead, I'm not stopping you.
Your assertion that I must be some Halo fanboy is also a pile of shit. You're just butt hurt because I dumped on a show you evidently like and then try to champion your cause by accusing me of being a Halo fanboy? Trust me, if I was a fanboy of anything, it would be something far more interesting than Halo. Me agreeing in a very broad manner with someone else doesn't mean I otherwise hold similar views or even care about the subject matter to the same degree and there are about as many people who agree with me as there are those who don't.

-Gunhead

For someone who doesn't care about the subject matter, you seem to have a lot of passion towards this subject in particular.

[Gunhead]

For someone who doesn't care about the subject matter, you seem to have a lot of passion towards this subject in particular.

I don't have to care about Halo to any great degree to determine that this iteration of it is made by talentless hacks and I have every reason to voice my displeasure as this has been the trend for years now. You might assert that Halo gets better with subsequent episodes, which is a fair point but I'm not going to waste my time on finding out.
I judge material before me on it's own merits. If there is some previous canonicity or some such that I'm aware of and it doesn't mesh with what is being presented, I don't care all that much if the presented material itself does a good job telling a story and this is how I view all fiction.

-Gunhead

[ray245]

For someone who doesn't care about the subject matter, you seem to have a lot of passion towards this subject in particular.

I don't have to care about Halo to any great degree to determine that this iteration of it is made by talentless hacks and I have every reason to voice my displeasure as this has been the trend for years now. You might assert that Halo gets better with subsequent episodes, which is a fair point but I'm not going to waste my time on finding out.
I judge material before me on it's own merits. If there is some previous canonicity or some such that I'm aware of and it doesn't mesh with what is being presented, I don't care all that much if the presented material itself does a good job telling a story and this is how I view all fiction.

-Gunhead

And that is ultimately an utterly useless point to make. If you are incapable of thinking why others may like it...then you are not really contributing anything useful other than an angry rant.

Although I must admit, seeing some people go into angry rants is a form of entertainment all to its own. But hyperbolic comments are really a waste of server space in general.

[bilateralrope]

It seems that nobody thought to clean up the alien bodies or weapons from the fight in the first episode. Nobody thought that they might be valuable to someone. Nor did anyone care that leaving them behind might cause problems when reopening that gas mine.

[bilateralrope]

Season 2 has 2 episodes out. The only complaint I have is that it seems everyone forgot about flashlights.

[bilateralrope]

It has been canceled. Is anyone surprised ?

[His Divine Shadow]

They cancel everything so no