As someone who played the first 7 Halo games I'm seriously struggling to figure out what from the game inspired this show. This has very little to do with the source material. It wouldn't be so bad if the show were still fun to watch but it moves at a snails pace and the plot is incoherent.
I've never played a halo game, so for me this is like watching a Sci-Fi original but with better vfx. The plot is interesting enough to keep me watching, but idk if that is because of the show or if I should actually be playing the game.
Uninstall the Kwan DLC, leave the realms of sobriety far behind and enjoy a fine piece of expensive Schlock!
Season 1 Review: If this show wasn't based on Halo, or even just didn't have Master Chief, Halsey, and the other notable iconic characters, I could like this show more. 5/10 overall. 6/10 if the show wasn't based on Halo. (5 is average. 6 is good) This is a long review of pros and cons (mass majority cons). The list will have spoilers from every episode.
Pros: Main plot with the artifacts is good, nothing special though.
The acting is the best thing about this show. Though, I disagree with the way the story handled these characters, the acting never failed.
For the most part, the action (when it's there) is really good. Not the best CGI but nothing that ruins the action.
Cons:
It takes Master Chief and changes him so much that he becomes unrecognizable as the hero we know and love.
Pre-rebellion phase: he has no mind of his own, heartless, and emotionless. Then all of the sudden he decides not to be this and save Kwan. After this, apparently there was a device that mutes spartan emotions which contradicts his previous emotional decision to help her. Post-rebellion phase: He acts like an emotional child. He's anxious, emotionally driven, overly passionate, and angry non-stop. Absolutely nothing like the Chief we know. And Master Chief never hated or was disrespectful towards Cortana. Especially when they first met, and this was before taking out the device that mutes emotions. He doesn't even act like the soldier he was trained to be. And he keeps taking his helmet off! Are we watching Master Chief or John Guy? The whole point of Master Chief is that he's a faceless hero to the audience. Teasing his face but never revealing it to us. But the show ignores that completely and just says "you like his helmet? Well, you'll barely see it". Might as well make him a marine as you see his face as much as theirs.
And it portrays Child John as this nice kid who helps the kid from falling off the tree bridge. But Child John was actually somewhat a bully. When halsey finds him, he's throwing kids off a hill to win king of the hill. He was never a leader-like character until a while after spartan training. And he never hated Halsey for kidnapping him like the show portrays. He actually was glad and felt important. He loved that they disciplined him from his previous bullying days.
Chief also has "intimacy" with the spy of the Covenant. That's not the only issue, Chief talked to this girl for maybe a day total, and that's generous, but he just decides to "intimacy" with her? Not to mention, Cortana is watching every second of it! Like what? Just weird..
The spy is for the Covenant the entire story, has "intimacy" with Chief and decides "Eh, forget the Covenant".. Stupid..
It's very convenient that Miranda discovers who recorded the voice channel the second Chief lets the spy escape. Also, wasn't that one spartan supposed to help her? They just decided to ignore that part?
Kwan's story starts well then just gets massively sidetracked and forgotten.
The main human antagonist working with Covenant is just a boring character. Also, the Covenant genocides humans, they'd never work with them even if it's pretend.
Kai's reactions after taking her mute emotions device acts like a child and completely forgets who she is. A Spartan. She becomes annoying.
Halsey also never lied to the II's about being kidnapped in main canon. It just added the unnecessary "I remember things" plot which is just boring and out of character.
Halsey claiming humans are the issue to a literal spy for the Covenant (She thought she was a survivor of the Covenant) is just stupid. "Yeah, these aliens are committing universal genocide but we humans are the problem. We're terrible while we're being hunted down and murdered."
Riz and Vannak knocking out their Spartan ally is crazy, so ridiculous.
Cortana didn't even need to control him. It was like 3 minutes then back up arrived. Completely pointless.
Guess Master Chief is just dead now? Just like that?
So.. yeah.. If you forget this is Halo or pretend Master Chief is another spartan, this is a decent watch. Otherwise, this show fails miserably at interpreting the characters we know and love.
I watched the first episode and it surprised me in how it was able to (mostly) avoid the easy trashyness it could have gotten into. I also liked the choice of de-masking Master Chief, if only because it would make people angry, even though I see Pablo Schreiber and I think Pornstache. I never watched episode two.
After 21 years my man Master Cheeks finally gets laid , God bless.
The Halo show is what I thought was next in store for good video game adaptations after Cuphead, Arcane, and Castlevania. Instead, I got the most average and poorly-paced video game adaptation I've yet seen.
Feast your eyes on Kwan, a character that will (if not already) give some of you PTSD by the mere mention of that dreaded name. A character with possibly the ugliest female hairstyle in television, and a character so unnecessarily dragged through this story once her purpose is served it will almost feel like these writers are trying to piss off their audience on purpose.
Master Cheeks:tm:, king of nude shots and remover of the FUCKING HELMET in every other scene throughout the show, actually now that I think about it these dumbass spartans really need to keep those things on for fucks sake, they keep getting socked in the head at every available opportunity.
Cortana, a surprisingly enjoyable and witty character that I thought would weird me out, then quickly grew on me once I got passed the odd-looking model after seeing other versions throughout the games. Of course, there are others but they made no discernible impression on me so let's move on.
Halo overall is what happens when you get people that want to do their own thing with a blockbuster series that still has cultural value and a semi-dedicated fanbase (for now) to it. Ass. Absolute ass is what you get because what happens when a person who never heard of Halo before comes across this as their franchise entry point and either hates it or thinks it's forgettable at best. One less Halo fan that's what.
Take away the Halo skin and as a Sci-Fi/Action show it's mediocre and cheap feeling in some areas, put it back on and you have another poor video game adaptation with all of the above that serves as one of many examples of what not to do only for future writers to ignore.
So boring. So slow.
That's it. That's the comment.
Confirmed S2, it cannot be said that the adaptation of "Halo" has been a failure. But the lazy storylines with characters disappearing (Kwan Ha), flat cinematography, lackluster CGI, and action scenes that place us as if we're watching someone else playing the video game (which is frustrating), lead to a sloppy and dispassionate representation of Halo's universe, like if no one cared too much what they were doing.
Horrible television show that's internally inconsistent and completely disrespectful to the source material loved by millions. This plot has nothing to do with Halo, and the IP has been butchered to fit into some generic sci fi plot Hollywood had in the basement.
An outrageous waste of money that spits in the face of Halo fans.
50 I Halo has marvelous production and costume design. It helps to create the world that was introduced in Halo. But even with fancy costumes and settings, Halo still has a lot of boring shots. Halo felt soulless sometimes with a bunch of visual effects but average cinematography. Some of the cinematography is good but mostly boring. Even worse the editing transitions are sometimes so abrupt when bridging two scenes together. Fortunately, every time there is action in Halo it becomes a better series. The action scenes are the best element of the series. When Halo showed us more of it that would help the audience away from boringness.
The Halo universe has similarities with Marvel specifically the Guardians of the Galaxy universe. The galaxy as a setting would be complicated because of how many characters would be involved. But, there is an ambiguity about some characters in Halo, especially Soren. His character has an ambiguous motivation. Did he respect John or is he only care about Kwan Ha's money? In addition, there was Kwan Ha who is powerless and did not has influence Madrigal, but this show kept trying to convince us the otherwise. In episode eight Kwan Ha had a bit of character development, she is a bit smarter than before, but still a boring character.
Some of the writing decisions and character delivery did not land perfectly in the story. For example, Dr. Halsey did not seem powerful enough as a person who controlled the Spartan tech, which might be because of how she has written or the actress's acting. There was also a little twist which gave us mixed feelings about it. It was not gave the character development on the optimal level. We should also mention, that when Halo focuses on the Master Chief without telling Kwan Ha's story, it becomes interesting series.
John's intelligence just dropped because of a desire for a woman. Makee's character pretty obvious is a swindler but somehow all people became too stupid to see it. Miranda noticed it but it was all too late. The details of the writing were not so good. Another example is regarding Spartans who describe as cold killing machines but they are just like normal people with armor. Nothing special to see from them from the character's point of view.
Halo showed us narrow characters and groups of people development. One of them is The Lizard people's character who was very bland, even though they are one of the main antagonists in this show. But they still have an interesting element which is their connection with Makee. In another hand, Cortana had the potential to develop as a great character but this show did not fully successful until the last moment. In addition, Captain Jacob Keyes's delivery was above the average characters in this series, we hope for something more from him in the next season.
Instagram I @moviemanner
Rating: 49.88
Favorite Episodes
56.88: E2 I Unbound
55.88: E4 I Homecoming
55.79: E3 I Emergence
53.46: E1 I Contact
53.38: E5 I Reckoning
Favorite Characters
60.50: Master Chief
57.50: Kai-125
56.00: Captain Jacob Keyes
53.00: Miranda Keyes
51.00: Soren-066
Score Meaning
00.00 - 20: Terrible
21.00 - 40: Bad
41.00 - 60: Average
61.00 - 80: Good
81.00 - 100: Great
Not the best show of the year but please don't be canceled.
Only played the first Halo game on PC years ago, and this series is a prequel story. Done very well. Even the sounds and tech are the same. Makes me want to play it again and finish the following games I never went onto.
Women Spartans are HOT!
LOVE the combat scenes! Never played this game but this show is VERY good so far.
Shout by Stephan OtterBlockedParent2022-03-25T13:32:59Z
So far pretty good! Never really played Halo (PlayStation gamer here) , so know relatively nothing about the universe. But looking forward to next episode ! 8/10