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Halo: Sanctuary (2024)
I've accepted that a live action Halo done in earnest will never happen.
That said, if you remove the (diminishing) expectations of quality attached to the Halo name, this show is mediocre at best and a midnight showing on the SyFy channel at worst. The writing is lackluster, the action is alright at times (but not quite up to Halo's standards) and the world is bland and soulless. It is paradoxically embarrassed to be associated with Halo, yet - at the same time - attempting to cram as many empty references to characters, events, and story beats from across the *entirety* of Halo's timeline into one space. All of Halo's books and games thrown into a blender, then scraped much too thin over some generic white bread Sci-Fi.
Halo was destined to be the vanguard of videogames taken seriously as a source for live action adaptation. It's had a running start since 2007; The days of Landfall, We are ODST, and Believe. With big names like Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp. And Alex Garland attached to the IP. Now, after shows like Arcane, The Last of Us, and Fallout have aired... Halo is limping along far behind the pack. Instead of leading the charge, Halo has faltered and is struggling to catch up to the likes of Uwe Boll.
Halo: Reach (2024)
Not terrible, not great, but not very "Halo."
Checked out this newest episode against my initial decision not to watch any of Season 2. Went into it with an open mind after hearing good things. Low expectations. I can tell there was at least an attempt to make this more Military-SciFi than last season, but it still feels massively under-baked and too far removed from Halo. There is something about the overall look of this show that seems low quality, and I'm not talking about just its CGI. Even with its 'more grounded' UNSC vs Covenant battle scenes, this still feels like something you'd find playing on the SciFi channel late at night back in the day. Dancing around in Halo's skin like Buffalo Bill. Also, the UNSC troopers... I can't get over how distractingly goofy and oversized their helmets are. Or how they all look like they're geared up with laser tag pads.
In terms of the action's tone and flow, this didn't hold up to the gripping intensity established through other live action shorts like Landfall and We are ODST. There was a heavy reliance on threats existing 'just off screen.' An improvement over last season, but I've seen better. As for the depiction of Reach's fall... it was trying to be somber, but just didn't quite land. It didn't feel "real." Can't put my finger on why that is. We were only allowed glimpses of the surrounding tragedy. Never seeing, say, transport ships being shot out of the sky. Evacuation points overrun and slaughtered as soldiers scream for support over the radio. Spartans in full armor, immortal Gods among men, dropping like flies. Halo: Reach did a better job of conveying the sheer hopelessness of the situation.
Andor (2022)
We're geting a physical media release of this show, right?!
This is the kind of show that, after the credits roll, I immediately want to purchase a Blu-ray of to put on display alongside others that struck a chord. Watch it again and again in high quality without streaming buffering and artifacts or a need for an internet connection. Fully support its creators.
Let's be real. Disney will never drop their subscription service exclusivity, but one can dream.
This show truly is something special. The writing, the cinematography, the set and costume design, the acting, everything. It's all top notch. You can simply tell that everyone involved gave it their all. I want more. I hope this series inspires others to raise the bar. It, like Arcane, shows what is possible when creatives take their source material to heart.
Halo: Contact (2022)
Might as well call Waterworld "Dune."
Imagine Waterworld exactly as it is, except some producer decided that titling it "Dune" would generate more brand recognition and attract a larger audience. So they comb through the script and swap out existing names for recognizable Dune characters and locations. Kevin Costner's Mariner is now called "Paul Atreides." The woman and girl are now "Bene Gesserit." The Smokers have been renamed "Harkonnen." Only the names have been changed. Everything else in the movie remains exactly the same as it is in Waterworld. The plot, the setting, the characters... everything.
That's not Dune, those aren't Dune characters... and this isn't Halo. This show is about as similar to Halo's setting as Waterworld's ocean planet is to the bone-dry desert of Arrakis. It doesn't embrace the world or characters of Halo's books and games, it rejects them. Choosing instead to sloppily copy/paste familiar names over a wholly unrelated Sci-Fi.
("But, hey, Waterworld and Dune aren't unrelated," says the producer. "Both are about harsh, unlivable environments and seeking a precious resource. I don't see the problem with recycling the former's script for the latter!")
Do yourself a huge favor: Turn this off and go watch Halo: Landfall instead. You'll get a stronger Halo story in 7 minutes than in 7+ episodes of this show. Then watch We are ODST and the other live action shorts while you're at it.
Halo (2022)
This show doesn't embrace key elements of Halo's world, but rejects them.
This show tried its best to reinvent Halo rather than adapt it to a new medium. However, the changes it made were wholly unnecessary and start to fall apart if you think about them for more than a second. It eroded Halo's well thought out, rock-solid foundation - where the deeper you dig into something, the more you find, and the reasoning behind it all simply makes sense.
Halsey's double-underlined, capitalized "NO!" on memory alteration and lying. Slipspace travel and its inherent challenges. Even nudity being preferred for cryo. You can go down a rabbit hole for pretty much any aspect of Halo's world. That is simply not true for this series' drastic alterations. It's all surface level. Faults begin to show if you think too hard about them. Characters look like idiots that make unwise decisions. The emotion pellets exist for drama and drama alone. The Forerunner artifact is a magical 'do everything' MacGuffin. (It's not a utilitarian tool like other Forerunner devices). Slipspace is a quick hop from one planet to another, and you can keep in constant communication throughout. (Of which the ramifications for Halo's world would be extensive. The Covenant and Insurrection wars would theoretically be over in a snap. Or humanity would be spread much further among the stars). Etc. Etc.
The writing treated Halo's lore as more of a checklist of references to be ticked off one-by-one, rather than an intrinsic part of the worldbuilding. It didn't show a deeper understanding of what was being referenced, in my eyes. "Name drop the thing to jangle the keys and move on." It never quite felt authentic. (For example, mentioning Cole Protocol for a one-off, yet UNSC ships are shown to jump straight from point A to point B. Captured Covenant tech is brought back to home base and not some secure, remote location.) Something would be established in one episode, only to be contradicted in the next. (John's helmet going through that elaborate unsealing process, for example.)
Also, the Military-Fiction side of Halo seems to be abandoned. There are no actual military operations with proper use of tactics and jargon. What limited action scenes there are mostly consisted of people standing out in the open doing whatever. The excavation base, for example, had no anti-air emplacements, no sandbags or firing positions, nothing of the sort. UNSC command comes off as either strikingly incompetent or completely unconcerned about the Covenant threat throughout the show. Even the marines appear to be using somewhat goofy repurposed Starship Trooper gear to save budget. (I'll miss those beautiful peaked helmets every time they're gone). They're only ever shown marching down hallways in formation most of the time or running around en masse, almost like a parody. I wouldn't be surprised if the showrunners drew direct inspiration from Starship Troopers for the UNSC when they should be looking at Aliens.
A majority of the show's lighting came off as rather flat and the cinematography played it fairly safe overall. Season 2 needs some visual flair to make it stand out from other shows. Nail down that shot composition. Look to the live action trailers. Landfall may be old and its visuals outdated on close inspection, but it feels grounded and timeless. Same for We are ODST, Believe, Deliver Hope. Use that to your advantage.
Dialogue could use a major improvement next season. Conversations did not feel natural for the most part. This show is full of melodramatic, YA-tier character interaction. It's clunky and awkward to sit through. The script felt like some other SciFi Channel Original show with a very thin layer of Halo paint that's already starting to peel.
Final note: Please, for the love of all that is holy, cut it out with the incessant Iron Man in-helmet close-ups of actors' faces. It's distracting and entirely unneeded. At one point, I swear the show punch-zoomed in on Chief's nose of all things...