Halo - US Pace - Paramount+ (***Spoilers***)

Haven't played the game either. Not sure about the trailer. Looks like it could be an okay action show. Maybe they were holding back big battle scenes and space moments for the show itself. Maybe they are still in the works.

looks very 2 dimensional, with the usual trying to be all earnest and serious. Im guessing it will be dull, wouldnt be arsed unless everyone starts raving about it.

Cortana looks a bit uncanny valley, more like her va but just looks off.

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Hmmm got a bit of an Asylum feel off the first episode - the CGI is pretty bad even by TV standards

Dialogue is very cringey as well

Will give it a few more episodes but coming across as a low budget show which is surprising, would have thought MS would have invested millions into it

Could have been much, much worse, but still pretty rough going in the main

Some positives around the gore, the different perceptions of the Spartans from a rebel POV, even Schreiber's delivery and mannerisms weren't too bad etc

But hard to get beyond the cheap feel to it, and the hokey CG work which looked really poor at times, which for a pilot, is a little surprising. Not all terrible, in fact, it was interesting that they kept with the design of the Prophets for example.

Hard to say which way it'll go, but feels a 5 or 6/10

Loved the actor that plays master chief in American god's, but yeah the CGI is ropey as hell, particularly the elites

Would he make a good Wolverine? I've seen him linked with the role.

Daniel Radcliffe it is then!

I watched episode one....it's errr fine I guess.

At times it looks ridiculously expensive and at other times not so much. The acting can be a bit of an issue as well...the kid was pretty shocking...as was the actress playing the admiral (it felt like they couldn't get shohreh aghdashloo or someone better).

On the plus side I am happy to watch more and see where it goes and Pablo Schreiber is excellent as usual.

2: I think this is gonna be a solid science fiction action show.

It's not that it's changed up and got deeper or grittier.. just that it looks to be holding at it's own level.

The writers I think are unrolling a mystery and building the world and keeping it feeling the same.

Some of the space and tech effects are really good too.

So.. I'm guessing then

I liked how Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) brought some humour to the story.

Burn Gorman brings a mean feeling baddie as Vinsher

I guess anyone complaining about him removing his helmet really loved episode 2.

If this was some random book that Paramount could just do whatever they wanted with then I'd not be surprised, but I don't see how Microsoft thought this was a good idea. Unconnected to the games, and Chief is so different.

3: Jeez! The start of this one was a bit dark as I think about it.. killing a kid, surgery stabbing an eye and burning a brain out while the person is alive, followed by burning the body in acid!

Definitely feels like all the mystery around this artifact is to find a that ringworld I remember seeing in trailers for the video game.

After that.. not sure where the show is going.. maybe just a big fight with the Aliens.

Episode 3 took some of the lore and seemed to mate it with some themes from Red vs Blue: Reconstruction (TLDR: 'Is it really a crime against humanity if I do it to myself?'). Really liked it, Cortana's tainted birth will be long remembered I think. John's origin backstory also has significant alteration. Clearly, this character is not just an avatar any more for a Rail Shooter game - badass as that avatar certainly was, and will always be remembered for. And Halsey is being sold off as a bit evil/sociopathic (down to the Evil Scientist Gloves in episode 1), it took the Halo games many sequels to backfill that oh yeah, Halsey was kind of a dick. She was always kind of a dick in the books though, but seemingly not for the reasons as in the show - I get vibes that the Spartan/Cortana program was, originally, Halsey's hairbrained scheme to achieve a form of immortality, but I could also be calling that wrong.

I'm surprised to see all the hate for the show: ranging from 'OMG it isnt Canon' to quips about the CGI being rough in a couple places (eg., Chief when removing his helmet... they use a CGI helmet because, I guess, visor reflection issues?) This is easily forgivable though, the story is reasonably tight and doesn't go exactly where we expect, which is you know, great, because I'd hate to know everything that happens next. It's still a TV show, guys, they don't have an Endgame budget and it still looks like hot **** (that extra budget is usually where you can buy your 10th, 15th, or 20th CGI quality pass). Each season will maybe focus on reusable sets and **** (Already seen the Rubble set a few times now, you don't build a whole cart/rail system for one shot), this is our TV life. It's very comparable to The Expanse so far, so I don't see much cause for alarm here.

I have read many Halo books and played many Halo games and I've been listening to people talk about adapting Halo as a movie since Combat Evolved sold a million copies. I don't have any sense of entitlement to what they are making but I know they've been trying to make this work for, literally, 20 years, (God, we got old), so many people have taken a crack at this including Peter **** Jackson. I'm on board for what they all finally settled on, it's fresh, it has interesting threads, and a bunch of moments that deliver goosebumps and ****.

Yeah I don't see that as a spoiler it was in the trailer: Lekgolo, aka. Hunters, are Worm Colonies, not single creature. iirc Lekgolo colonies bond in pairs, which is why in the games they always adhere to the Rule of 2. The games do a poor job of communicating their real nature, as a bunch of worms holding together bits of armor and a friggin cannon. Expect Chief to showdown with them soon I reckon. Now that they have a lot of the character establishment set up, we're bound to get some more actions sequences soon and casual fans (or really, haters who wanna hate) can quit complaining about its pacing. Makee isn't doing anything special to them.

True but this was also the pilot. Not always, but typically with scifi shows the pilot lacks the polish of the remainder of the show, plot holes can happen, etc. (Stargate broke its own wormhole canon in the first 5 minutes. Finally retconned with the re-release, 10+ years later). My single biggest complaint might be not the CGI helmet or anything but a plot hole (explained with bullshit) that the Madrigal forces guns are the same as chiefs etc. but the Elites shields just brush them off - EVEN FROM THE MINIGUN. Of Course, a Spartan using the exact same weapons drops them like flies, because 'weak points.' I only noticed this inconsistency on my 2nd watch, but it does become glaring after that. That's another thing Stargate did too. Serpent Guards used to be bullet proof, until they weren't ('We got armor piercing rounds, sir!'). I can only hope they'll tighten up on their choreography.

Pilots can be greenlit before shows and this is where they figure the most **** out. In the Madrigal sequence I think what they hopefully figured out is that First Person Chief View isn't actually that exciting to watch, and was produced cheaply (Find ILM's Iron Man HUD people, pls lol). But yeah, it shouldn't be confusing that the pilot is a bit rough, many pilots are, and I wouldn't cast a verdict on the show based on the totality of the first episode - that said, the climax of the first episode managed to excite and prove the shows potential, setting up a moment where you didn't know what was going to happen next even when you knew it might have something to do with the MacGuffin (The Artifact), because you didn't know if Silver Team was going to go FUBAR either.

It's interesting how the show is exploring the significant but subtle changes by not having your emotional hormones chemically suppressed, how emotions connect us to memories yes but also small things like, the texture of gun oil driving Kai to color her hair, the small talk they've never done before that suddenly opens up the fact eg. hey these Spartans know more than anyone about Covenant language, let's ask them. Emotionally suppressed they have had no reason to volunteer information or speak unless spoken to. The interaction with Miranda was ultimately, wholesome, and there was a moment there she probably wished she had a chemical suppressant (awww).

I don't mind Kwans story but I'm not as invested in it, right not, the way they're telling it. I know we're at the head of a season 1, things are really just getting established for future set pieces. But IDK, it just doesn't feel very cohesive, especially because the audience knows or at least deeply suspects she is on a Fools Errand to rebuild her dads rebellion, it's hard not to regard her as foolish, it makes it more difficult to relate to her right now. But I have enjoyed her so far.

We can see why this is a hit and miss thus far, it doesn't have the highest budget, it looks great, but inconsistently, and there is thus far a lot of exposition dump, in a show IP that should be largely about kinetic action, given the source material. I think we will see big payoffs soon, and headlines about the show have gotten steadily more positive over the last couple weeks.

I know why they're filmed that way but I do always find it strange when people in tv shows and films have memories of themselves from a third person perspective. Though when he started moving around the house it reminded me of Robocop when he walked around his old house, stomping included.

You would think with their technology, they would have some way of finding something buried that doesn't involve digging a load of holes.

I don't think the other 2 Spartans will remove their chips but Super-Starbuck will go rogue.

I know it says "Spoilers" in the thread title but I would assume that's for the series. Any chance of marking game talk in spoiler tags? I know it's not copying the plot but I'm sure some of the stuff is from the games.

That was a decent episode - the alien cgi still leaves a lot to be desired tho