HALO SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 REVIEW: ANOTHER DISAPPOINTING ADAPTATION
The Halo live-action series has finally arrived after years of development. Contact, the pilot episode, is a disappointing start. We may see another disappointing adaptation. Master Chief confronts the Covenant with all its evil CGI glory on planet Madrigal to defend the insurgence he once considered an enemy.
The Halo fans have long waited for a live-action series with the famous spartan. The web series forward Unto Dawn launched on YouTube a decade ago as a prequel to the original game. People wanted more. Paramount+ took the project on. Unfortunately, the pilot has shown us that we won’t be getting the series we hoped for.
The creators of the video games, Kyle Killen and Steven Kane, have decided to reboot the story. The plot is entirely different from the original video game. However, the characters appear to have very few similarities with their XBOX counterparts. Another video game adaptation has been produced by the industry, which seems to ignore its fans completely.
I will try to evaluate the series on its merits in this central review. I will save any comparisons to the game’s franchise for the end.
STORY: NEW AND NOT SO IMPROVED
This series will be starting from scratch, so forget all you know about Halo and Master Chief. However, the setting is almost identical. Humans have colonized large swathes of the galaxy since the 26th century. Although most human colonies are controlled by the UNSC, a militarized government body, an insurrection left humanity in a state of galactic civil war.
You will find an outpost of insurrectionists on the planet Madrigal. The Covenant, an alien conspiracy known for its attacks on the compound and attempts to steal an artefact from the planet’s surface, appears in a mysterious ship outside the outpost. The UNSC responds quickly and sends down a Spartan-like unit of super-soldiers to destroy the aliens. Before the Spartans defeat the aliens, all but one of the community’s residents are murdered. Master Chief returns to UNSC headquarters with the Covenant artefact, single survivor and the Covenant artefact.
After a brief conversation with Kwan Ha, the teenage survivor of the attack, and a problematic order by UNSC command, the Master chief removes his helmet to win Kwan’s trust and gives up decades of programming and training to save the insurrectionist. Although this is a touching and heartwarming interaction, it seems completely absurd. Spartans are genetically modified killing machines programmed to follow orders from an early age.
Master Chief is considered the greatest Spartan. As the UNSC’s most deadly weapon, he is widely used in propaganda throughout the galaxy. It seems ridiculous that he would ignore a standard order and go AWOL in an attempt to save someone he had just met while alien civilizations are intent on exterminating humanity.
CHARACTERS AND PERFORMANCES: UNEARNED CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
In the pilot episode Halo, the characters that stand out are the Spartans, especially Master Chief, and the young insurgent Kwan Ha. Kwan, played by Yerin Hai, is the only emotional connection for the viewers. She seems to be the sole survivor of her entire village and can recover from this horrific trauma in just a few hours. Instead of grieving her father’s death and the loss of all her family, she is determined to make Master Chief against his superiors. This does not mean she isn’t loyal to the cause of the insurrectionists with whom she grew up.
After one conversation, Master Chief (also known as John 117) is convinced by an enemy teenager that he has lost all purpose in his life. Although it is possible that he would have such a shift of heart, it feels exceptionally unearned. His contact with the Covenant with the artefact that he was after gave him a brief flash of memory about his family. He doesn’t know it is a memory, however. This flash may have opened up an emotional channel he had never experienced before. Although he could have earned his sudden betrayal of UNSC given the circumstances, it occurred almost immediately.
The UNSC staff at headquarters and other Spartans were two characters who didn’t see much screen time but stood out. The Spartan program’s creator, Dr Halsey, has a special relationship with the super soldiers. She has kept a lot of information from them and even lied about their origins, but she seems to care about them as people, not just their weapons. This is why she has some of the most exciting and complex motivations in the episode. Even though they are in the UNSC’s chain of command, the Spartans take her orders and surpass military commanders.
CINEMATOGRAPHY & SOUND: SPECIAL EFFECTS DISASTER
First, let me congratulate those who did a great job. Karl Walter Lindenlaub, director of photography, and his staff did excellent work. The action sequences were well shot and conveyed a sense of urgency and suspense. This effect was enhanced by the sound team, who also added a light touch to some products that could have been too overdone. The alien weapon fire is unique, but it feels grounded.
Despite this, some special effects can be pretty harmful. Kwan and her friends are first exposed to this in the first few minutes. The outpost is shown behind them on a horrible green screen. The eye is immediately drawn to the sharp line that divides the foreground and the background green screen. The shot of the vast valley seems to lack depth, almost as if it were a cartoon background.
The majority of CGI is not better. Sometimes the cartoonish aliens (elites) that attack the outpost look like they are playing with fire. The more the aliens get closer, the better they appear, but the full-body shots showing them moving across the frame are amazing. These effects are comparable to the web series forward Unto Dawn which had a much larger budget than this $90 million production. The web series had the good sense to make most special effects happen at night when they weren’t as obvious. This quality of particular products, while great for a web series, is unacceptable for something on this budget.
EDITING AND PPACING: FAST-PACED TO A FAIL
This episode is fast. Although the action is impatient to get started, it’s not necessarily bad. This episode’s editing and pacing are excellent. They keep the audience interested. They have a lot of information to digest so it is possible for them to overload one episode.
As I said in the story section, this episode’s conclusion feels unearned. For a pilot episode, it feels like there are too many developments. While it may be thrilling to see Master Chief make a complete 180 in his motivations in episode 1, I don’t know where this will lead us in the remainder of the series.
SOURCE MATERIAL – THE PROBLEM WITH ADAPTIONS
For years, audiences have been disappointed by poor video adaptations. Halo may be next to suffer. Variety’s piece, many members of the show’s development team spoke out about the difficulties involved in adapting a game to another medium. This quote by Steven Kane, showrunner, seems to be the most important takeaway.
This is a very disappointing viewpoint. It is also mentioned that the goal is to reach a wide audience, which in itself is not a bad thing. Problem is, the Halofranchise is a long-standing franchise with a loyal fan base. This is being “broadening” the audience. All of this is not new. This is the fear of all videogame fanatics who have to see their favorite franchises being disrespected by an entertainment industry that doesn’t care about the source material and the audience.
