Intro
The new Halo Live action series on Paramount Plus has been over a decade in the making, and its arrival on 24 March 2022 was nothing less than epic. Though this was not the first live action project to bring the Master Chief to life, it is certainly the most ambitious to date, with each episode costing the studios around ten million dollars each to produce.
Since we are through season one, and waiting for season two, I wanted to take an opportunity to talk about the show, and provide context to my perspective on key elements, as well as the overall story. I also want to discuss some of the criticism and negative feedback that it’s gotten thus far. There will be spoilers, so if you haven’t watched it yet, you’ve been warned!
Origins
The first attempt at making a live action entry into the Halo universe was back in 2005 when Peter Jackson was hired by Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios to produce the film, and Neil Blomkamp was hired to direct it. The movie was supposedly going to be based on the Fall of Reach storyline, but ultimately the effort was short lived, with the studios cancelling the project less than a year later. The unofficial reasons given were due to monetary concerns with the cost of production on the film.
The next real entry into the live action arena for Halo would come not as a movie, but rather as a series of commercial advertisements for Halo 3: ODST video game. The title for these webisodes were called Halo Landfall, and there were seven of them in total, with a combined run time of just over six minutes. They chronicled the events of a pair of ODST soldiers during a firefight on Earth. Bungie filmed Landfall in New Zealand and hired a company there to build a life size replica of the Warthog for use in the commercials.
More live action commercials would follow in 2010 to promote Halo Reach, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the first real Halo movie was released. Halo Forward unto Dawn was a prequel film and tie-in to Halo 4 centered around the story of cadet Thomas Lasky, in the years prior to his service onboard the UNSC Infinity. The movie was wildly popular with fans, and that was due in large part to Daniel Cudmore’s portrayal of the Master Chief. Following its success, a second live action movie entitled Halo Nightfall was released in 2014 as a tie-in and prequel story for ONI Agent Jameson Locke, and his role in Halo 5.
During this time, a live action Halo television series had already begun the initial stages of development as early as 2013, and it lingered there until 2018, before it was announced that 343 Industries and Showtime would be releasing a live action Halo series. The series first aired in March 2022 on Paramount Plus, with nine episodes. So now that we have a foundation for the live action series, let’s look at the core issues that I have observed in the show, and how that may affect it moving forward:
Nitpicking Spartan Ops
To begin, the initial action sequence on Madrigal was well choregraphed and executed. I thought that all of the actors did a great job; what wasn’t so great was the fact that the Directors failed to pay attention to the details in Halo. For starters, I don’t think that anyone would be using AK-47s five hundred years in the future! I also don’t see any plausible way a Chevy Tahoe would be around. These are just two of the many technical errors found within the show, that quite honestly should have been corrected with re-shoots and post-production but weren’t.
Another would be CGI weapons replacing prop weapons. At one point Master Chief throws down his MA5, when it really isn’t there to begin with. The same thing occurs with Spartan Riz throwing down a Covenant Plasma pistol, which if it was a physical prop, had no paint on it. In another episode there was no color and shading to covenant energy shields being used by the Kig-Yar. The other major issue that I have is the absence of mag changes during a firefight. It is completely unrealistic to not execute a mag change, and the only reason that I could come up with is that it was too expensive for them to integrate pop out mag pockets into the Mjolnir armor. At any rate, all of it detracts from the realism of the show.
One area that caught flak from fans, that I did not have an issue with, was the Master Chief removing his helmet. In the real world, Spartans would not go around in their armor 24/7; there would have to be periods of down time. They seem to address this logically with the armor bays while they are on Reach. One area where it is highly unplausible is on the rubble, when the Master Chief removes his own armor, then dons it again. That would be technically impossible for him to do, as Mjolnir weighs half a ton! My guess is that the in-game weight of the armor is not the same as the show, and that there is a way for them to take it off on their own.
The greatest mistake that I have seen thus far in this show is having Cortana take over the Master Chief while he is unconscious; In all honestly, I think this was absurd on every level, and it drew criticism from every fan in existence. This singular decision could make or break the franchise, depending upon how it is rectified moving forward. By the same taken, the side plot involving Kwan has seriously detracted from, and interfered with, the main plot of the show. I get that it isn’t a scene by scene re-telling of the game, but that aspect has drawn considerable criticism as well. If they don’t fix these issues, I don’t see this show going much farther down the road.
Conclusions
Halo is at a very critical juncture, with both low ratings for Halo Infinite, as well as the live action series. Both have suffered tremendous set-backs and issues due to COVID, but that is not an excuse for the issues presented in this article. With production on each show costing ten million dollars, someone, somewhere, needs to step in and take ownership of these mistakes, and re-evaluate before moving forward. I do not know if season two has begun filming yet or not, but if it has, I hope that they make a drastic course correction, before we see this show quietly shelved in favor of other projects at Paramount.
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