Halo: The Fall of Reach

I have read the Halo: The Fall of Reach book a few times and was actually reading it around the time I saw this movie.

Basically the movie follows the outline of book fairly well, but...

Somehow they managed remove the parts of the book that made it so good.

In the movie: John is kind of a dick, there isn't really any relationship between John and Chief Mendez (John is supposed to really look up to him and respect him), Captain Keyes is kind of a dick, the relationship between John and his fellow spartans is hollow. Everybody felt very 1-Dimensional. I think these problems are because of the lack of detail in the movie and the bland animation, the sometimes very off-key voice acting.

Honestly, if the people who made this movie would have just payed attention to why the characters in the book were so good and why the relationships were compelling we might have gotten something much better. That's too bad.

The book has great potential for a movie, but it was wasted with this attempt.

If you want some quick general backstory on Halo, watch this. If you want entertainment and a compelling story with compelling characters - read the book.

I am one of many who has read the novel on which this movie is based off of and which I loved so you could say I went in with high expectations. I would be lying if I said i didn't have any. I will however say that I tried to lower those expectations and be open to a different view. Besides, book adaptations are rarely if not ever better than in it's original form simply because our own imagination plays a mayor role in it. It's hard to live up to those standards which are different for each and any individual.

Unfortunately lowering my standards was not merely enough to be able to enjoy this movie. I would even say that if it weren't for me being a fan of the source material I would've given it an even lower score and it might have even scared me away from the franchise completely. The only thing that actually kept me going was me liking the universe the books created and my interest in how the team behind this production envisioned this prelude to the Halo games.

And that's why it baffles me so much that it's this bad because this is coming from the people that have the property in their possession and who work on the current games in the franchise. Everything is there and checks out, from the original voice actors down to the lore, even small details like the HUD indicators from the games, and yet they have managed to produce a lackluster representation of an otherwise great story written by Mr. Nylund with stiff voice-acting and even stiffer animation work that resembled something closer to in-game graphics from last generations game consoles than anything. If I didn't know any better I could be fooled in to thinking I was watching a not so funny episode of Red vs. Blue. I know and agree that looks aren't everything but then at least get the emotion part right one way or another, especially because The Fall of Reach is one of emotional heavier tales in the franchise, if not the heaviest.

The movie adaptation of the Fall of Reach ended up being quite a disappointment to me and I wasn't even expecting all that much of it to begin with, and to make matters worse, to top it all of, we didn't even get to see the full story. We have seen Reach, but the falling bit as mentioned in the title is a big part of it too. Either 343 didn't think so or this is a 2 parter.

All in all I can't recommend this to anyone. And if you're a fan and you're as curious as I was though, take my advise and put the book on your nightstand before hand.

What the first reviewer obviously doesn't realize is that this episode was based on the novel, written by Eric Nylund, "Halo: The Fall of Reach" in 2001. Excuse me when I say that this guy is flat out wrong saying "there is barely any shred of production value of the game here". This wasn't meant to resemble the games but more what we read in the book and saw in Halo: Legends, However there are some cameos that relate back to the game.

I love how Said reviewer goes on to say that most of the chiefs actions are military-oriented, Which is only part true since there are so many examples when he is not, in a military-oriented series... Now lets talk about the visuals, I had no issue with them, but this is a different age where everything has to look like "quality equivalent to today's game cut scenes" as he says.

He fails to realize yet again that the action sequences ("formulaic sequences like those in Universal Soldier films") are almost identical to the ones in the book and are nowhere near the cliché "Universal soldier films". To me Halo has always been a, come for the awesome game play and stay for the lore. Obviously I wouldn't expect some hardcore gamer who only cares about KDR to look at this. However when you say that the "Low quality" will most-likely upset gamers, I will make an account for the first time on IMDb just to write a review explaining how wrong you are.

In my own personal opinion this is as true to Halo as it gets and I would definitely recommend a viewing as I was brought back to when I read the book a few years ago. In terms of visuals, like I said before, It reminded me of Halo: Legends and even a lot of the scenes in that looked worse than what people are making this out to be. The narration is also top notch as you'll notice through-out and I could not be more pleased. I feel like one thing that could be improved upon if anything, is the facial animations but even that has a particular style I suppose. Halo: The Fall of Reach is definitely a nice addition to any Halo fans collection and I would also like to apologize for going off on a rant if this what you would like to call it, I was just logically disapproving of another persons deception and ignorant statements, and who chooses to be unstudious about what he reviews.

Halo has been a flagship title for Xbox consoles for more than a decade, it has spawned numerous titles and spin-offs, but apparently animation movie is not a priority. The CGI is incredibly stiff and design is equally lackluster, there is barely any shred of production value of the game here. This will no doubt disappoint the fans while probably won't attract any casual movie viewers.

It tells the story of John / Master Chief, the main protagonist as he goes through his training and childhood. He is not the easiest character to transition to cinema as he's a silent protagonist on the game. The animation delivers his story by narrations from other characters, while Joh himself is pretty one dimensional. His interactions are mostly military oriented, leaving little room to expand.

To make matter worse, it utilizes the same formulaic sequences like those in Universal Soldier films. Also, characters' facial expressions are extremely bland. Animation can barely produce any quality equivalent to today's game cutscenes. It's just plain rigid motion and uninteresting setting for one hour, and that short runtime will not amount much in term of narrative anyway.

The low quality visual will most likely upset gamers, and it's certainly not the introduction story Halo would like to represent the franchise on animation genre.

This mini-series is not the best I've seen but not the worst either. I like it and think it is worth a view if you like Sci-Fi to any degree. What I am really tired of is all of the reviews from people who have "READ THE BOOK" and are disappointed that it's not the same. Really? Haven't we all learned by this time that anything from book to film/video is never going to be like the book. Get over it man.