Halo 4 : Aube de l'espérance

I've never played Halo so I was going into this movie somewhat blind not knowing what to expect. It started out ordinary enough with young cadets in a military school introducing themselves and stating why they joined. Much to my surprise, the wide swath of kids (teens really) had varying reasons for joining that extended beyond blood lust or just seeing how cool it would be to kill. That, in itself, was a big notch of respectability in my eyes. I expected a lot of HOO RAH type speech and antics and I didn't see that.

Furthermore, I looked for the typical teen movie clichés, because these were teens after all. Although it wasn't a high school setting, I was looking for the ultra popular beauty queen, the muscle-headed jock, the dweeb and the supporting cast. Fortunately, those characters never appeared. Halo proved to be a deeper, layered, better thought out film than I expected. It could be considered slow, but I thought it was right on point. Very nicely done.

Well-done story about cadets in the Halo-world military training facility. Would be better if people knew the Cortana and Master Chief story. As it is, slightly weak ending but fascinating storyline and good acting, filming and directing.

Let's bear in mind that this came out several years before Netflix rudely awakened the slumbering movie industry with their 2017 Wil Smith project, "Bright".

-Which critics completely panned, not because it was bad, (it was a solid 7/10 movie which regular folks enjoyed), but because it bucked the system and made all the little Authoritarian reviewers feel threatened. (You can't get free passes and pats on the head if the regular Hollywood machine's distribution network gets bypassed and Netflix ignores you and doesn't send you review copies, and has the audacity to still rake in tens of millions of viewers without your shillmanship).

I love that! Hollyweird needs to undergo a serious purge at every level.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn was essentially a grab bag item, like a coffee mug or tee shirt, swag to be released along with the latest episode in their flagship game franchise. I rolled my eyes when a gamer friend of mine insisted that I watch his DVD copy, "No, it's really good!"

Come on. It's a marketing product. An advert. How good can it possibly be?

So I strapped in, ready for a dose of tacky cheese...

And was blown away.

Wow! They hired real movie pros, actors, production teams. And script writers! It was better than most sci-fi TV shows.

I came to the end asking, "Is there more?"

That was the day I realized that just because Hollywood didn't spit it out doesn't mean it can't be good!

This is good stuff!

Okay, I consider myself a pretty good Halo fan. I have played through all of the games numerous times, and read every Halo book that has been released. I was walking through Walmart's electronics department about a month ago, and I see a Halo movie. What? A Halo movie? Let me take a closer look. Oh great, its a live action Halo movie that I have never heard of, this is going to be terrible.......but its only $14 on BluRay so what the heck. Then I get home (with the kids at daycare) and start watching it on my 42" TV. OH MY GOD. The movie is brimming with great character development, and morality themes regarding the human rebellions before the covenant attack. The main characters (which are cadets at a UNSC Military Acadamy) are all new faces, except the lead female who is the girl from Narnia. They all do a great job convincing me that they are the children of the highest echelon of the UNSC elite, who are trying to make their parents proud. Some people claim that them movie is a little slow at first, or that it parallels Starship Troopers. I do not agree with those claims. The movie thoroughly develops and introduces the characters, so when the covenant (and Master Chief) arrive, you are vested in them, and don't want them to die. By the way, the Covenant were done fantastically, and Master Chief is NOT CGI, but instead the most realistic and amazing armor outfit every constructed. Bottome line, if you like anything about Halo, or if you plan on playing Halo 4, see this movie. Thank you 343 studios for coming out of left field and blowing me away with this movie. I just wish I could have seen it in the theater!!!

To confound those mind-reading reviewers, I'm someone who's never played any Halo game, ever, and yet still enjoyed the amalgamated "feature" cut of this miniseries on its own merits.

It's not perfect, but it's committed and competent. The sets, costumes and props are surprisingly decent for what is effectively a promotional advert, and the actors give it their absolute all. The effects, once they get going, are decent enough and the budget is very well used.

Sure, it's never going to win awards for originality, and the boot camp concept has been done many times before. But it's strongly conceived and written, the young actors are actually age appropriate, and they perform it compellingly.

Once the CGI bugs and that guy from Doom show up, it actually gets weaker for me as a non-player, but it never drops below the level of credible and competent, and that's high praise for one-off limited series.

I got the impression that the cast and crew had a great time making this, and it shows on screen. Not life-changing, but a great lesson in why you shouldn't lower your expectations of what talented creatives are capable of making when given free reign.