Halo 4 : Aube de l'espérance

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!

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.

They captured the actual essence of master chief.

Wish this team got the budget of the current series.

Holds true to the fans. Doesn't lack basic logic.

And even has better looking CGI.

A few months ago when the first trailer came out for the web series, "Forward Unto Dawn", I was beside myself with excitement. I watched the trailer an easy 5-10 times, and then periodically checked back to view it again, in case I missed something the first time around. I've been a fan of the Halo series since day one of Halo C.E., and it's been really disappointing to not have a Halo movie I can feel proud of. Since high school, I've followed the hype surrounding the script writing and screenplay mock-ups of a potential Halo film, but they never panned out into anything real. Then, Microsoft and 343 Industries teamed up to create Forward Unto Dawn, and the hype surrounding a Halo movie returned. Only this time it wasn't going to be a movie, but a web series instead. And when it debuted on October 5th, I was one of the few to see it when it was only at 5k views(hipster moment). It was everything I expected and more. Superb acting, gorgeous visuals, a beautiful soundtrack, and the promise to deliver more and more in future episodes. Friday has always been my favorite day of the week, but now I have a reason to love it. Each episode debuts on a Friday, which means all my calls will be held, pizza will be delivered to my couch, and nothing is more important than those 20 minutes of Halo action. No feature length movie just yet? Well, this is the next best thing. If you call yourself a fan of the game, you...will...watch...this. Oh, and before I forget...Axios!!

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.