Halo the Series

[sh9000]

 

[TangledThorns]

Should HALO really be a series tho? Seems more geared to a movie.

[crackpot]

I like Halo for the most part but I'm not subscribing to another streaming service. 

[Big s]

I could see it as a series. Especially the first game. It would definitely be padded with some drama that hopefully wouldn’t be annoying fluff. 

[Thom]

Everything has the potential to be done right. And equally wrong... Here's hoping for the fore!

[crackpot]

With how long the game can be plus the many books that progress the story even further outside of the games to the point you need some knowledge from the books to understand things in the game, this is definitely better as a series.

[CoryHolmes]

Halo as a series, might work if the main character was anything other than the Master Chief.  A big part of his character is his unbending, unfailing stoicism brought on from years of indoctrination and combat.   He's the sort of videogame character the player can put themselves into.  I don't think that'd make for a compelling or dramatic figure for a TV series or movie.

Part of the reason I love the Babysitter chapter of Halo : Legends was because it was a look into the Spartans from the outside world, and I think that'd work best for a series. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by CoryHolmes

[Podtastic]

4 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

big part of his character is his unbending, unfailing stoicism brought on from years of indoctrination and combat

So he's an old school South African?🤨

[Thom]

Coming into a series, they have to grow the character past where he started, as in the games. If he all he is every time is just like a machine with no feelings than that will get tiring pretty fast. I say that after never playing the games or reading the books or watching the previous shows. Most people want to identify with the depth of the character and they want to see him/her grow and expand. Take the Mandalorian. When the first episode aired, he was just a suit of armor following rigidly to a code, but by the end of the last one, he mask was off and you could see that he had grown to be so much more than he had been. A little bit of that is seen in the Kurt Russel movie 'Soldier.' The growth doesn't have to be explosive, and I would prefer it not to be, but a progression of the character evolving.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Thom

[Podtastic]

15 hours ago, Thom said:

Coming into a series, they have to grow the character past where he started, as in the games. If he all he is every time is just like a machine with no feelings than that will get tiring pretty fast. I say that after never playing the games or reading the books or watching the previous shows. Most people want to identify with the depth of the character and they want to see him/her grow and expand. Take the Mandalorian. When the first episode aired, he was just a suit of armor following rigidly to a code, but by the end of the last one, he mask was off and you could see that he had grown to be so much more than he had been. A little bit of that is seen in the Kurt Russel movie 'Soldier.' The growth doesn't have to be explosive, and I would prefer it not to be, but a progression of the character evolving.

Well growth doesn't have to be in the direction of emotionality of course. You can have a character who starts out as a weakling who shows all his emotions openly , who grows to one who has learnt restraint.

BTW I hated it when the Mandalorian took his helmet off, just as I hated it when Darth Vader took his helmet off.

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Podtastic

[sh9000]

 

[Thom]

Well that just teased me.

[sh9000]

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by sh9000

[Old_Nash]

Official trailer #1

 

[crackpot]

Cortana looks weird and John's voice doesn't sound right to me given I'm so used to the game voice.

[pengbuzz]

That's not the Chief's voice, Cortana's supposed to be blue, and the whole "upgradeable and controllable" thing doesn't sit quite right with me.

Also, since when did the Covenant have Humans in it?

[crackpot]

15 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

That's not the Chief's voice, Cortana's supposed to be blue, and the whole "upgradeable and controllable" thing doesn't sit quite right with me.

Also, since when did the Covenant have Humans in it?

Problem with Halo is a lot of the needed information comes from the books. I felt there are details in the game that needed to be read on to get a background of it. At some point, Halsey was working with the Covenant so I wouldn't be surprised if that's been the case even earlier on since I haven't read any of the books. 

[sqidd]

36 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

That's not the Chief's voice, Cortana's supposed to be blue, and the whole "upgradeable and controllable" thing doesn't sit quite right with me.

Also, since when did the Covenant have Humans in it?

He sounds like Mando.

[Seto Kaiba]

I've never really been all that invested in Halo as a franchise, but I feel like this is kind of... too late?  Like, by a decade or so?

This would have been an amazing idea back in 2007-2010 when Halo was a huge phenomenon and the franchise was riding high on the strong finish of the original trilogy.

Now that Halo's heyday and period of peak cultural relevance is 15 years behind us and with the franchise's uniqueness having been heavily diluted by time, industry copycatting, and the departure of the original devs that took it from being THE killer app to just another AAA shooter sequel farm, it feels kinda like they missed their window of opportunity.

Kinda getting it coming and going too, since the Halo series is going to have to struggle to distinguish itself from the other sci-fi action shows about growly gits in body armor and full face masks like The Mandalorean and The Book of Boba Fett.

Cortana looks... awful.  I hope they fix that.  She's kinda got that same uncanny valley thing they had going for Alita in Alita: Battle Angel.

[pengbuzz]

4 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I've never really been all that invested in Halo as a franchise, but I feel like this is kind of... too late?  Like, by a decade or so?

This would have been an amazing idea back in 2007-2010 when Halo was a huge phenomenon and the franchise was riding high on the strong finish of the original trilogy.

Now that Halo's heyday and period of peak cultural relevance is 15 years behind us and with the franchise's uniqueness having been heavily diluted by time, industry copycatting, and the departure of the original devs that took it from being THE killer app to just another AAA shooter sequel farm, it feels kinda like they missed their window of opportunity.

I noted that as well... this just seems like what Paramount would consider an "easy cash grab", trying to get what was a phenomenon in its' heyday.

Just hope they don't reuse sets and props from Discovery and Picard....

4 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Kinda getting it coming and going too, since the Halo series is going to have to struggle to distinguish itself from the other sci-fi action shows about growly gits in body armor and full face masks like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.

There's that, and the trailer makes it seem like they're filming a high-financed cosplay for Halo.

 

4 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Cortana looks... awful.  I hope they fix that.  She's kinda got that same uncanny valley thing they had going for Alita in Alita: Battle Angel.

Agreed... OG Cortana was never valley.

[azrael]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

I noted that as well... this just seems like what Paramount would consider an "easy cash grab", trying to get what was a phenomenon in its' heyday.

A Halo live-action has been sitting in dev-hell since the Halo 3 days (well, 2005 to be more precise). It's just taken till now to actually materialize into something for screen.

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Agreed... OG Cortana was never valley.

First thing that popped in my head with this rendition of Cortana was it looked like how they rendered Isabel from Halo Wars 2 (and for reference, Isabel's VA Erika Soto).

It's like they rendered the flesh tones along with the mo-cap of the face as well for Cortana.

[pengbuzz]

17 minutes ago, azrael said:

A Halo live-action has been sitting in dev-hell since the Halo 3 days (well, 2005 to be more precise). It's just taken till now to actually materialize into something for screen.

Yeah...dev-hell has done more to trap properties than anything. But they still managed to largely miss the boat because of that.

17 minutes ago, azrael said:

First thing that popped in my head with this rendition of Cortana was it looked like how they rendered Isabel from Halo Wars 2 (and for reference, Isabel's VA Erika Soto).

It's like they rendered the flesh tones along with the mo-cap of the face as well for Cortana.

Still pretty weird and doesn't really resemble Cortana all that much.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Agreed... OG Cortana was never valley.

To be fair, OG Cortana was so low-poly that she didn't have a hope of making to to the Uncanny Valley... 

 

42 minutes ago, azrael said:

A Halo live-action has been sitting in dev-hell since the Halo 3 days (well, 2005 to be more precise). It's just taken till now to actually materialize into something for screen.

Definitely feels like they left it too long, then... I half expect to see the Gravemind get a director's credit.

[pengbuzz]

9 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

To be fair, OG Cortana was so low-poly that she didn't have a hope of making to to the Uncanny Valley... 

At least they didn't recruit Alicia Silverstone from Clueless.

 

9 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Definitely feels like they left it too long, then... I half expect to see the Gravemind get a director's credit.

Agreed; it would have been better to at least coincide it with a Halo game release than to try a stand-alone (they missed the boat with Halo:Infinite).

[Thom]

Having never played the game or read any books - this looks cool as hell! Going to give that a good watch. Hope it's good!

[Seto Kaiba]

Looking at the trailer again with more of an eye towards the story they're teasing... it looks like they're planning to follow the story of the games reasonably closely, which is probably for the best.  Though I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to...

Spoiler

... discuss, at length, the origins and original purpose of the SPARTAN-II supersoldiers.

Even if they try to soften the blow a bit, there's really no avoiding that the protagonist and his friends are blunt instruments created by an oppressive military regime to silence civilian dissenters through clandestine displays of excessive force.  There's a reason the games didn't really touch on that point.  Your heroes aren't very heroic if they kill their own side's civilians with nearly as much gusto as the enemy does.

It'd probably be better/safer to start in medias res the way Halo: Combat Evolved did.

[pengbuzz]

32 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Though I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to...

  Reveal hidden contents

... discuss, at length, the origins and original purpose of the SPARTAN-II supersoldiers.

Even if they try to soften the blow a bit, there's really no avoiding that the protagonist and his friends are blunt instruments created by an oppressive military regime to silence civilian dissenters through clandestine displays of excessive force.  There's a reason the games didn't really touch on that point.  Your heroes aren't very heroic if they kill their own side's civilians with nearly as much gusto as the enemy does.

It'd probably be better/safer to start in medias res the way Halo: Combat Evolved did.

Very much so.

[azrael]

2 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

Agreed; it would have been better to at least coincide it with a Halo game release than to try a stand-alone (they missed the boat with Halo:Infinite).

Halo: Forward Until Dawn and Halo: Nightfall web series.

Also this show is its own timeline according to 343 Industries:

 

[Podtastic]

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

the franchise's uniqueness having been heavily diluted by time, industry copycatting

Not that it was ever truly unique in the first place, the Flood initially being a slightly altered version of the Vang Oormlikoowl from Starhammer. Which was itself modeled on the 80's version of The Thing From Another World.

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Cortana looks... awful.  I hope they fix that. 

Agreed.

At least the Sangheili  look ok so far. I hope they also do justice to the Flood and the Forerunners, if the series ever goes there. 

10 hours ago, crackpot said:

At some point, Halsey was working with the Covenant so I wouldn't be surprised if that's been the case even earlier on since I haven't read any of the books. 

I have read and listened to quite a few and I don't recall that happening. The only incident I recall was the Spartan Ops cutscenes where she "collaborated" with Jul' Mdama after she lost her arm. A temporary alliance of convenience.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Podtastic

[TangledThorns]

Reminds me of The Mandalorian and looks well made however HALO should have been made into a high caliber action movie series instead of a streaming drama series IMHO.

Part of me wonders if this is because movie theaters are dying.

 

[azrael]

6 hours ago, Podtastic said:

I have read and listened to quite a few and I don't recall that happening. The only incident I recall was the Spartan Ops cutscenes where she "collaborated" with Jul' Mdama after she lost her arm. A temporary alliance of convenience.

That was well into the Reclaimer-storyline (Halo 4, Halo 5:Guardians). Nowhere near where this show takes place.

[sqidd]

Looks watchable. I only ever played the first game through to the end (and was pretty much done gaming after that) so I don't really care how it matches up with the games.

I'm not expecting much from Paramount+ though.

These are the goofballs that built the Warthog for the show (I think). 1000hp and it's actually functional. This shop is owned by The Honnigan himself. If you don't know who the Hoonigan is you should be ashamed of yourself. Here is one of the best of the 10 Best Video's.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

13 hours ago, Podtastic said:

Not that it was ever truly unique in the first place, the Flood initially being a slightly altered version of the Vang Oormlikoowl from Starhammer. Which was itself modeled on the 80's version of The Thing From Another World.

Simpler than that, the Flood are simply sci-fi zombies... with all the ho-hum tedium that involves in an era where zombies have been overdone to a second death.

 

3 hours ago, sqidd said:

I'm not expecting much from Paramount+ though.

Given that Paramount+'s creative approach thus far has been "all style, no substance", that could work in Halo's favor given that Halo's story is pretty unremarkable but its action set pieces will benefit immensely from a $8M/episode budget's worth of Things Exploding.

[CoryHolmes]

On 1/30/2022 at 2:36 PM, pengbuzz said:

 and the whole "upgradeable and controllable" thing doesn't sit quite right with me.

That's my favourite part of the Halo story, and one that's overlooked too often imho.  The UNSC weren't exactly the best of people and did some really, really not very nice things in the name of keeping the peace.  The fact that it worked out well in time for the Great War is very neatly ignored by most people.

 

Also, the Spartan-IIs are incredible badass warriors.  Just think of what had to happen to them to make them that way.  One of the best parts of Halo 4 and (the only good) bits of Halo 5 was examining the man underneath all that armour; and then asking just how much more can he give?

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

That's my favourite part of the Halo story, and one that's overlooked too often imho.  The UNSC weren't exactly the best of people and did some really, really not very nice things in the name of keeping the peace.  The fact that it worked out well in time for the Great War is very neatly ignored by most people.

 

Also, the Spartan-IIs are incredible badass warriors.  Just think of what had to happen to them to make them that way.  One of the best parts of Halo 4 and (the only good) bits of Halo 5 was examining the man underneath all that armour; and then asking just how much more can he give?

I find it very disturbing that human beings are reduced to utter machines. Many already view one another today as less than human.

Anyways, departing this thread; it's making my skin crawl.