Halo: Nightfall

I generally like any kind of military scifi, but I have to say, this show is starting to tax my patience.

When I recall that the episodes are only twenty minutes long, that is actually far worse than it sounds.

The initial setup and "mission" are quite promising, but after that first episode, what was an interesting scifi concept turns into "Quarry Walking Simulator 2014". This begins in episode 2 and continues all through to the end of episode 4, which is about an hour of viewing.

There is a rather weak attempt to turn the show into a psychological study of people put in a difficult situation, but it doesn't really work. The short format of the series, plus the sub-par writing and acting, only makes the characters annoying rather than interesting. Instead of tense drama, you end up with trite stereotypes and predictable scenes.

The CGI isn't brilliant, but it does the job, but, as I have already mentioned, mostly it is a tale of people slowly losing control whilst walking around a large quarry. Quite where the purported $70 million dollars it cost to make the show went is a bit of a mystery.

SUMMARY: A poor man's Pitch Black, hampered by bad writing, acting and with precious little of the extensive HALO universe to show for the budget. Monsters that are clearly designed by someone who thought Matrix Revolutions was good. Considering what was done with the Battlestar Galactica webisodes, there is really no excuse for this.

VERDICT: The wait for a decent HALO series continues...

This is the syfy special of Halo? There are 3 types of alien in thism ovie.? 2 only in the first episode? and a lot of bad choices. But the threats stay fairly limited and not ramping up.

luckily the human characters are 1 dimensional so you don't really care. And almost have 2 actors that do their job. i don't want to blame them. Scenery did a good job.

It's the 26th century. There is a tenuous treaty between humans and the alien alliance called Covenant. Despite the peace, the Covenant is still sending operatives in a dangerous secret war. On an outer planet called Sedra, Commander Jameson Locke (Mike Colter) leads a squad hunting a Zealot Elite warrior with a suspected bomb.

I saw this as a ninety min Showtime movie. It has a lot less shooting than I expected. Actually I expected a lot less of everything from this movie. The acting is pretty good led by a capable Mike Colter. The characters are mostly one dimensional but that's fine for this type of movie. I like their conflicts once they get to the ring. The first part isn't as compelling and is limited by its production. Overall, I'm relief that it doesn't suck. It's not bad.

It starts off so well but then they spent most of the time walking around with the odd thing happening. There is parts with action but I felt it could have used a lot more. The fact this is a Halo movie I expected loads of special effects and action like in the games but we did get that for a short period of time. After that it was minimised.

21 November 2017. This television series, edited into a movie version along with Ridley Scott getting an executive producer credit for the first episode possibly for marketing purposes and brings another big screen story of the sci fi video game franchise to life. The Alien (1979) inspired spacecraft and landscape design are decent. Some of the early futuristic features incorporated into the movie are even more compellingly fascinating, including a scene resembling the window view of Tyrell's office from Blade Runner (1982). The script was overly ambition trying to incorporate both a monster story, a survival story along with a supposedly divisive cultural class story which the last component wasn't well depicted in the movie. Credit is well deserved for the improved version of the sci fi monster motif used in the movie, a definite improvement on the run of the mill monsters. One weakness that comes up is the somewhat incongruent topography changes and the mountain or crevasse scenes that don't always line up, especially one of the ending shots. The movie becomes a bit mushy and typically predictable with its incorporation of evil intentions even though there is some aura of moral integrity depicted. In some ways, it even follows some of the same overly dramatic script points in Journey to the Center of the Earth of 55 years prior to the release of this Halo. The ending climax is also a bit of stretch as to the apparent allowance of the idiocy that leaves open the opportunity to actually be able to kill someone, such is the use of a distinctly irritable script manipulation for the sake of an intended ending. In sum, this sci fi action, mystery, thriller comes across as a watchable, somewhat enhanced version of typical space adventure movies, but nevertheless not quite reaching the ranks of superior, quality sci fi.