![]() ![]() On both counts, the adaptation immediately dispenses with past precedent. The games didn’t add much depth to the taciturn Chief’s personality until Halo 4, and they’ve never allowed players to get a good look at the character’s face. ![]() The change in pace and length afforded by a nine-episode opening act allows Halo’s lore to breathe, but it also puts pressure on the Spartan known as John-117 to be a charismatic lead, rather than the blank vessel he served as in the original Halo trilogy. Shepherded by Amblin Television at the behest of Halo fan Steven Spielberg, who executive produced and is said to have been heavily involved, the series cycled through directors, showrunners, scripts, and even networks, relocating a little more than a year ago from one Paramount Global property (Showtime) to another (Paramount+). After a planned pre– District 9 collab between Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp fell through, Halo pivoted to TV almost a decade ago, a smart move for many game adaptations. Uncharted’s sights stayed trained on theaters throughout its many musical-chair alignments of writers, directors, and stars, but Halo proved more malleable. Like the hollow-but- lucrative Uncharted, Halo went through development hell en route to its final home. It’s impossible to pass a definitive verdict after seeing only the two episodes sent to critics in advance of the nine-episode season’s start, but in the early going, at least, the series maps a middle path that may fail to fully satisfy either Halo diehards or nongamers in search of nuanced, cerebral, inventive sci-fi. Thus far, its aspirations outstrip its results. ![]() The effort far surpasses the aforementioned cinematic turds adapted from first-person shooters, but Halo has bigger game in its crosshairs. The new Halo is, if anything, eager to distance itself from the old, positioning itself not as a facsimile of or homage to the game series whose latest installment has been played by more than 20 million people, but a distinct, expensive epic filled with worldbuilding, lore, and fancy special effects that could give Paramount+ another streaming tentpole to pair with its burgeoning Sheridanverse and ever-swelling lineup of Star Trek TV. But Halo soon establishes ambitions beyond retracing the steps of the preexisting series. That first free-for-all, in which the well-known super soldier drops from the sky and starts making mincemeat of previously unstoppable aliens, is a flashing sign pointed toward fans of the franchise: Come on in, the weapons are warm. There’s no teabagging, but in every other respect the set piece seems calculated to trigger deep-rooted memories among those who have dabbled in or overdosed on Halo in the decades since Halo: Combat Evolved came out in 2001. From the outside, Chief’s armor is just the right shade of green, and as his shield depletes and recharges, it makes the same sounds that Halo veterans have heard in their dreams. The first fight scene of the long-in-development series, which premieres Thursday on Paramount+, gives viewers glimpses of the battlefield through Master Chief’s visor as he frags familiar-looking Covenant Elites with equally familiar firearms. ![]() House of the Dead (2003), Doom (2005), and Gamer (2009) all obeyed this bylaw, and Halo abides by it too. Video game adaptations have made an evolutionary leap in the past few years, but at least one ironclad rule remains from the dark days of the 2000s: If you’re going to make a movie or TV version of a first-person shooter, you have to show some shooting from a first-person perspective. ![]()
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