Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Just what I expected

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

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.

The year is 2526. Thomas Lasky (Tom Green) struggles in training at the Corbulo Academy of Military Science on the planet Cirnicus-IV. He is a disappointment considering his illustrious military family. His only friend is fellow cadet Chyler Silva (Anna Popplewell). Humanity has ventured out to colonize other worlds. The big threat is expected to be colony insurrectionists. Then the planet is invaded by an alien army, the Covenant, which is kept secret from everybody except the higher ups.As a web mini-series, there is some good work with impressive F/X for the price. As a TV show, this is better than most Syfy channel work. It's more of an interesting road map of what a Halo TV show or movie could be. Tom Green is a relative newcomer. I've only seen him in a TV show called Camp. It's a different character with a completely different hair cut. Anna Popplewell is probably the only recognizable name and face. She does the only competent acting on the show. In the end, this is not about the acting or even the story. This is mostly a dry run to get the look, the style and the effects correct for something bigger later on. At least, that's the big hope for fans. Looking at what they have, I hope they dial back the shaky cam work. I also hope that they lose the slow-mo Michael Bay wannabe. This seems to be going for Battlestar Galactica and I think that's a good move. If they make a theatrical war movie, it's going to need more money, a lot more money. However I think there is a great horror movie available for a lot less cash.

I'm a pretty big Halo fan. Now I am sure, a lot of the reviews start in the same way! Let's be honest Halo is a massive franchise and it's been made so well, that making a movie was always going to be judged with extreme criticism. Firstly and most importantly: This movie lives up to all our super HD and CGI needs- the covenant, master chief and action is so well done you almost wish you had blu ray and 4K now to see it in! (Where? Currently on NETFLIX in beautiful quality).Secondly, now this is the problem with it. Almost half the movie is just a back story and an emotional journey only part of which is actually integral to the whole idea of Halo. When you pick up a game/franchise/sci-fi genre that has already given people a story; your own idea or execution of a new back story has to be 'excellent'. I am sorry, the execution here is excellent but the plot is highly boring. If I wasn't a fan of Halo I would have stopped watching 20 minutes into the film. I urge you though, watch it, it gets better and reaches a very very good peak. If you haven't played the game, you will want to play it after this.

I have not played the Halo games. Based on this movie, I am inclined never to do so. The plot, if you can call it that, is a confused mess. It starts out with an introduction comprising a sequence of snapshots from some kind of disaster aboard a spaceship with some woman, the only survivor of those on board, talking inexplicably about having spent 4 years doing nothing but thinking. You as the viewer can't possibly figure out what any of it means, but you think that, well, this is one of those deliberately confusing intros that will make sense as the story unfolds. It never does. In fact, it doesn't connect in any way with anything that follows. The next 60% or so of the movie is devoted to a bunch of cadets at a futuristic military academy. That part is slow-moving, boring, shallow, uninteresting, routine, trite, and predictable. As another reviewer said, it's all been done better before in other movies. Now it's just uninteresting. Suddenly there is a complete change in direction in the plot (if you can call it that, remember) when some aliens attack the academy for no apparent reason. Almost everyone is wiped out, but a few survivors are saved by yet another new entrant into the cast, who also is not explained. Much of the movie apparently comprises a replay of a documentary tape being viewed by some military big-wig whose presence and significance never are explained. My 3-year old grandchildren make up better stories than this.