A few weeks ago, I wrote a review of Netflix's "Resident Evil" show saying that it fails on two fronts, both as an adaptation of the source material and just as a show in its own right. "Halo" is a much better show than that one, but again I'm not convinced its deviations from the source material, particularly straight out of the gate, are to its benefit.
A battle between Earth forces and an Alien Covenant on the planet Madrigal unearths a mystery object. This artefact is linked to a second larger one, which together will reveal the position the Halo, a mythical structure and potential weapon that both the Humans and the Covenant want in their possession. Leading the battle for the UNSC forces is The Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) a soldier separated from his family and trained since childhood to lead the SPARTAN team, his contact with the first artifact though, reveals suppressed memories about his early life.
I should say that my experience with "Halo" is only playing through the first two games, I haven't yet got around to playing any of the subsequent titles in the series. I say this, because there are definite elements of this story that deviate from the plots of those games. There's no Arbiter character, for example, though some of that plot line might end up being done via Makee, a human character who lives with the Covenant and has a religious role, based on her connection to the Artefact. There's not connection to the Flood yet. The Master Chief takes off his mask, which I understand as a performance choice, but felt to me, like lacking in faith in the character. There's also a large secondary story that I didn't detail in the plot synopsis above, involving Kwan Ha, played by Yerin Ha, a Madrigal native who sees the Earth Forces take the artefact, but who the Master Chief connects with a former Spartan, and who returns to Madrigal to try and instigate a rebellion against the forces that rose up in the aftermath. This was, for me, not an aspect of the story I cared about and took time away from the Spartans, the UNSC and the Covenant storylines, that I was more interested in.
Away from thinking of it as an adaptation, I think, If I knew nothing at all about "Halo" going in, I'd come away having thought that the series was decent enough, though perhaps nothing special. The visual effects are good, the story isn't particularly original, but it makes sense and there are tensions being built.
I'll watch the second season, when that comes out - but I don't love this like I hoped I might.
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