Diagonaldi Very well executed

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

alindsay-al For years now I have been arguing that a Hollywood halo film must happen but when it does I hope it doesn't have anything like the rubbish in this film has. This film focuses on cadet Thomas laskey as he trains to be a member of the unsc until due to unforeseen circumstances he meets the master chief and his life is thrown upside down. Now I have never ever seen the kid who played laskey and I never want too again because he sucked in this film. He wasn't really helped by some awful writing and cliché scenes but that is not enough of an excuse for the bad acting. The rest of the cast are also unknowns and you get every cliché characters ever and none of them stand out at all. The only positive acting wise is the guy in the master chief armour who was perfect in the role and was easily the best part in the film as the chief should be. Now the story is a straight rip off of starship troopers and was not done anywhere near as well as enders game, you will not care about any of the cadet characters at all. The worst part of this is that the film focuses on the cadets instead of the chief which angers me so much as a hardcore halo fan. The script sucks with all the dialogue and situations being really wooden and weak plus you have literally seen them all before. Now the style of the film is really cool with the covenant and chief looking fantastic also all the weapons and sound are right out of the games and one of the reasons this film didn't get an even lower score. Overall this film is really poor and even if you are a halo fan it is not worth the time.

SnoopyStyle 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.

WakenPayne I'm just going to say it, Halo is overrated. It can present some fun gameplay if you want to play with friends but in terms of story nothing about it screams anything other than video game, although I DID enjoy some of the anime so that was a surprise. But as a linear 80 minute movie? This could work, I mean I'm open to it if they flesh out more plot characters and... That's not even remotely what happens.We follow cadets in a training Academy for the army against the Covenant. Only they think they're going to fight terrorists which we don't know about and has never been in any other Halo game. As the characters which are barely established go through training one played by Tom "NOT-Freddy-Got-Fingered" Green questions orders, has a war hero mother who we never see and is allergic to some cryo-genetic fluid that's in tanks which the army uses. One day The Covenant attacks and They're caught completely off-guard as to what they are and where they came from and The Master Chief appears in record time to make his 5 minute cameo and then the movie's over.Okay, notice how many times I said things aren't established in any other Halo game or we are told as opposed to shown? There's a lot of that. I can't feel emotionally connected to characters who we know almost nothing about and what we do know comes in about halfway through at best, so half the movie is spent with me saying "What?, Who?, Why?, OKAY! TIME OUT! WHAT IS GOING ON!" I mean for what is simply "Human's Versus Aliens" this movie loses you very easily.I might dwell into the under-use of one of the most recognizable video game characters of all time However I have another complaint. Why does the academy keep the fact that they're fighting aliens secret. I mean how's that supposed to work? On Graduation Day does the person running the place say "Oh, by the way, we're fighting aliens in a losing war" Shouldn't Tom Green's character know this because he has a mother AND a dead brother in the exact war? I mean if they wanted to keep it a secret from non-soldiers (where are they again? In a game franchise over 10 years old I don't think I've seen anyone who isn't a soldier in them) then I'd be fine but these are people who are going to fight the war.At the end of the day this is like watching a YouTube fan film. You know, the ones which don't exactly follow the rules of film (I'll give credit even they're better at keeping to the rules then this does) but you know they're a fan of the games. Instead of watching one that's a few minutes this is one that's an hour and a half. There is some talent trying to pull through - I'll admit that but there is just a lot that I really don't like.

native84 In my opinion , this movie/web-series has been over-rated by Halo fans and in the end it will be to everyone's detriment. If Microsoft/343 Studios get the impression they can release something like this and hit one out of the park we will just see more of it in the future.As a Halo and Movie fan I believe this would be a shame. The source material (the Halo universe) has the potential to bring something truly great to the big screen but this is far from it.I won't go into plot, as it has been covered in many reviews, but I will say it is clichéd. The military boot-camp stereotypes have all been done before and with much more depth. These characters seemed one-dimensional and lackluster development left me indifferent to their fates. Some of the dialogue was corny to the point of cringe-worthy and the actors (including some of the adults) lacked the presence to pull off their roles and really set the scene.Given the relatively small budget some of these things can be understood but the hackneyed plot is not one of them. The special effects were good, despite said constraints, but too many "bullet time" segments bogged the action down. All in all I was disappointed by Halo 4: Forward Until Dawn and I (like many others I'm sure) am still praying for a Blomkamp/Jackson treatment of the source material.I do not believe that 10/10 rankings of an obviously flawed series/movie will get us there.