Halo Episode 1 Recap || Spoiler Review || Pink Man

Spoiler Review

In episode 1 we're taken to a colony on the planet magical where some humans have settled the inhabitants are fighting in an effort to earn their independence from the UNSC.

After failing oppressed just as it looks like that may actually happen a group of aliens known as a covenant attacks the colony is slaughtered,but just before everyone dies master chief's silver team of spartans drops in and crushes the alien forces the combat is action-packed with a bit of style.

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Even if the animations are a little off and some of the aliens and spartans lack weight on occasion silver team finds an ancient alien artifact known as the relic that the covenant was looking for. This is ancient technology from the forerunner alien race that displayed a map to other powerful forerunner artifacts in the halo games in the series.

It seems as though this only leads to a halo ring but they haven't disclosed that information just yet when master chief touches the relic. 

It unlocks some of his childhood memories and later on as the chief arrives at the reach base it releases a power surge or some sort of limited emp that knocks out the power in the base and allows him to escape.

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He originally headed back to the reach base with quan ha the sole survivor from the small magical colony that was attacked. Unfortunately the UNSC wants a girl killed and master chief disobeys a direct order just to keep her safe as the two of them fly away from reach heading to the rubble.

We get glimpses of the UNSC based on reach as well as Dr.elizabeth halsey the scientists who created the spartan program and cortana AI that's coming later in the series.

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We also see master chief's face for the first time as he removes his helmet for the last few minutes of the episode there's a short scene with maki a human member of the covenant who seems to be against the human race for unknown reasons.

Iseems to have something to do with the fact that only certain humans can activate 4runner technology. The covenant will need a human in order to use the relic to find the halo ring and destroy the galaxy. The prophets who are the leaders of the covenant and have a strong desire to destroy all life in the universe treat maki like a goddess.

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Is It Worth ?

Your enjoyment of the halo series will depend on how beholden you are to the mythos of the games and novels. As well as your expectations of modern sci-fi shows this is not the same halo that you're used to the creative team made far more changes than they probably should have to the point where it doesn't really feel like halo.

If you're cool with change and aren't expecting marvel levels of production values then you may like the halo tv series. If you were looking for something that sticks closer to the games or at least feels more like the games even if it's a new story this is not it for fans of halo.

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There are some cool moments in the first episode including a few first-person helmet cams complete with a hud that looks somewhat similar to the game, but even some of this may still feel a bit off if you don't know much about halo.

The episode feels more like a made for tv sci-fi channel movie which may not be a bad thing depending on what your expectations are the 90 million dollar budget for the series clearly went into making. Master chief look good and the aliens while a bit bulky are fairly accurate to the games as well that's where the budget seems to stop.

Because all the environments look rather bland especially once we get to reach as a next generation era star trek fan i can't stand anything alex kurtzman has done with the new trek shows on paramount plus. 

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But they all look very high budget and polished halo just doesn't have that polished look most of the visuals are fairly generic the dialogue is stiff and predictable and there's nothing really exciting beyond the first skirmish between the spartans and the covenant.

The halo tv series has nothing to separate it from any other generic sci-fi space show with that said if you like space combat shows in general and go in with low expectations you may find something to like about halo you'll just need to set your expectations correctly for the most part this feels like an existing sci-fi show was slightly rewritten to include elements of halo.

Once again depending on what you were expecting that may not be a bad thing but even with a bunch of changes you generally want to make it feel like the source material the halo tv show doesn't really feel like it belongs with the games and novels.

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Even with an entirely new story that shouldn't be the case one huge aspect of the halo games is the soundtrack but even that is sparsely used with all that said.

This is only the first episode so hopefully the show picks up over time but right now this doesn't feel like what anyone really wanted from a halo tv series looking at space epics on hbo max apple tv and netflix you can't help but think other streaming services would have done a better job with halo. But again there are 8 more episodes to go and an already greenlit season 2 that starts filming this summer.