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Halo: Sanctuary (2024)
A definite improvement, but still has room for growth
I'll be frank: I HATED the first season of this show. However, after getting roped back in by the trailers and positive reactions I'd seen about the first two episodes, I decided to give season 2 a shot and see if the show was any better this time around. And I've got to say, I thought this first episode was pretty good in general even though I think there are definitely some things holding it back.
Everything before the opening credits was awesome. The character interactions and dialogue were much better this time around, the action was great, and the glassing scene was well done and made the Covenant feel like an actual threat for once.
I also really like what we've seen of Ackerson so far and feel like the whole "UNSC intrigue" element of the show is being handled much better here than it was in Season 1. Seeing Chief with his helmet off also doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did in the previous season (he seriously treated that thing more like a bicycle helmet than an actual piece of armor). The show has obviously committed to showing its own version of Master Chief (feel about that as you will), but at least this time they've made an effort to make those scenes feel more natural.
My biggest complaint so far is that every scene on The Rubble just felt incredibly bizarre and pointless, and they kind of sucked all the energy out of the show for me whenever they appeared. While it's probably too early to say for sure, I wish they'd scrapped most of that subplot in favor of giving more screen time to the Covenant perspective. So far the show has made them out to be essentially just generic alien bad guys, and the audience hasn't really been given much insight on what their objectives and motivations are.
The scene at the end with Chief venting to the fake AI Cortana was also really weird and off-putting. Also, what is it with all the mystical / magical / shaman mumbo jumbo in this show? It's like they're trying to make the Halo universe feel more like Star Wars or something.
Overall though, I liked this. Definitely better than the first season but still not as great as it should be. But I'm interested to see where it goes!
Ahsoka (2023)
Shallow and underwhelming Star Wars show
This was... fine? Like Kenobi, it feels like a decent execution of something that could have been a lot better. There are cool things here and there, but the show just feels off to me in so many ways.
The complete lack of urgency that the characters seem to have during this supposed "race against the clock" situation just kills any sense of tension or stakes. The messy structure, lame dialogue, and annoying "mystery box" nature of several plot threads sometimes makes this a chore to sit through. And as someone who adores Dave Filoni's previous work on Clone Wars and his episode of Mando S2, the writing is surprisingly shallow and predictable (apart from Episode 5).
Also, aside from Lars Mikkelsen's phenomenal acting, I'm extremely disappointed with how they've handled Grand Admiral Thrawn this season. Obviously they're setting stuff up for the future, but his presence in THIS season wasn't nearly as impactful as it should have been for such an awesome character IMO. He really should have had more to do than just standing around spouting "smart guy" dialogue and then poofing off into hyperspace at the end. Such a letdown. Thrawn's "great victory" feels completely hollow because HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! He practically won by default! All he did was leave the planet and go to hyperspace after slowing down the heroes for a bit. The show has done NOTHING to convince people new to the character why Thrawn is such a threat to the galaxy, besides having other characters just tell us that he's dangerous. What an utter waste of potential.
There were some things I liked though: Baylan and Shin were cool new characters (what we saw of them anyway), some of the lightsaber fights were neat, the Nightsisters and zombie stormtroopers were sick, and I thought the scenes between Anakin and Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds were incredibly well done.
But overall this was yet another "meh" Star Wars thing to me, seemingly more interested in serving as a superficial prologue for future projects than in telling a meaningful, well-constructed story of its own. Hopefully Filoni's movie will be better.
Halo (2022)
Captures absolutely NOTHING of what made the Halo games great, and never justifies the many odd changes made to the source material
I truly, truly do not understand how this show turned out as badly as it did. Halo is such an incredibly rich universe and it genuinely makes me sad that this soulless piece of garbage is going to be a lot of people's first introduction to the series.
Now to start out: I'm not at all opposed to changes or new interpretations of existing ideas, and I understand that what works in one medium may not work as well in another. For example, I absolutely loved 2022's All Quiet on the Western Front even though it made some pretty substantial changes from the book, because those changes served to drive home the themes and concepts that were already present in the original novel. But the issue with this Halo show is that none of the changes feel necessary or benefit the experience in any meaningful way. In fact, the changes only serve to make the show WORSE. The perfectly balanced tone, fun and quippy but still complex characters, amazing music, and emotionally engaging storyline from the original games are completely ruined in this show. Instead we get dull, annoying, idiotic characters and an uninteresting storyline that absolutely pales in comparison to the source material.
I've heard that some of these changes (a struggling Chief who doesn't wear a helmet, a human raised by the Covenant, Kwan's storyline, emotion suppressing chips, etc) were made in order to appeal to a "broader audience", but in truth a more faithful adaptation would have appealed to that broader audience ANYWAY because Halo is ALREADY PERFECTLY GOOD AS IT IS!
And even when putting the offensively bad writing aside, for the amount of time and money that went into this show the presentation really isn't as good as it should be. There's a lot of dodgy CGI and weird production design, and the show never truly feels like it takes place in the Halo universe (except maybe for episode 5). I mean... you get the chance to adapt one of the most beloved Sci-fi/action video games, and this is all you can do with it?
All this being said, one thing that I really did enjoy about this show is the new character of Kai-125. Kate Kennedy does a great job playing her and she gives a lot of much needed personality to the story. I also liked a lot of what the show did with Jacob and Miranda Keyes, and the battle scene in episode 5 is admittedly pretty badass. So yeah, there are a few things that the show does right.
But even with a cool new character and a few good moments here and there, this is genuinely one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen. I hope some massive changes are made for season 2, because as it stands this is a bad Halo adaptation and also just a pretty bad show in general.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Extremely disappointing.
What could have been an incredible 2 hour or so movie is now just a hollow, basic, bland and overlong Disney+ show.
Admittedly there are a few good moments, but the terrible writing and overall sense of laziness completely derails the entire project. If this is the level of quality we can expect from upcoming Disney Star Wars content I want absolutely nothing to do with it.
Halo: Emergence (2022)
A notable step up from the previous episode
I enjoyed this episode a lot actually. I'm still not a huge fan of Chief being out of his armor so often and I'm not sold on Makee yet either, but I really liked Chief and Cortana's relationship and I'm much more interested in where the story is going.
Hopefully the rest of the show can maintain this level of quality.
Halo: Contact (2022)
Much better than I expected
As a massive fan of the Halo universe, I had heard a lot about this show before it came out that had me really skeptical. But I've got to say, this was a pretty solid first episode that assuaged some of my biggest worries and I'm excited to see where the story goes as the season continues.
Pablo Schreiber was great as Chief, and his character's interactions with Kwan were a highlight of the episode for me. The action was also (mostly) well done despite some bad CGI here and there.
However, the one thing that still bothers me is the human being raised by the Covenant. Hopefully the show will be able to justify this because right now I think it's pretty dumb. I really hope this new character isn't just a cheap replacement for the Arbiter.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The best war film I have ever seen.
This film is absolutely phenomenal in every way. I've seen some of Terrence Malick's other movies and was a bit lukewarm on his work, but this one just hit different. The amazing cinematography and juxtaposition of the beauty of nature with the horror and tragedy of war just elevate this to a whole new level. Hans Zimmer's score is also excellent and fits the film perfectly. The "great evil" scene is one of the most profound moments I've ever witnessed onscreen and even made me tear up, which a movie
rarely ever does.
All in all, this film is an absolute masterpiece.