Halo fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief—or, perhaps, let out a celebratory “aah aah aah”—since after 15-plus years of torturous development hell that saw both Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg try to shepherd it to the big and small screen, an adaptation of Bungie’s hit Xbox video game franchise has finally arrived on Paramount+ as a nine-episode scripted series. Created and written by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane, directed by Otto Bathurst, and executive produced by Spielberg, it’s a long-awaited effort that’s at once wholly faithful to—and an expansion of—its source material, retaining the look and feel of its interactive predecessor while also delivering a sprawling new story of intergalactic intrigue, warfare and prophesy that’s more than a bit reminiscent of the streaming platform’s Star Trek shows. All of which is to say, die-hards will be very pleased.
Premiering at SXSW in advance of its March 24 Paramount+ bow, Halo takes place in a 26th-century galaxy run by the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), which is besieged on two fronts. On outer colonies such as Madrigal, rebels under the leadership of General Jin Ha (Jeong-hwan Kong) are mounting a resistance to the UNSC’s supposedly tyrannical rule, although the exact nature of that villainy is rather opaque. At the same time, the UNSC is locked in a fierce struggle against the Covenant, an alien race of giant monstrous beings that leave destruction in their wake. In both instances, the UNSC’s ace in the hole is its legion of genetically enhanced super-soldier Spartans, who have been engineered to be emotionless, unstoppable killing machines. At the head of that pack is John-117, better known to everyone in the universe—and to gamers worldwide—as Master Chief.
In his Xbox outings, Master Chief never removes his bulky helmet or armor, but Halo—going in the opposite direction of The Mandalorian, another sci-fi series with a perpetually-helmeted protagonist—routinely has the character shed his iconic outer layer to reveal himself as Pablo Schreiber. No matter how he appears, though, Master Chief is an all-business sort of badass, robotically methodical in deed and word, and he immediately shows off his peerless battlefield skills when he and his Spartan Silver Team—comprised of Kai (Kate Kennedy), Vannak (Bentley Kalu), and Riz (Natasha Culzac)—visit Madrigal to save Jin Ha and his rebel comrades from an invading Covenant horde. Master Chief and company are successful in that mission, insofar as they vanquish their alien adversaries. Yet every rebel on the planet perishes during the conflict save for Jin Ha’s daughter Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha), a spirited girl who views the UNSC with a disdain passed down from her father, and Master Chief with a highly skeptical eye.
Master Chief takes Kwan into custody, albeit only after the duo locate a cave where the Covenant were performing an archaeological excavation and found what they were looking for: a triangular artifact that comes to electric hologram-producing light when it’s touched by Master Chief. The duo set a subsequent course for UNSC Fleetcom headquarters, where they intend to rendezvous with Spartan mastermind Dr. Catherine Halsey (Natascha McElhone), who’s currently at odds with Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) over her warrior squadron, as well as Halsey’s desire to craft an artificial-intelligence system called Cortana that can seize control of Spartans’ consciousness. Halo players will immediately recognize Cortana, but she doesn’t become active during the season’s first two episodes (she’ll eventually be voiced by the games’ Jen Taylor). Still, in most respects, Killen and Kane’s series provides the authentic Halo goods, accurately recreating the designs of the Spartans and Covenant, their weapons and shields, and their vehicles (including Warthogs and Master Chief’s Condor). Plus, there are occasional segues to first-person Master Chief views of the action, fashioned with the exact same read-outs and shield-recharging sound effects that Halo vets have come to know and love.
While Halsey and Admiral Parangosky spar at UNSC HQ (where Olive Gray’s Miranda Keys also resents Halsey’s top-dog position), the Covenant’s Prophets seek to recover the artifact so their “Blessed One” Makee (Charlie Murphy)—a female human who’s joined their cause—can activate it and bring about “the Great Journey.” Master Chief also seems to be a Blessed One, something he comes to realize thanks to his experiences with the artifact, which awaken in him fragmented memories of a childhood that Halsey has clearly attempted to erase. As embodied by the imposingly stoic Schreiber, Master Chief is a preprogrammed RoboCop-ish weapon whose dawning comprehension about his past and purpose initiates a journey toward self-awareness and autonomy. That begins with his decision to disobey UNSC orders by sparing Kwan’s life and fleeing with the artifact in tow, then taking refuge with his former Spartan mate Soren-066 (Bokeem Woodbine), who cherishes the very independence and freedom that Master Chief has relinquished.
All of this plays out in a fashion mildly reminiscent of Picard and Star Trek: Discovery; despite its Halo accoutrements, Killen and Kane’s series opts, at least at outset, to chart a familiar serialized course, replete with pitstops on other planets, various insurrectionist threats (including via the rebels’ new UNSC-installed leader Vinsher, played by Burn Gorman), and an air of interstellar mystery that’s modeled after plot points from the games. This means that Halo is undoubtedly setting the stage for an ensuing encounter with the Flood, a parasitic alien scourge that poses a dire problem for both humans and Covenant alike, and which will no doubt complicate Master Chief’s personal quest to attain greater understanding of himself—and, in doing so, recapture some of the humanity he lost long ago.
On the basis of its first two installments, Halo’s adaptation accuracy is mildly undercut by the moderately creaky narrative wheels it’s set in motion. Given that a second season has already been greenlit, however, there’s reason to believe Killen and Kane have additional novel twists and turns up their sleeve for their highly anticipated saga. And with top-notch CGI and a lead performance from Schreiber that lends new depths to his famously one-dimensional hero, Halo appears to have the firepower to become its own uniquely formidable sci-fi titan.
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