A lot of fun.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is a film for Halo fans. If you aren't, a lot of this is meaningless - three minutes of beautiful CG with vague snippets about a wrecked space ship, followed by an hour of teen angst, then a shoot-em-up on campus with space aliens and a snippet about the space ship again. If you don't know the games, you don't get much out of this. Other than a couple of training exercises, the first hour pretty much drags - teen melodrama.

Halo 4; Forward Unto Dawn continues the trend every movie that has been adapted from a game has set; it fails incredibly. The director; Stewart Hendler, has shown that he has brought his unique type of direction to this movie, and in doing so, it has a poor structure, and incredibly poor acting. The chemistry between Thom Green and Anna Popplewell is unbelievable, and at times their dialogue is obviously scripted. The excitement of seeing the Chief himself was not enough to carry this movie that failed on most fronts. For a viewer watching this as a stand alone film, it is disappointing and lacklustre, however, if you're an avid Halo player, then maybe there is enough nostalgia and references to keep the tedious story afloat.

The first time I watched Forward Unto Dawn, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. My only exposure to Halo media was the multiplayer function in Halo 2.Despite that, FUD presented me with a story that made me care about the characters, it gave me enough information to understand some of what was going on, but not enough that I felt like I knew everything -- which I'm assuming was the goal, as the perspective we're given is that of the cadets at this officers' academy who also don't know the full story either.Some might call the buildup 'slow' or 'boring', but as a storyteller I can appreciate taking the time for your viewers to make some kind of connection to the characters before you throw them into the action and the chaos.FUD did a very good job of introducing The Master Chief, easily the most iconic character in the Halo franchise. As said before, I knew absolutely nothing about Halo when I started out, but the Chief's first appearance still had me jumping in my seat. It was very exciting, because even I knew that was when it was about to get REAL.I enjoyed the final confrontation with the Hunters at the end, and the appearance of the iconic Halo theme in the background when Master Chief defeated the last one. It was very dramatic, but in a good way.I also liked the inclusion of the other two Spartan-IIs we see in FUD - Fred-104 and Kelly-087. While not given much screen time, it's a nice nod to people who have been fans for a lot longer, who would recognize them.My one qualm is the death of Cadet Silva, as its only purpose seemed to be to inspire Cadet Lasky. Maybe that was just me. My honest rating -- 9.5/10

I have not played the Halo games. Based on this movie, I am inclined never to do so. The plot, if you can call it that, is a confused mess. It starts out with an introduction comprising a sequence of snapshots from some kind of disaster aboard a spaceship with some woman, the only survivor of those on board, talking inexplicably about having spent 4 years doing nothing but thinking. You as the viewer can't possibly figure out what any of it means, but you think that, well, this is one of those deliberately confusing intros that will make sense as the story unfolds. It never does. In fact, it doesn't connect in any way with anything that follows. The next 60% or so of the movie is devoted to a bunch of cadets at a futuristic military academy. That part is slow-moving, boring, shallow, uninteresting, routine, trite, and predictable. As another reviewer said, it's all been done better before in other movies. Now it's just uninteresting. Suddenly there is a complete change in direction in the plot (if you can call it that, remember) when some aliens attack the academy for no apparent reason. Almost everyone is wiped out, but a few survivors are saved by yet another new entrant into the cast, who also is not explained. Much of the movie apparently comprises a replay of a documentary tape being viewed by some military big-wig whose presence and significance never are explained. My 3-year old grandchildren make up better stories than this.