Good start, but then it gets ruined

Absolutely Fantastic

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Alright for a live-action Halo series, it's pretty good. The acting is nice and believable and the visuals are amazing. Nothing is really left out but you aren't bogged down by insignificant details either. I am rather pleased with what I saw and for a video game adaptation, that's saying a lot. I can't say the same for some of the action. When it comes to the actual gun fights, it feels kind of lacking. All the whooshing and zapping and blasting is nice and all but the feeling behind it all just feels lost. It's pretty slow-paced when it comes to the battle scenes and when Chief appears it doesn't really get any faster. And all the slow-motion doesn't help. If you've ever played a Halo game than you know what Master Chief looks like in slow motion and this doesn't make it any cooler. Showcasing Master Chief blowing up an alien with a grenade is fine but it didn't need to be all slow. It's obvious what's going to happen. If you go into this movie expecting a lot of Chief you might be a bit disappointed but you'll enjoy it either way

I could watch the movie, but someone who is not a player of the game... I don't want to see children playing at anything, let alone soldiers. The actors are too young, maybe 18 at best, or least they appear to be. The demographic seems to be steered to teenagers and high school students, and in that respect I find the movie just fine. Anyone older than 20 should reconsider their movie choice however. This is not a stand alone movie, I'm not sure if it was ever intended for that purpose. If you are young and a fan of the games then I'm sure you will enjoy this. If you happen to be over 20, browsing Netflix for a random action movie, pass. Decent CGI, not horrific, just very specific demographic.

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.

I've never played Halo so I was going into this movie somewhat blind not knowing what to expect. It started out ordinary enough with young cadets in a military school introducing themselves and stating why they joined. Much to my surprise, the wide swath of kids (teens really) had varying reasons for joining that extended beyond blood lust or just seeing how cool it would be to kill. That, in itself, was a big notch of respectability in my eyes. I expected a lot of HOO RAH type speech and antics and I didn't see that.Furthermore, I looked for the typical teen movie clichés, because these were teens after all. Although it wasn't a high school setting, I was looking for the ultra popular beauty queen, the muscle-headed jock, the dweeb and the supporting cast. Fortunately, those characters never appeared. Halo proved to be a deeper, layered, better thought out film than I expected. It could be considered slow, but I thought it was right on point. Very nicely done.