I never saw this when the Master Chief Collection came out, since the damned thing didn't work, but the time to bitch about the sorry state of the MCC is long gone. Now I have it on Blu Ray, and I have watched it, so let's review Halo Nightfall.
I personally think this movie opens in the best way it possibly could, showing Aiken and his daughter while he monologues, then, as the monologue continues, it shows what is to come, the barren scorched husk of the Halo ring, yes this is part of the Halo universe, but this is very different to the games, and like a great intro, it sets the mood perfectly. How I'll start this review is, as ever, with characters, and that, I feel, is one of the film's weaknesses. The 3 I liked were Locke, Aiken and Macer, they were not just the only characters I liked, but the only ones who I thought were interesting or even remembered their names. Locke is the main character here, and he's serviceable, you can tell there's more to him than the Sedrans say, and he is a solid hero when it comes to the choices he makes, which is really what this film's about, but he's not a terribly interesting character on his own. Macer has the same issue as Locke, while she too has potential, just like Locke. Aiken however is by far the most interesting character in this film, he was once a Spartan, yet now lives on a backwater colony with his family, at the start of this film he suffers a great loss, one which motivates him to make the choices he makes in a really cool and surprisingly emotional way. The film is also littered with monologues from Aiken, which are really interesting and fun to listen to, and they are this film's more philosophical element. The rest of the characters however aren't so great, I remember that one of them is a complete dick, but I wasn't really bothered to remember their names because they're not interesting in the slightest, one of them has kids, but instead of it being emotional character building, it just makes him a dick too. It really is a shame how the character element here was ultimately wasted, the situation would have been far more interesting if it wasn't, and the more tense moments would have been a lot more tense. I do however like the situation, it could have been so much more if I cared about the characters, but on it's own it's not bad, and the scenes when it boils up, i.e the more tense scenes are great, and I really liked the film's finale too, more on that later. I liked the element of people not liking the UNSC, but given that it's Halo, the human Covenant relations is something that should have been given a lot more time, but that's just me, the Halo fanboy that I am. The weakest part of the story, apart from the characters however, is the element, which I'll call E121 for fun. The reason given for it's existence is the destruction of Installation 04 was some kind of physics defying event, but my issue is that E121 only kills humans, I have a few questions, 1, how in 750 years has humanity never encountered this element? 2, how does it only kill humans and nothing else, why just humans? 3, how does it work, how does it kill? Normally I can overlook this stuff in science fiction, but E121 just makes no sense, it's nonsense that this stuff could even exist, it just defys how I understand chemistry, I can't compute it.
Something I wouldn't be able to forgive in a Halo film is if they didn't get the look right, and fortunately, I think they nailed it with Nightfall, the design of the armour, the guns, even the city at the beginning, it just looks like the games. There's a Zealot in this film, and he looks really good, at least in design, but that brings me onto something that's a bit hit and miss with Halo Nightfall, the special effects. The CG is never bad, but it's not the best, the worst CG effect are the Lekgolo, when it's just one or a few they look ok, but when they swarm it's noticeably worse, the same can be said for the Zealot, he always looks fine, but it's nothing special. Where the CG looks really good however is on the ring itself, the scorched sky, the looming remains of the ring, it looks eerily beautiful, and they definitely sell the idea of the inhospitable wasteland the ring has become, I don't know for sure but I think it was filmed mostly in Iceland, if so, they chose the perfect place to represent the ring. Now for more specific things I did and didn't like, like I said earlier, Aiken's monologues play a few times throughout the film, and they really work, they're cool to listen to, one in particular about silence, that was really awesome. The scenes where the more unpleasant characters make their plans to escape are great, but what I felt really worked was the finale, apart from one element. No spoilers here, but the ending has a great blend of emotion and tension as everyone clambers for the getaway, but something happens with the Lekgolo, something that makes it very easy for the survivors to leave, no spoilers, but you'll know what it is when you see it, it just bugs me how extremely convenient it is, and it doesn't make a lot of sense, given how the Lekgolo operate in this film. Something specific that happens involving Aiken is probably my favourite thing in this entire film, again, no spoilers, but he makes a decision, and I loved that he did it, it really added both to him as a character and to the film as a whole.
I'm a Halo fanboy, but I know this film is far from perfect, and I have my issues with it, but on the whole I did have fun with Halo Nightfall, it's got weak characters, but while it weakens them, it doesn't ruin the more tense character scenes, Aiken is really awesome and he is probably the best thing in the film. Even for sci fi, some of the science is complete nonsense, it is distractingly nonsensical, at least for me. some of the effects are serviceable, while others look really good, and it gets the look of the Halo games down, and it all culminates in an intense and emotional ending that I loved. Halo Nightfall is overall an enjoyable film that, while lacking in a few notable areas, is still worth watching, and I would recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment