Halo Review: A Clumsy, Unremarkable Adaptation of a Beloved Game Franchise

The nature of plot-driven games demands that players immerse themselves in the mythology of their stories and invest in both the characters and themes, resulting in an often passionate, cult-like following. So when a beloved series like Halo is brought to the screen, highly discerning judgments can be quick to follow. With that in mind—and given that everyone involved in the creation of the series, has stuck with the party line that this is a show based upon the Halo games, rather than a direct interpretation of any one title—it seems appropriate to approach it for what it is: a standalone sci-fi TV series.

Amid an interstellar war with a group of aliens called the Covenant, the United Nations Space Command unleashes the Spartans, a genetically enhanced troop of super soldiers led by the Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 (Pablo Schreiber), or simply John for short. Following a battle with the Covenant while trying to protect some rebels, our hero befriends a young woman named Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) and the pair end up fleeing.

Some characters from the games make an appearance in the two episodes made available to press, and there are clumsy hints at a larger mythology, including the introduction of Cortana (Jen Taylor), an A.I. prominent throughout the games. But it all feels forced, as if a tick sheet of references is being worked through to placate fans of the games, while eschewing any effort to draw in anyone who isn’t already familiar with the games.

Though the attempt to emulate the style and look of the games is admirable—the show’s budget reportedly topped $200 million—it doesn’t translate well to live action. The Spartan suits appear only moderately more advanced than the loaders in the docking bays in any of the Alien movies. As for the aliens, they look more like puppets than flesh-and-bone beings.

John is by nature stoic; he’s largely enclosed within a cumbersome suit and his interactions with others are brief. (Who needs to speak when you’ve been engineered solely to kill?) When he does remove his helmet, Schreiber’s few facial expressions attempt to demonstrate a kind of subdued humanity. But given that his dialogue is as clunky as his costume, there’s little opportunity for the actor to bring any depth or subtlety to the role.

One gets the impression that showrunners Kyle Killen and Steven Kane are caught between wanting to remain faithful to the universe they’ve been given to play in and, like The Witcher or The Mandalorian, striking a balance between the mythology of their source material and telling a narratively coherent story. They’ve avoided the trap of filling precious screen time with impenetrable jargon and shorthand, but the result is an extensive mythology rife with political machinations that, at least in the first couple of episodes, feels alternately opaque or convoluted. Halo looks and sounds a lot like well you might expect an adaptation of the game would, but it ultimately fails to distinguish itself from similar sci-fi fare.