Paramount’s Mixed ‘Halo’ Reviews And Producer Statements Are Concerning

I have been skeptical about anyone bringing Master Chief to life with a movie or TV show since Peter Jackson's project fell apart. The series is about to debut on Paramount Plus next week, and I am concerned that the service will not be able to find non-Yellowstone-based hits.

The trailer was okay, I suppose, though it did create a few meme like its unusual-looking Cortana and the Chevy SUV in the background. At best, reviews are starting to come in.

TV shows generally rate higher than their movie counterparts on the service, and that's lower than a host of other current shows. Right now, the only show on the front page is Pieces of Her at a 50%.

The reviews are not the only ones. I've heard a lot of odd things from the cast and crew that make me think that dedicated fans of the game may have issues with the final product.

Microsoft executive and Halo producer, Kiki Wolfkill, freed the show from its source material.

Wolfkill said that they were thinking about doing something that would tie in with the game. It was not serving the creative teams and their need to express a story and build the world through their eyes.

Wolfkill criticized the decision to show Chief's face in the series.

You will see his face. For some people, it has been 20 years in the making, and for others it feels very hard to imagine. Those who really want to see Chief's face and those who really don't are both respected by us. It was important to show the face of the Master Chief in order to connect with him in a different way.

Even though she is still being played by Jen Taylor, one more Wolfkill quote on the new, non-game-like appearance of Cortana.

She has to feel like a real artificial intelligence, a hologram, and be a character that real people are acting against, that's the reason for designing her.

Something just feels a bit off about the approach coming into this adaptation. We just finished a series about The Mandalorian, a character who doesn't need to remove his helmet 99% of the time. Fans of the game are not excited about the idea of a team of writers changing the lore. The main point of criticism after her reveal was that in the early footage she did not look like a real person.

There is a Wolfkill quote for the Chevy SUV.

For people who haven't been in the game industry, there's no need to be too quick to notice something. The shot of the Tahoe is supposed to be there for a reason.

It's really sad. I don't know. Let's see how this goes.

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The Herokiller series and The Earthborn trilogy are my sci-fi novels.