Halo: Nightfall

• Directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
• November 11, 2014 (US)
• Based on the Halo game series

A terrorist attack reveals a new threat by the Covenant during a period that is supposed to be a time of peace.

After I watched Halo: Nightfall I realized it was pretty much what Halo: The Series should’ve been. It treats the material seriously and while characters have biases and baggage the interpersonal conflicts are not so great that you’re left trying to figure out whether they are more concerned with fighting with each other than the conflict/task at hand.

Much like the later Halo: The Series this story features a former Spartan-here named Aiken (Steve Waddington)-who walked away. Unlike Halo: The Series this former Spartan is important to the main story. And he acts more like a soldier than Bokeem Woodbine did. I like Woodbine but he was given poor material. Anywho…

My point is right off the bat this got things right. Aiken is a bit cynical as well as battle hardened but ultimately a professional. He has fled to the world of Sedra and started a life there but is forced to work with the UNSC after the Covenant activated a weapon using a rare element to poison the bulk of the human population.

His UNSC counterpart is Locke (Mike Colter). I cannot speak for the games but here Locke is a good and honest man that has difficulty understanding the hatred for the UNSC and must contend with bigotry among his own men for the Sedrans.

Locke and Aiken are the focus with everybody else as supporting characters. The dynamics of the UNSC and the Halo universe play heavily into how all parties feel about each other with their perspectives depending on which side they come from. They are not needlessly emotional or angry. Nor do they react illogically to anything. They are two strong characters with distinctive views that as the story goes along are challenged. Most fail to change.

This is a survival yarn largely focused on a mission that goes from bad to worse on a remnant of the Halo ring destroyed by Master Chief. Apparently that event caused a rare element to be formed exclusively on the Halo ring which the Covenant plans on using to attack human worlds. Despite there being an official end to the conflict, the Covenant and quite possibly humanity are not 100% adhering to it. This takes place within the game universe. And it takes the lore seriously.

The dynamic of the group sent on the mission is one of mistrust which feeds into everything that comes later. At least with the soldiers. As leaders Locke and Aiken have an understanding and sometimes even respect for each other based on their military experiences. It’s not directly communicated, but rather inferred through actions and dialogue.

In every survival yarn characters need to turn for one reason or another and once the initial incident at the mission start wipes a couple players off the board the remaining characters having been built up enough previously react based on their characterization. You know it’s going to be a good chunk that turn for whatever reason and what they do makes sense. This was created to market Halo and it does it very well. It does it maturely without talking down to the audience or making the dialogue feel like it was ripped out of a CW show.

The special effects are pretty good though the film relies more on real stuff than it does on CGI. Aside from the Covenant soldier and a few spots that necessitate computer graphics everything else is actually there.

With the involvement of Ridley Scott this is a more downbeat take on science fiction which is definitely appropriate for the Halo universe. It gives it a more serious tone overall. You need to feel as if what’s going on matters to the world of the characters and events most certainly feel as if they matter. Failure won’t be a minor inconvenience. It will have wide ranging ramifications. This is quite literally the fate of humanity. 

The ending is relatively telegraphed. There are some things that go with these types of stories. The fun is in how you get there. And that trip was quite good. I’m not saying this was amazing or a revelation or should’ve been a huge success. I’m just saying this is good. It is tense and interesting.

Most importantly though you don’t have to be knowledgeable of the Halo games on any level to understand what’s going on. They cover enough ground that even the most ignorant of individual would not feel confused. The only moment that the uninitiated would not get is the mention of Master Chief. If you have no knowledge you would have no idea who they’re talking about in his only mention here. Beyond that the accessibility to the outsider is amazing. 

While not great Halo: Nightfall is quite good and rather entertaining. It’s much more of a survival drama than it is an action film and that is just fine. It takes the lore of the games as well as the presentation seriously and delivers a very good movie. For general science-fiction fans and fans of Halo this is certainly worthwhile viewing.