The first episode, "Contact", of the live action Halo series has the Spartans engaging the Covenant through the frightened juvenile lead! The Halo world started with Halo: Combat Evolved on Xbox in 2001. The video game franchise continued with the latest game, Halo Infinite, released on December 2021. My gaming experience is only with the arcade game, Halo: Fireteams Raven, not the extensive Xbox games. The live action series debuted on Paramount+ on March 24th. It opens with a pan across desert dunes as we see “Planet Madrigal. UEG Outer Colonies Year: 2552.” We move to an outpost surrounded by ringed walls with a large tower structure in the center which mines deuterium. We move to a bar area where Professor (Ian Pirie) and a woman, Djanka (Nneka Okoye), are playing cards. On screen is a newscaster, Vinsher Grath (Burn Gorman) discussing the UNSC (United Nations Space Command), he was sent by General Ha to negotiate an end to the war to defeat Madrigal forces. The Professor notes that the peace talks will fail and a young man asks about the Spartans. Djanka says, “One Spartan is worth a hundred Marines.” The Professor adds that Spartans are not human and “unstoppable.”
The General Jin Ha (Jeong-hwan Kong) enters and looks out to the rest of the outpost. He asks about his daughter. Djanka tells him that Kwan is probably out wandering. Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) is out exploring rocks outside of the city with some other youths. She finds underneath one rock some Madrigal, a long steemed plant with yellow, spikey fronds, the galaxy’s heavy hydrogen source to power ships. They pull off pods from the Madrigal and pop them into their mouths like a drug. Kwan’s attention is distracted by something. She follows a path leaving the others behind. Then, she sees a ship at the edge of a cliff and some explosions in a cave. Kwan runs back to the others to have them escape to the outpost. They are still staggered by the Madrigal drug. Two of the youths are splattered by some kind of explosive rounds. They run through the forest past explosions. We see only glimpses of the blue armored aliens. It gets grisly with one young girl severed at the legs, falling, and then struck by electrified burst. Kwan takes over on the side of a hill. She takes out a tube that sends up a flare. A spotter at the outpost sees the flare, knows it is Kwan, and shouts for the general.
He orders the mining pipes to be sealed off and for everyone to arm themselves. Kwan is running, takes a leap, rolls down the hill that is next to the outpost and continues running. This is more than a normal feat. The aliens are hunting down the youths, see the flare, but don’t go after the person who fired it? Kwan runs towards the gate as her father readies a cannon on the back of a truck. She tells her father in Korean that the invaders are not UNSC. The explosive rounds strike the outpost, but no casualties. Kwan takes shelter with the rest of the civilians. It is quiet and then the outpost gunners open fire with cannons, but explosions blast the battlement and the outpost gate. Out of the smoke are massive, armored aliens with crab-like faces, the Elite warriors of the Covenant. The gunfire from the defenders harmlessly ping off their shields. In return, the invaders use blasters that fire blue energy, Kwan does not recognize them. One Covenant warrior wields an energy blade, the Type-1 Energy Sword, and rams a truck with General Ha pinned underneath it!
Kwan is about to climb up a ladder to help her father. She reaches the rooftop and watches the battle. The defenders are struck by rounds which kills them, but are not explosive. The young man from the beginning runs to the shelter gate to try to get in, but dies. General Ha struggles to reach his rifle. The Elite warrior slams open the gate and starts blasting civilians with his pistol. When the alien kills the soldier, no one thinks to climb the ladder to safety? Kwan runs next to take cover next to the Professor, none of the soldiers shoot the Covenant warrior killing the civilians? General Ha frees himself and fires on the Covenant warrior with his rifle, but again the rounds are absorbed by the warrior’s shield. It looks up and sees a UNSC ship! A figure jumps from the ship and lands in the outpost, it’s Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber)! He of course is in the Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor with the gold visor hiding his face. Very much like the Starship Troopers (1959) novel which has the Mobile Infantry use Marauder Suits. General Ha tries to shoot him. I think the alien who just killed his people is the bigger threat.
Master Chief leaps over the truck and The Covenant warrior firing on it, his rounds kill the creature! General Ha gives Master Chief a nod. More Spartans land and Master Chief orders Silver Team to attack. Master Chief takes on two of The Covenant and we get an excellent pov shot of him shooting. The Professor sees that the Spartans are on their side and runs off to engage the invaders. Spartan Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac) sees two civilians run from aliens. She uses her automatic rifle, the rounds are stopped by its shield to a certain extent. Riz kicks and shoots finally ending a Covenant Elite warrior with its own pistol. Kwan runs, she does this most of this in the intro, and sees the Professor. She takes shelter in a trailer. An alien sees her and tears off the door. His head is mangled by Master Chief on the battlement. Kwan sees that the Professor has died, I guess Master Chief was too distracted to save him? The recall order is made and a Spartan, Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy), runs on the wall until it is blasted by explosive rounds.
Kai takes cover and calls for back up. Master Chief shoots the aliens converging on Kai-125. He takes the alien shots with his shields. Master Chief has found a heavy machine gun. It rips through the aliens. The number of Spartans is difficult to track in this battle unless the others are not combat effective. General Ha, wearily walks the outpost, and then sees his daughter. He hears heavy steps, the alien is walking towards Kwan, he shoots on it. The Covenant alien picks him up by the throat and then kills him. This is when Master Chief notices the Elite warrior, leaps onto it, and then uses his pistol. He reports to Link Command that the Elite warriors, twenty of them, were killed and that the 150 civilians were all killed. The objective of the Spartans seems to be randomly defeat the Covenant, but not save the civilians who may have intel. Kwan steps out and Master Chief leaves with the other Spartans. They are looking for the Covenant landing site. Kwan cries over the body of her father. This is the beginning!
He orders two of his Spartans, Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu) and Riz-028 to check the Covenant Phantom ship. Master Chief and Kai go to check on the cave. Kwan staggers in their direction. I guess leaving out her father’s body is ok for her. Master Chief, we get his perspective analyzing the cave, excavated by the Covenant. He sees an artifact suspended in the plasma cut wall. A remaining Elite warrior raises his pistol. Master Chief touches the object which sends out an energy grid pattern and then whites out to a flashback of young Master Chief with a dog. The Covenant warrior is stunned. Kai pulls Master Chief back. The warrior starts to run, he turns Predator invisible and knocks down Kwan. The Spartans pursue, but the Covenant warrior escapes in a ship. Master Chief wants the others to use the ship to get back to Fleetcomm while he goes in the Condor. The pilot is two hours long, so this must be divided into two parts. Halo, "Contact", has some good action, peeks into first person pov, but has some story flaws!
Four Mjolnir Powered Assault Armors out of Five!
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