{"id":1489379,"date":"2022-05-24T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489379"},"modified":"2022-05-24T08:01:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:01:02","slug":"halo-movie-is-a-dull-politically-correct-affair-with-nothing-to-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/halo-movie-is-a-dull-politically-correct-affair-with-nothing-to-say\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Halo\u2019 Movie Is A Dull, Politically Correct Affair With Nothing To Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhalo-movie-is-a-dull-politically-correct-affair-with-nothing-to-say%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489379&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Halo-e1653338432142.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>In the pantheon of video game mascots, few figures are as iconic as Master Chief from the \u201cHalo\u201d series. Donning his famous green armored spacesuit, he ventured into hostile worlds, taking down the Covenant, an alien race intent on conquering the universe and accessing the ring worlds, or \u201chaloes,\u201d left over by another more ancient alien race, the Forerunners.<\/p>\n<p>It was only a matter of time before idea-starved Hollywood adapted the popular series to TV or film. Already they have made movies for other popular video game franchises, such as \u201cSuper Mario,\u201d \u201cResident Evil,\u201d \u201cMortal Kombat,\u201d \u201cWorld of Warcraft,\u201d \u201cTomb Raider,\u201d and most recently \u201cUncharted.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>With a few exceptions, most directors seem to struggle with adapting video games to film, usually being too literal, unrealistic, and dumb. Even if the games themselves were popular and acclaimed, most of their adaptions would hardly even qualify as B-movies.<\/p>\n<p>So does the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2934286\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\">Halo\u201d television series<\/a> fall into the same pattern as its predecessors? Yes and no. While it isn\u2019t quite like the campy monstrosities of other adaptations, it isn\u2019t exactly a cinematic masterpiece that\u2019s faithful to its source material. Rather, it\u2019s a generic science fiction story with the game\u2019s names and characters plastered on it \u2014 somewhat similar to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0173840\/?ref_=vp_vi_tt\">Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within<\/a>,\u201d but not as pretty.<\/p>\n<h2>Underwhelming Storyline<\/h2>\n<p>Instead of telling the story of a super soldier caught up in the middle of a brutal war with an alien race, the show tells the story of a super soldier learning about himself and his connection with a magical rock that has some connection with the halo world that the Covenant want to activate. While the first episode has an armored Master Chief stoically blasting away at enemies with his fellow Spartans, all the succeeding episodes have John (Master Chief\u2019s actual name) in plain clothes and no helmet moping about, confused about his past and identity.<\/p>\n<p>More than aliens or rebel colonists, his biggest enemy ends up being an unethical scientist who manipulates him and keeps in the dark. Needless to say, the pacing\u2019s a little slow and the viewer soon finds himself not caring one way or the other who John is.<\/p>\n<p>Supplementing this underwhelming storyline is a side story involving a young woman, Kwan Ha, avenging the death of her parents, who were leading an insurrection against the UNSC (the United Nations Space Command). Besides this story being mostly irrelevant, Kwan Ha also happens to be the most annoying character of the show: a sanctimonious brat with a stupid hairdo, using those around her to pursue a selfish and useless quest for revenge. One keeps wishing reality would come down hard on her and teach her to grow up, but unfortunately this never seems to happen.<\/p>\n<p>The show plays out as one might expect \u2014 that is, if one keeps watching. There\u2019s a dark plot afoot because certain people were tampering with things beyond their understanding. The protagonists start realizing they were being played the whole time, and break free by not playing the game anymore. And the existential crises that threaten all sentient life in the galaxy naturally take a backseat to the main character\u2019s self-discovery and newfound emotional vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s as if the show\u2019s creators never bothered to ask why anyone should care about what\u2019s happening, either to John or Kwan Ha. They just assume it, clearly hoping the power of the franchise will compel people to care.<\/p>\n<h2>Nothing Learned<\/h2>\n<p>For all these reasons, the show has nothing much to say. Beyond basic details of the plot, no one seems to learn much as the story progresses. In fact, there\u2019s little reason to root for any of the characters. Nothing much about any of them seems particularly virtuous or even relatable. The protagonists are good because the show says they are, and the antagonists are evil for the same reason.<\/p>\n<p>Worse still, there\u2019s not even much to look at either. So much of the spaceships, planets, and buildings are visually uninteresting. The sets looked reused from Paramount\u2019s other shows, \u201cStar Trek\u201d and \u201cCSI,\u201d and there\u2019s no defining aesthetic that differentiates settings. After the first episode, the special effects are cheap CGI that frequently look worse than the original \u201cHalo\u201d game for the first Xbox.<\/p>\n<h2>Politically Correct Cast<\/h2>\n<p>The performances are similarly poor. In defense of the actors, the writing is cliche and cringe-inducing, and they were badly cast for the roles they are supposed to play. One can\u2019t help but notice the very obvious efforts to feature women and people who aren\u2019t white, putting them front and center, while somehow downplaying the importance and agency of the main protagonist, a white male. Naturally, the only other white male is the tyrannical governor Vinsher Grath, played by <a href=\"https:\/\/tvovermind.com\/burn-gorman\/\">typecast villain actor Burn Gorman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that variation in characters is a problem, but it does become an issue when it substitutes character development for representing every minority in the best possible light. A good contrast to the contrived diversity of \u201cHalo\u201d is the authentic diversity of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2016\/2\/25\/11103434\/syfy-the-expanse-series-diverse-cast\">The Expanse<\/a>,\u201d where the characters\u2019 backgrounds (which were more than just race) helped inform their character while also allowing for personality. In other words, it was meaningful diversity that helped explain the demographic composition of a future humanity, not a pointless <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tokenism\">tokenism<\/a> where the different ethnicities of today\u2019s world are represented for the sake of political correctness.<\/p>\n<p>All things considered, what could\u2019ve been an epic action-packed science fiction series was turned into another <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/10\/03\/why-the-star-wars-franchises-decline-is-a-true-loss-for-american-culture\/\">bland, forgettable production of a beloved franchise<\/a>. Even though \u201cHalo\u201d\u00a0 probably has enough momentum and buy-in from the game\u2019s fans to keep the show going for a few seasons, it\u2019s just not worth watching. It\u2019s a mediocre show that has already dispensed with the few elements that could have redeemed it.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MeyratAuguste\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the pantheon of video game mascots, few figures are as iconic as Master Chief from the \u201cHalo\u201d series. Donning his famous green armored spacesuit, he ventured into hostile worlds,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1489379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1489379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1489379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1489379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}