Having just written about how Forward Unto Dawn sets a technical benchmark for web television, I thought I’d take the opportunity to review the series that wrapped up this morning.
Unlike other reviews I’ve written, it is gratifying to be able to embed the series in question:
The five-part series revolves around Cadet Thomas Lasky and his associates at the Corbulo Academy for the sons and daughters of high-ranking officers in the United Nations Space Command. He and the others are being trained for key roles in the war against the “Insurrectionists” - human colonists who seem to was independence from the main government.
The series starts with the now-adult Lasky receiving a message from AI unit Cortana, who is trapped aboard a stricken ship with the Master Chief in hyper-sleep (where they were stranded at the end of Halo 3), but the bulk of the series action takes place in a time before the Covenant War. In that sense, this series could constitute a kind of origin story, and is the most recent in a long line of visually high-quality live action material from the Halo games franchise.
I was visiting my brother a couple of weeks ago and we watched some stuff on his Netflix account. He took the opportunity to show me the live-action trailer for Halo 4.
While we both used to play Halo and Halo 2, I find I don’t have the time or disposition for video games these days. Even at the time by brother would get annoyed with me for playing Halo 2 on the easiest setting.
“But I’m playing to relax,” was my defence having seen him get so irate shooting Flood-infected Elites that he would be just about ready the throw the controller at the TV.
Regardless, I enjoy the universe and occasionally shoot some Grunts when I want to blow off steam. The amount of time, money and effort that is spent on the Halo series’ marketing material has always impressed me. And this is certainly true of the above trailer. I commented at the time that it is sad that an advert for a computer game could look and be acted better than the Star Wars prequels - though seven years, several lifetimes in special effects terms, has elapsed since Revenge of the Sith.
