- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
In all honesty, I'd love to see a movie from Halo. Awesome special effects, great opportunities for some cool one-liners, a potential series of movies or even a mini series, plus something to record and watch over and over until the next Halo game is released.
There are many things that would have to be taken into consideration though, and it all weighs heavily on the outcome of the movie.
I'm actually between CG and Live Action...*not* anime. While I adore anime and it's visual effects, Halo is far from a cartoon, and I don't see how it would make sense to display it as one. I've seen some very nice example of anime, but one thing that I feel that's lacking in that visual style is a sense of presence. When you see a big enemy or imposing weapon of sorts, you don't get that feeling of fear or "whoa...look out" kind of feeling. I see these things and I start having visual flashbacks of the scene in The Waterboy where Bobby looks at his rival and visualizes his head as a baby and starts to tickle him. Yet, when you see the same enemy or what have you in CG or Live Action, you step back and say "oh ****" If any of you remember Alien or Predator (the original movies), think about the first time you saw them. Try to remember that feeling of "what the hell is that?!", or "ewww", and how scared you might have been when they jumped at you. Now imagine seeing them as a cartoon image. (Mojo-Jojo anyone?)
I like the idea of seeing it in Live Action also, and think that's more than possible to do. The issue with the Master Chief "talking to himself" while he converses with Cortana can be easily solved. He can either have a communications piece in his helmet (ie headset, direct link, etc), or he can have some type of small LCD screen on the arms of his armor, something similar to the device Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell has on his right arm. As far as costume design, the Mjolnir armor has already been created by another company, and the rest of the Marines armor doesn't seem like it's something that difficult to create. (If they were really in a pinch, they could take the design from the Marines in Aliens, as the Chief's rifle and the dropships seem heavily inspired by that movie anyway)
The story is also of major concern for me. One thing I see that Holly-wierd does is alter the storylines of acquired properties to make them more appealing to the mainstream. Right off the bat, that's a horrid idea. If the war with the Covenant didn't take place on Halo, doesn't move to Earth, and didn't involve absolutely everything from the books or the game, then the movie wouldn't be Halo, period. Who cares if we all know exactly what's going to happen? We don't need to be surprised with a pointless plot-twist thrown in the script because some director thought everything was too predictable. I can only speak for myself on this point, but I want to see Halo as it's meant to be, not how someone else sees it. If Hollywood just *had* to make a romantic interest, I'd say use Kelly / Linda from The Fall of Reach. Probably Kelly, but this obviously would be more of a love between soldiers that never grew into more since she dies before the Chief is put into cryosleep aboard the Autumn. This would show a semi-soft side to him, and would also show that now, after losing her, he truly is alone.
In short, there are so many different variables for this, that it's too easy to miss something and throw the entire movie off. Could it be done right? Without question, and if it were, I think this could be contender for Movie of the Decade (if there were such a title). However, if it's not, then we'll have another Fist of the North Star, Heaven forbid. (I just want to strangle the people that let such an atrosity leave the studio).