SpecialsTarget
Disturbing yet enthralling
Ogosmith
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Frances Chung
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
dsalouk
Halo 4; Forward Unto Dawn continues the trend every movie that has been adapted from a game has set; it fails incredibly. The director; Stewart Hendler, has shown that he has brought his unique type of direction to this movie, and in doing so, it has a poor structure, and incredibly poor acting. The chemistry between Thom Green and Anna Popplewell is unbelievable, and at times their dialogue is obviously scripted. The excitement of seeing the Chief himself was not enough to carry this movie that failed on most fronts. For a viewer watching this as a stand alone film, it is disappointing and lacklustre, however, if you're an avid Halo player, then maybe there is enough nostalgia and references to keep the tedious story afloat.
kaiba2789
Alright for a live-action Halo series, it's pretty good. The acting is nice and believable and the visuals are amazing. Nothing is really left out but you aren't bogged down by insignificant details either. I am rather pleased with what I saw and for a video game adaptation, that's saying a lot. I can't say the same for some of the action. When it comes to the actual gun fights, it feels kind of lacking. All the whooshing and zapping and blasting is nice and all but the feeling behind it all just feels lost. It's pretty slow-paced when it comes to the battle scenes and when Chief appears it doesn't really get any faster. And all the slow-motion doesn't help. If you've ever played a Halo game than you know what Master Chief looks like in slow motion and this doesn't make it any cooler. Showcasing Master Chief blowing up an alien with a grenade is fine but it didn't need to be all slow. It's obvious what's going to happen. If you go into this movie expecting a lot of Chief you might be a bit disappointed but you'll enjoy it either way
native84
In my opinion , this movie/web-series has been over-rated by Halo fans and in the end it will be to everyone's detriment. If Microsoft/343 Studios get the impression they can release something like this and hit one out of the park we will just see more of it in the future.As a Halo and Movie fan I believe this would be a shame. The source material (the Halo universe) has the potential to bring something truly great to the big screen but this is far from it.I won't go into plot, as it has been covered in many reviews, but I will say it is clichéd. The military boot-camp stereotypes have all been done before and with much more depth. These characters seemed one-dimensional and lackluster development left me indifferent to their fates. Some of the dialogue was corny to the point of cringe-worthy and the actors (including some of the adults) lacked the presence to pull off their roles and really set the scene.Given the relatively small budget some of these things can be understood but the hackneyed plot is not one of them. The special effects were good, despite said constraints, but too many "bullet time" segments bogged the action down. All in all I was disappointed by Halo 4: Forward Until Dawn and I (like many others I'm sure) am still praying for a Blomkamp/Jackson treatment of the source material.I do not believe that 10/10 rankings of an obviously flawed series/movie will get us there.
bnoriega2001
Somehow I stumbled upon this movie browsing through my Netflix queue and was glad I watched it. I'm hopeful they put out more movies like this. Its the first movie that I can actually say I have enjoyed even though its based of a video game, normally they try giving movies a very video game like first person shooter feel which really takes away from the story. This was totally not the case. The entire Halo world has been fascinating from the beginning and hopefully more content gets put out for it (comic books, games, etc.). Just like the video games the story takes the front seat and then delivers with good effects , cinematography, and action as a way to propel it they way good stories should be done always. Hurray for Bungie on this epic franchise.