|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
|
Watch Now
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
Mar 14, 2022
Halo’s adaptation accuracy is mildly undercut by the moderately creaky narrative wheels it’s set in motion. ... [However] with top-notch CGI and a lead performance from Schreiber that lends new depths to his famously one-dimensional hero, Halo appears to have the firepower to become its own uniquely formidable sci-fi titan.
Read full review
Mar 15, 2022
Halo’s first two episodes (available for review) are exciting and captivating, though they differ greatly between one another in tone, and there’s no way to tell from watching 22% of the season whether they stick the landing. What I can say is that it is more ambitious in scope than I expected, but in becoming so it veers away from the original games.
Read full review
Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewMar 24, 2022
Where this all goes and whether the balance tips more toward character and story or more toward video game-like battle scenes is unclear, but if the first two episodes are any indication, character stories will win out. As long as that remains the case, I’ll gladly go along for this sci-fi ride.
Read full review
Mar 14, 2022
There are good parts to Halo, and scenes and characters that should interest to new and old fans. But at least in its first two episodes, there is also room to grow. Halo has the potential to be the big-budget, hugely-watched space epic it wants to be. It just needs to take a breath and focus on its story — instead of its backstory — to do that.
Read full review
ColliderMar 14, 2022
It mostly succeeds in this regard, with the relationship between Quan and John proving to be the show’s saving grace. They offer a hopeful glimpse at a future where they both help each face off against a universe that is dead set on using them for their own means. Even when everything else around them struggles to come together, they remain the glue that holds it all together.
Read full review
The GuardianMar 24, 2022
Mar 24, 2022
The series’s cinematography, like its narrative priorities, is uneven. ... How Halo is choosing to spend its time, though — that strange artifact, an endless war, and political backstabbing — isn’t yet as compelling as whatever weirdness could be happening in the forgotten corners of this universe.
Read full review
Mar 23, 2022
The first couple of episodes represent a decent start that, despite its best efforts, failed to stun me. But it didn't drive me away, either. Without question, one detail the producers got right is casting Pablo Schreiber ("American Gods," "Orange Is the New Black") as Master Chief. The man has range, and that makes the possibility of what he could bring to "Halo" exciting.
Read full review
Mar 14, 2022
Seeing the world through a vacant perspective might work for a game in which the audience has its own agency, but not for a show that requires its own point of view. In its first two episodes, “Halo” doesn’t quite have that yet. But as another entrant in the ever expanding “Halo” universe, it at least has enough ambition to make it worth a closer look.
Read full review
Mar 14, 2022
Schreiber and Ha have good hero-sidekick chemistry, and there’s an element of dedicated sci-fi weirdness that keeps things from feeling too rote. (Bokeem Woodbine, for instance, is having a lot of fun in a second-episode role as literally the only person John knows who is not a government-altered killing machine.) But the whole thing is brought down by the writing—which never goes for a second-draft line when a first-draft line will do—and by an abiding and pervasive sense of cheapness.
Read full review
IndieWireMar 14, 2022
While “Halo” features a few minor pivots in these early hours, there’s very little to spoil and even less to spark curiosity that’s not already present. Perhaps most surprising is how smoothly the initial narrative plays out, given how many creatives came and went during development.
Read full review
Mar 14, 2022
Maybe Halo does play as more exciting and specific if you have an internal checklist of game elements — weapon types, helpful acquisitions, character or planetary allusions — you’re looking to have acknowledged. For those of us who don’t necessarily crave or appreciate those things, Halo has a generic story, limitedly engaging characters and a clearly high special-effects budget that yields respectable but unremarkable results.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comMar 22, 2022
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score