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Halo Nightfall (2014)

thereviewers
Nov 17, 2015
2 min read

Halo Nightfall tells the personal story of Jameson Locke, a legendary agent with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), Earth’s most powerful and secretive branch. After being caught in a horrific biological attack orchestrated by the Covenant, Locke and his team are forced to fight for their survival, question everything and ultimately choose who lives and who dies.

Overall Review Score

1.5 out of 10

Review

Wondering how to make money quickly? Got a rubbish script about killer worms? Do not care about entertaining the audience? Got a bunch of unknown actors who wish to engage in 94-minutes of boredom inducing dialogue? Excellent, we have the perfect film for you - Halo Nightfall. While the film was billed as the origins story for Agent Jameson Locke and was meant to rival Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, in reality the film will have fans of the Halo series pulling their hair out and weeping in despair before the credits have rolled. This is because the film features limited references to the Halo Franchise. For example, it features no Master Chief, a five-minute scene featuring one elite Covenant Zealot and only briefly mentions the UNSC, ONI or the Halo Ring. The film is disappointing from start to finish. Overall, it could have been much better – its 94-minute run time felt a lot longer and its strange script, that seemed to contained numerous plot holes, will confuse and alienate even the most logical, patient audiences. It defiantly a film worth avoiding.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Score: 1 out of 10

Comments:

Halo Nightfall was originally marketed, and released, as an episodic TV series and this clearly shows in its transition to DVD release as a feature film. Nightfall will keep audiences baffled as they question how a £70 million budget could lead to such mediocre acting, drab locations, quite frankly awful special effects and a complete lack of imagination regarding the films appalling story. What astounded me was how this was meant to be a “Halo” film yet the nods to the series are so sparse you could just look at this as a B sci-fi movie. For example, across the films run time you are treated to one elite Covenant Zealot, which I personally feel should have played a more integral role, and instead witness the cast run away from badly rendered, CGI, hunter worms.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Score: 2 out of 10

Comments:

Ignoring for a moment that Halo Nightfall has as much in common with the Halo franchise as Master Chief has with a toaster, the film features a cast of unknowns who come together to deliver a slow, mediocre film. Fans of the Halo series will quickly be put off by this film and new comers will be left confused and equally astounded by the ‘hide, scream, hide’ mantra of the films lacklustre script. Overall, Halo Nightfall could have been good but I have a sneak suspicion it fell into the Halo Ring and the Covenant modified it to make it so boring and bland audiences would descend into a pit of near despair and exhaustion trying to understand and watch it, so we would be unable to fight them off in any future wars.