Halo: The Complete Video Collection

I think growing up I was the only person who didn’t play Halo. All my friends played and even had parties where they would go down to certain places and game, all night. So when I got the chance to review Halo: The Complete Video Collection, I felt like this one was important for my friends and I couldn’t let them down. Since I had never really played before, I had to pay close attention to make sure I completely understood what was going on.

In Halo: The Complete Video Collection, it is compiled of four separate movies that all take place in the Halo-science fiction universe. The first disc is called Halo-Legends and it is actually made up of seven different animated short stories that take place across the galaxy in Halo’s universe. A couple of the films are kind of like origin stories. This was extremely helpful for me since I had never played the games before. The first film in particular is great for newbies like me because it essentially gives you a general overview of everything you need to know. It introduces some of the key enemy figures such as the Flood and the Covenant Empire. Some of the other short stories on Halo: Legends covers other quarrels that are seen through out Halo’s extensive universe.

The second disc in the collection is called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. This was by far my favorite movie in the collection. Forward Unto Dawn takes places at a UNSC cadet academy and follows the training of cadet Thomas Lasky. Lasky however, isn’t your normal cadet. Being almost grandfathered in, so to speak, Lasky has a pretty extensive history with the UNSC. Both parents are war veterans, with his mother being a high ranking official and his brother being a devout solider to the cause, leaving Thomas with abnormally high expectation. It’s a little slow at first; showing all their excessive training, combat drills and Thomas’s rare medical condition. But then all hell breaks loose and honestly, it left me with some anxiety. The Covenant storms the academy and pretty much decimates the site. Lasky and his fellow cadets fight for survival and one by one they are picked off by Covenant forces. Then, just when you think they’re really screwed, Master Chief comes to the rescue.

I have to admit, even though I’ve never played, I know who Master Chief is. Honestly, the dudes a bad ass. He makes short work of some of the Covenant fighters and leads the remaining cadets, the only survivors on the whole planet, to safety on board the Pelican. It was pretty cool seeing a live action Master Chief. I truly think Halo could have done a live action, non-animated, Master Chief story all by itself and it would have been killer. I remember when they re-mastered Halo and called it the Master Chief collection, and my friends went nuts, running to the nearest Game Stop or Best Buy to get in line for their copy, that they had already pre-ordered. But like I said, Forward Unto Dawn was by far my favorite movie in this collection.

The next movie in this set was Halo: Nightfall. I actually had high hopes for this movie because Mike Colter, who plays Locke, a UNSC captain, and also stars in Marvels Luke Cage as Luke Cage, is one of the main characters, but it kind of let me down. After years of war between the USNC and the Covenant, a peace treaty was officially signed. However, the Covenant army was still up to no good and was planning a bombing of some sort. Locke was able to sniff it out, but not in time, and this bomb, which is more like an EMP virus, is released and infects a large population on the world of Sedra. It is up to Locke to find out where the main material for this weapon is coming from and how to stop it.

Sounds interesting, right? The plot line isn’t bad, but I thought the rest of the movie wasn’t great. Once they determine that material is coming from a Halo shard, the team lands on this shard, only to find a flesh-eating organism that is attracted to high technology inhabits the shard and the team has to fight for their survival. Other factors such as the shard being to hot when the sun comes up and members of the team fighting for the only way off the shard, a two-seater cargo plane, made for decent action but left me frustrated after finishing the movie.

The final movie is an animated origin story of Master Chief and his beginnings called Halo: The Fall of Reach. This was pretty cool, being able to see his life growing up and ultimate evolution into the Halo legend that he is. The animation on this movie was really incredible. It truly captured emotions of the characters and it was free flowing and easy to follow. I was really pleased with this one, even though I still think a live action Master Chief movie or show would be pretty awesome.
Finally, Halo: The Complete Video Collection comes with two additional special features disc, (as if you didn’t get enough with the first four discs). These disc are probably extremely popular with Halo super fans. These discs include all-new commentaries from the Halo Creative Team, a behind the scenes look at Halo 2 anniversary, Video Documentaries for Halo 4 and Halo 5, Halo Waypoint: Hero’s Never Die, and much more bonus content. Ill admit, I didn’t watch all of these, but some of them were pretty cool and gave a great background to the making and evolution of one of the best selling games of all time.

Video: I was able to watch Halo: The Complete Video Collection on Blu-Ray. This was awesome since Blu-Ray is always better in my opinion.