Halo (TV Series) Thermopylae (2024) User Reviews

It's coming everyone it's coming

[jk101-209-1931 · 8/10 · 14 March 2024]

You can see the storyline really progress in this episode. I feel we are just inches away from the pillar of autumn and chief first arriving on Halo.

There are storylines that I still do not understand where they are going with on the show. Kwan storyline I just can't see how that affects the overall show. The same with Soren but they are far better than the previous season so I'm still interested.

Chief is ready to go to fight the covenant! Halo season three is everything we have been waiting for I just hope they can get it out on time. 2 years between each season is just going to be too much to long.

Finally starting to feel more like Halo

[northern-89274 · 8/10 · 15 March 2024]

Things are starting to come together now and although it's taken at times a frustrating number of turns away from the established lore, the halo is still ring shaped and John has his armour!

Ackerson (Joseph's Morgan) continues to be a great character and the actor has done a fantastic job or transitioning from the antagonist just the realisation he was just a pawn in a much bigger game.

It still perplexes me to what the Spartan 3s are. They are filling their role of being expendable assets but there been no display of their augmentations and Perez would not have had chance to even go through the Spartan 4 augmentation let alone the Spartan 3 augmentations.

Kai's slap down or annoying ONI soldier Captain Briggs was most satisfying.

Seeing John on his armour and people's reactions to him being alive was a great scene reminding me of the reactions to the marines in the Bungie era games when you joined a fight or arriving at crows nest in Halo 2.

The forerunner city looked great and they carried over thee asthetic from the game very well...pity they couldn't manage it for the covenant ship interiors that still look at bland and as grey as anything made by humans.

The episode ends with us finally getting to see a halo ring and with John set to be the 'lone remaining Spartan' that we know so well from the games. Obviously how things play out on the ring will be very different from the game due to the Pillar of Autumn not being there, Captain (admiral in the TV show) Keyes being dead.

It still bugs me that Miranda isn't a ships captain like in the games. They could have easily used another character in this place and maintained Miranda's normal in game role.

Watching this with an open mind or as someone new to halo would probably make it a considerably better experience. But if you're here for the original lore from the book, games, live action and anime this might finally start to feel a little more like home.

Im actually looking forward to the next episode and really hope they stick the landing...would love to see me some ODSTs thudding on to surface of Halo.

The stakes are high

[chiefspartanfan997 · 10/10 · 14 March 2024]

It's hard to judge how good this episode will be in the end. It all depends on the ending. But if you take it in isolation from everything else, then there are practically no downsides.

Surprisingly, even the Kwan Ha storyline finally made some sense. And she had good chemistry with Halsey and Miranda. Miranda finally remembered her father's death, which is good. But we are still given hope that he may be alive.

Akerson showed himself to be a real man and not a villain at all, which is cool. It's good to see that Master Chief is finally back in his armor. We are waiting for the final showdown in the final episode!

And we need a third season.

Better

[jaggill_viper · 6/10 · 14 March 2024]

Let's start with the positives, which can be rare for most of the episodes in this season so far. The visuals have improved. The acting is not as bad here either. There are definitely fewer awkward scenes with tedious dialogue. The plot is more focused on what the characters should be focused on given the plot. The characters seem to have clearer motivations and their actions seem much more realistic because of it. It has improved in many ways. The Cinematography has improved but it is also short lived.

They are still not showing critical scenes like the Arbiter's Covenant ship traveling to the Halo. They don't show the Covenant fleet arriving. Important images that would convey what is happening are left out. There is not enough world building in general. They need to show more of the scale of ships, fleets and the war progressing. They need to show where things are, how far they are and how they are getting there. Less tedious drama and more visualization would go a long way. SHOW don't tell.

How do so many humans know about the Halo now all of a sudden? They seem to know its significance and what it is capable of without explaining how they found out. Critical facts like this shouldn't just be glossed over and taken for granted. This leaves the viewer with too many unanswered questions. The plot still is littered with these holes which is frustrating as a viewer. There is not a natural progression to the plot. It feels forced as if relevant scenes or information have been skipped over. It could be much worse though.

While they have made improvements, the show still has a long way to go to redeem itself. They really need to scrub the tedious and unlikeable Kwan plot, the Soren family plot, the ONI sub plots and all of the unrealistic actions/characters. They need to spend more time and money on CGI to show the world they created with the larger scale of an intergalactic war. Build up this world by showing us critical visuals. You can't depart from the canon and then not show/explain critical parts. Besides this, they have done vastly better here as they focus more on the Halo part of...HALO.

Admiral Parangosky is TERRIBLE

[vincentwetmore · 5/10 · 16 March 2024]

The worst written character in the show by far. There is no depth whatsoever to the character and her sole plot device is to make the worst decision possible at all times. I can't point to one moment across two seasons where she has done anything to move the plot in a positive direction.

In this episode, not only does she continue that trend, but SOMEHOW knows all about Halo and what it can do. HOW? How is that possible that no one has any idea but this person? So infuriating and there's no reason for it. Without her the show would be fine and would remove a few RIDICULOUS set backs.

Get rid of the poorly written characters in this show ASAP.

Thermopylae? Not even close

[tdsearles25 · 3/10 · 14 March 2024]

There is nothing about this episode that resembles Thermopylae except for "Spartans" being sent to their deaths. And they're not even real Spartan's. They are Spartans that you would order on Wish. What have we even accomplished this season? Look back on it; now with one episode remaining. We got to see Reach fall for a few minutes(the lone highlight of the season) and then spent the rest of the season watching Master Chief have a mid life crisis. Total time spent in suit this season? 4 or 5 minutes? That alone is an unforgivable sin. Maybe by the end of the season finale we will be at about 10 minutes in suit.

What even was this episode? A slow, bloated build up to finally reaching the Halo. Are we actually going to get the Flood or are they going to hijack that into something else? The Kwan Ha, Halsey and Keyes scene was beyond cringe. Playing with holographic stars and lining them up to open a door.... really? Only Tony Stark can pull that kind of thing off an look believable.

Ackerson gets casually talked into switching sides? This whole episode was a slog. I am sure the finale will have some payoff with the Chief finally back in action as we reach Halo. But the journey there has been agonizing. Have you enjoyed the journey of this season? What did we actually spend time on? This season was 90% life crisis conversations and 10% solid action and Covenant progression. This is not a recipe for success. They better figure it out in season 3 or this show is over.

Side note: I know everyone harps on the video game loyalists' hate being the problem. But I promise you, if they show was good, they would forgive the differences. Did The Lord of the Rings perfectly follow the books? Not even close. But it succeeded because they still built a solid and exciting story that stood on core of the lore. This does not. It disrespects its own source material in too many unforgivable ways. Its just not a good show.

Again with the disregard for basic logic

[bsherwin-43978 · 2/10 · 15 March 2024]

Many aspects of this episode cannot be reasonably explained with the information we are given. Why are we training children like Spartan II's again when they already moved on to Spartan III's? Does Oni really believe they have another decade or two to get them ready? Were to believe they expected these children to survive without being maimed after being repeatedly beaten by adults with solid metal batons? But my biggest problem is the 'puzzle' Kwan of all people solves.

1) There is a significant size difference between the cave and the room the stellar map/chart/clock is in. So scaling would be difficult.

2) The cave drawings appear old, it is doubtful they would depict the stellar drift needed to solve the puzzle.

3) Kwan is a teenager with no formal education that we know of, yet she can compute stellar drift in her head in seconds? Without know what stellar bodies are near the stars she needs to move? For example a black hole in the vicinity of one would throw of stellar drift computations considerably. But she seems to have zero problems with doing it in her head on the fly.

4) Lastly, is it just me or does anyone think solving a 4 dimensional puzzle (time is included here for the 4th), with a 2 dimensional picture that is much smaller in scale would be near impossible without a lot of time to work with?

This show simply isn't good because it is so poorly written an intelligent viewer has to keep shaking their head as to how these amazing things happen for these characters.

EDIT: Upon a rewatch of the episode I found I hadn't been listening closely enough when Kwan talks of stellar drift. She doesn't move the stars to their current position, but is putting them back where they were when the Forerunners made this puzzle up. That being said, I stand by my assertion that this scene is still not logical/reasonable to someone who actually thinks about what is going on. To expand on why I still think this, that cave have 10's of 'star' pictures, maybe even a 100 or more. Kwan only moves what 4-6 of them? How does she know which ones are the right ones? What further backs this being nonsense is, even if you remove time and make the star chart they all see only 3D, I again ask, how can anyone possibly know which to move and exactly where going by what you saw a while ago on a 2D surface far smaller in scale? As she's talking Kwan places one at about stomach/waist level, the next way over her head. I don't believe that even Miranda or Halsey would have been able to figure that out, let alone in under 10 minutes.

I noticed another piece of nonsense in my rewatch. When John tells Ackerson that he's to go tell everyone the truth about what Parangosky did on Reach, Ackerson replies, "It'll be my word against hers, I don't have proof." Then John tells him "I'll be the proof when I walk out of this room in this armor." Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't Ackerson have already figured this out when Parangosky confronts him in the control about not finding and apprehending the Master Chief several scenes earlier? She actually threatens him by implying directly he'll be the one to answer for the 'inconvient questions' that will arise about Reach should it become public the Cheif is still alive. So him saying I have no proof is absolutely ridiculous. He already knows for a fact the proof is standing right there looking him in the face.

This may sound even more picky lol, but, why does Cheif need Ackerson to find his armor? Doesn't he have Cortana unlocking or locking where needed, every door for him? Making ear pieces disable the one security person we see in the whole base? Shouldn't she be able to find it and likely even unlock the way for him to it?

More of the same. soap opera

[scarceak47 · 1/10 · 14 March 2024]

Episode 7 of Halo felt like a repetition of the same formula, leading to a disappointing realization that the series is transforming into a sprawling soap opera rather than the action-packed, beloved Halo saga. The lack of innovation and the insistence on sidelining Master Chief's iconic armor and helmet make it difficult to remain engaged. The narrative has become an arduous struggle to maintain interest, and the absence of the familiar elements we cherish is proving tedious. It's disheartening to witness the departure from the core essence that made Halo special, and the continuous deviation from this foundation is a disservice to the franchise's devoted fan base..

BAD Directing And The Worst Camerawork I've Ever Seen

[WatchAndSmile · 1/10 · 15 March 2024]

CGI fail galore from artificial camera shake in production, to artificial post production blur everywhere to lack of complete understanding by the director that human eyes don't shake.... Complete lack of common sense. The camera is worse than an old camera from 2010 without any stabilization. ALL footage is very shaky. Some of it is due to poor directing, atrocious camera work and then artificial post production extra shake... So most scenes are a blur.

If this director wanted us to enjoy the scenes, background and the details, it would've been shot differently,but everything was set to hide 100s of flaws. Tell me, can you see the details? Pores in skin? Sharp details of all the things? NO!!! Everything is a Gaussian blur in post production. All action scenes were filmed in 24p(frames per second) and so that's already blury + added extra post blur + bad camera work and those scenes are unwatchable.

And that's before I get to the actual story that so far isn't making a lot of sense...

Who wants to open up a gofundme to buy this director a camera stabilizer?? Seems like they spent all the money on CGI, nothing left for good cameras and the stabilization.

what is going on?

[Lythas_85 · 4/10 · 30 March 2024]

I have never played the games but I finished book 1: the fall of Reach and almost done with second one: the flood

luckily cavill isnt a halo fan because this one here is doing a much worse job than they did on the witcher.

In the books.. it is john, cortana.. keyes.. and then in book 2, lt maccay and major silva also defending the human base on Halo.. that is it.

It makes no sense what they are doing to the story.. master chief is pretty much a machine and he doesnt stop fighting.. he was almost to the end trying trying to save Reach.. he is the last Spartan by the end of the book.. in here, it is a lot of whining.. he has a sister.. he has some weird connection to the artifact.. there is halsey walking around space doing nothing.. she has a daughter... there is a rebel that doesnt do anything to the story really... and so on and so forth.. like many have said. Soap opera bs.. and of course, hollywood turned this into kinda of a girl boss thing. Kai ko'ed the chief and then went to klaus from the originals to tell him she believed the chief lol.. ok then..

and then we have admiral boss babe.. just wasting the random spartan 3 recruits lives

Wait what? Klaus saying spartan 3s are his life work.. but they dont have any augmentation.. just scared kids.. of course perez just joined in and it is better than everyone..

notice when they break the code to enter door, it is just the girls? Halsey, halsey daughter and the rebel... all women.. just the women.. at least they made the villain a woman and not just klaus, the white bad man.

Anyway...