The Perfect Beginning (Scenes) Picture the scene. Sunset. Legions of Covenant are advancing on a city. The ground rumbles Nothing stands in their way. Suddenly, from the sky, a drop pod slams into the battleline in a huge cloud of dirt and the Chief jumps out, dual SMGs in hand. The Spartan appears to be alone, but then other similar pods begin to land, and several ODSTs charge forwards.
That; in my opinion, is the perfect opening for the film.
I agree. And yet wonder where the cliche is in all of this...
Charlize Theron In Blue Paint (Actor) Whoa, Cortana... though the prospect of seeing Charlize Theron (or some other Hollywood bimb-- er, I mean, actress) verbally whipping the Chief while standing on a holopad in her 'virtual-nude' form is quite appealing, the producers really need to make her with CG tech. Motion capture would be permissible, but real actresses? No. Just no.
Mc must die (Weepy melodrama) If the first movie is good enough for a sequal or trilogy. I think MC should die in the last movie. I can see it now, him paying the ultimate price in order to save humanity. It would be in the same tone as bruce willis' last scene in armeggedon.
One liners (Dialogue) He should have a bunch of one liners or should make horrible puns. It would be like stuntmutt directed it, therefore, it would be awesome!
pop rock bad, classical good (Music) Halo 2 had several good segments ruined by songs by popular bands and the soundtrack had even more tragedy. Some nice instrumentals (from Halo: Combat Evolved and new ones) done by those who did the original music would set the mood for the movie. Adding some Steve Vai solo again like in 2 would be fine, it's just that putting in genres that are popular now takes away from the futuristic feel of the games. Electronic ambience and classically influenced instrumentals will do the trick in setting the right mood.
self sacrifice is so beautiful *teardrop* (Weepy melodrama) After just watching Final Fantasy: The spirits within again. All I have to say is don't overuse the concept of self sacrifice. The formula usually goes like this.
1. team of four or five marines are working together as a unit, kicking ass (see taking names) along with the main character(s)
2. The team is put in a nearly inescapable situation
3. one or two of the team put themselves in a completely inescapable situation to allow the other members to live. This usually invovles a heroic and distracting last stand, a quick repair of crappy equipment that invovles standing in the midst of a bunch of enemies to do so, or setting of a suicidal explosion to take out all of the enemy who happen to be clustered around said suicidal explosive conveinently.
4. One of the surviving members screams "NOOOOOO" dramatically and vows to avenge their death/not let them die in vien/ take all their stuff that they left behind and sell it on ebay.
5 repeat all earlier steps until everyone who HAS to survive (the master chief, johnson, random love intrest girl) are the only ones left.
I realise this plot device was used in the halo books, most notably in first strike with the final lure/dramatic explosion thing. The point is to use it SPARINGLY and use it WELL. or don't use it at all. The books for the most part did it right and used it to teach a lesson. The final fantasy movie mostly did it to get rid of characters after they had ceased amusing the writers.
Meyeselph is correct, the Halo novels and their use of this cliche means it is fair dibs for the movie. BUT don't take it too far! :)
Yodalling. (Dialogue) Don't make the Elites speak in (or be subtitled by) grammatically re-arranged sentences to make them sound alien.
Crap in a hat, it is.
whats wrong with this? (Actor) With Master Chief never revealing his face, why not get the voice in the games to play him..... no one will ever know....
You cant not show MC's face (Not in the face!) As if not show MC's face in the Halo film. You cant have the main character of the film walk around wearing a helmet the whole time. I mean that would just be weird. Even in the Halo novels Master Cheif takes his helmet and armour off a few times. May I remind you that this is a MOVIE, not a video game and it should be treated like a movie. I dont mean that they should go out and get some completely famous actor to play MC and show his face, but if they got an unknown actor, someone who people would actually belive is John-117, and have his face, shown would be great. If the guy stays behind his helmet the whole time then the film will turn character less and emotionless.
the flood (Scenes) (MC kick @$$ and scary situation)
The mc walks down a dark and dank hall way when suddenly a flood form drops from nowhere and the chief who hasnt seen the flood before "oh my God" it hits him his shield depletes and a floodling drops on hi shoulders and penetrates
in pain chief reaches up pops the flood in his fist and then using same fist punches into the flood form and tries to retrieve his fist but cant while the flood form flings its arms about the chief ripps it apart and sees an army of flood behind it pulls out his pistol and says "whos first"
Great Opening sequence (Scenes) Blank screen. stars fade in. blanket of space. camera slowly pans upward, revealing a planet. the planet looks normal: oceans, clouds, and land masses. bottom of the screen: "reach". slowly, as the planet rotates tiny, silent explosions dot the upper atmosphere. as the planet rotates more we see black clouds and more tiny explsions, silent in the vaccum of space.
fade out
Fade in, a normal business street. cars driving in one direction, firetrucks and ambulances head in the other, sirens blaring. behind the firetruck a warthog follows, marines jog in the foreground. muffled explosions are heard. more and more warthogs appear with the occasional rescue vehicle. Camera pans out quickly to reveal a pelican flying overhead in the direction of the action. civilian cars continue to move in the opposite direction. slowly the camera, following the pelican, pans upward to show what is happening: a city in flames, toppled buildings, massive fires, the occasional eruption of an explosion, smoke drifts lazily through the sky, and distant sirens blare. camera continues upward to reveal small explosions in the sky and covenant ships overhead.
fade out.
Slowly, to the halo theme song (monks chanting) letters begin to fade in:
Halo
fade out
Master chief's voice (Actor) I understand that there's a wealth of talent out there that would do a fine job with the voice of the Master Chief, but I would much rather them use the voice from the game. Having said that, I'm afraid they're going to pick someone else that just doesn't feel like the MC.
No Machinima (You're freaking me out) I am worried that they may overlook the "bug" that make machinima good. Machinimas like RedvsBlue depend on it and it would be bad if it was removed.
