Am I the only one not liking FUD?

Community Halo Universe
1

Forward Unto Dawn, to me, is a bunch of spoiled brats who got into a military space academy because of their family legacies. The protagonist is against war and is insecure. He’s surrounded by people, who are his teammates, and are lead by a stereotypical black woman. They go on training missions that strain their… ability to deal with their hormones. Some Covenant land, one walks around like Godzilla outside their hallway, and everyone dies in 20 seconds except for 5 spoiled brats and the Chief. Why is the Chief prowling around in locker rooms? Episode 5 more fighting will have more slow-mo running and shooting at cartoon aliens some big decision will be made etc etc.

This series visually is great, don’t get me wrong, this series does have some good qualities definitely. I feel that the bite size segments they go for are way too limiting. You can’t get attached enough during each episode to what’s happening. I love Halo so much, but the universe can’t carry this series alone for me.

I really don’t like the characters, especially the protagonist. He’s like a whiny, insecure, foolish, belligerent, physically unfit kid who would never get in the academy if his parents didn’t fight on X planet during Y war. All the other characters are shallow, I don’t even know their names. There is Lasky, the chick from Narnia, the other eastern european guy, the redhead, the russian blonde, the stereotypical asian guy, frankie the space janitor, The Chief, and everyone else… What is happening? Who am I supposed to be caring about? What’s at stake? Wha…

This is my biggest beef.

The characters should help explain the universe, not the universe help explain the characters.

The characters should help explain the universe, not the universe help explain the characters.

The characters should help explain the universe, not the universe help explain the characters.

I’m gonna be blunt, I couldn’t care less about any of these characters. None of them are interesting or have any depth. This is a character story I guess about Lasky overcoming his fear and the Chief being a young badass. That’s good and all, but it’s not the best direction to take.

I was really looking forward to this series to give insight into the Halo universe more and how the Covenant play into things, what the UNSC is, how humanity is doing, you know, being in another universe. THE FIRST TWO AND A HALF EPISODES ARE ABOUT KIDS IN A TRAINING FACILITY. That’s half an hour + of watching these people do… things.

I don’t know why this kind of direction was taken, the bite sized episodes. For hype most likely, but in the end it’s just a facade of Halo-ness live action that people’s eyes get glazed over when they watch it just because it’s Halo. I mean come on Landfall was 20x more interesting to watch than this schlock. Sure it was just a short action battle, but you got so much out of it.

This is what you get out of it:

1.) Humans suit up to fight aliens from other worlds
2.) Future military stuff is cool
3.) ODSTs are badass
4.) Brutes are terrifying beasts that would tear apart civilians
5.) Death looms everywhere, and could be imminent at any moment
6.) Marines are heroic men and women fighting scary aliens
7.) Humans are losing
8.) Deaths are visceral, you can be impaled by tons of spikes, smashed by hammers, or blown up by green bombs etc
9.) These men are selfless, (odst sniper)
10.) The Chief is our savior, but isn’t able to help yet
11.) The Covenant will win if things don’t change

Forward Unto Dawn:

1.) Kids are- whatever this doesn’t even matter

Sure you can argue you get that too from FUD, but imagine if the Landfall actually had a protagonist we cared about in the battle with maybe 2/3 of his buddies. That would BLOW AWAY FUD into a million pieces.

We see his training, like the amazing ODST trailer. We see what he fights for, some of his buddies are killed in action, he becomes grizzled through war, he grows as a character, he deals with loss and suffering, but the heroic ability to keep going, maybe bumps into the chief or spartans. I mean my God people actually care about Lasky and the Narnia chick?

I’m gonna close this out real quick by saying, spoiled brat teenagers having no concept of what is going on or what is at stake is not interesting. You can dress them in whatever Halo uniforms you want, or have them shout whatever cliche roman sayings you want, but it’s still gonna be lame.

This^ is all IMO of course. Props to the crew for making this, but man the design choices are baffling. Why not see the Chief’s childhood up until Halo 4? Marine squads that tie into the game? ODSTs that tie into the game? But instead they went with kids…

2

FuD is fupping AMAZING! so pumped for HALO 4!!!

3

Nah, I didn’t like it one bit either. I personally don’t like Halo as live action, it comes off as tacky. They should’ve just went with CG, the Halo Wars cutscenes were beautiful.

4

It’s just you. The show is amazing.

5

EDIT: Dear god the lag on this forum! My reply timed out multiple times.

6

> It’s just you. The show is amazing.

Explain.

7

I think it’s awesome. I really don’t have to have a long response for this simply you are one of few who actually don’t like. I find none of it tacky or cheesy. Yah, it took a little bit for he story to get going, but it’s definitely paying off because all the anticipation is being executed properly.

8

EDIT: Forum latency, wow.

9

EDIT: More forum lag!

10

I love it, but to each his own.

11

It’s called set up. It does go on a little bit longer than necessary because obviously watching Chief go ape on helpless covenant is more entertaining than them talking and going about their lives. But hopefully you’ll get your carnage in episode 5. Btw, I have a friend that’s in a really prestigious screenwriting program, and she says that most of the video game writers in training, (I think it’s called interactive media) are really weird, so that may be the source of your design problem. A lot of writers want to be artsy with their movies and be the next Orson Welles with Citizen Kane but don’t realize that production values have really changed. I still think that the series is enjoyable to a pretty high degree, I don’t know if they have enough of a budget to accommodate the level of high action you put forward, I think that’s the biggest issue. They just want to amp up hype for the game, not make a blockbuster film. It’s cheaper to do the drama stuff and have a short peak of action that’ll keep the viewers interested and “glazed over” as you said.

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For what its worth, I did find some of MCs lines a bit over the top. And character development has been lacking. But I don’t think people should necessarily look at FUD and judge it as if its a full length feature film. I mean, for a Youtube web series of all things, and one which was so rushed it was being written as it was being produced, I’d say it aint half bad.

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> <mark>I was really looking forward to this series to give insight into the Halo universe more and how the Covenant play into things</mark>

That was never at any point really a focus of the series. We already know a lot from the books. FuD was to show how Chief inspired Lasky to become the figure he is in Halo 4. There wouldn’t be a whole lot that could be given insight to in the Haloverse in a Live Action Web Series that couldn’t be done better in a book.

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> It’s called set up. It does go on a little bit longer than necessary because obviously watching Chief go ape on helpless covenant is more entertaining than them talking and going about their lives. But hopefully you’ll get your carnage in episode 5. Btw, I have a friend that’s in a really prestigious screenwriting program, and she says that most of the video game writers in training, (I think it’s called interactive media) are really weird, so that may be the source of your design problem. A lot of writers want to be artsy with their movies and be the next Orson Welles with Citizen Kane but don’t realize that production values have really changed. I still think that the series is enjoyable to a pretty high degree, I don’t know if they have enough of a budget to accommodate the level of high action you put forward, I think that’s the biggest issue. They just want to amp up hype for the game, not make a blockbuster film. It’s cheaper to do the drama stuff and have a short peak of action that’ll keep the viewers interested and “glazed over” as you said.

It is called set up, but half of the entire series is set up. A lot of the characters just flat out die or are just scared and along for the ride. I would be happy if the series had just 2 big battles, all out carnage fatigues the audience after a while and loses its impact after X amount of time.

Just… why kids. Why? Can anyone answer this? Is it to appeal to younger audiences or the pre-teens? There’s a shot in the 2nd episode of them just sitting in the forest, picking their nails as flies buzz around them. Sums up how exciting they are pretty accurately.

I guess I am being a bit picky, but following one ODST through his life would be amazing. His childhood, his father and mother maybe dying, him being troubled as a kid and having a guardian figure push him into the military, he grows into a young eager but not very experienced soldier, things happen, the audience learns things about the universe the entire way. He loses friends, learns things about himself, changes inside, feels like quitting but won’t. Maybe in his last moments the Chief saves him and watches him die. Then the audience is like wow I’m going to be that hero in the game. I don’t know… instead we have a siren going off and a kid mimicking its noise into the ear of another kid.

15

> I really don’t like the characters, especially the protagonist. He’s like a whiny, insecure, foolish, belligerent, physically unfit kid who would never get in the academy if his parents didn’t fight on X planet during Y war. All the other characters are shallow, I don’t even know their names. There is Lasky, the chick from Narnia, the other eastern european guy, the redhead, the russian blonde, the stereotypical asian guy, frankie the space janitor, The Chief, and everyone else… What is happening? Who am I supposed to be caring about? What’s at stake? Wha…
>
>
> I don’t know why this kind of direction was taken, the bite sized episodes. For hype most likely, but in the end it’s just a facade of Halo-ness live action that people’s eyes get glazed over when they watch it just because it’s Halo. I mean come on Landfall was 20x more interesting to watch than this schlock. Sure it was just a short action battle, but you got so much out of it.
>
> This is what you get out of it:
>
> 1.) Humans suit up to fight aliens from other worlds
> 2.) Future military stuff is cool
> 3.) ODSTs are badass
> 4.) Brutes are terrifying beasts that would tear apart civilians
> 5.) Death looms everywhere, and could be imminent at any moment
> 6.) Marines are heroic men and women fighting scary aliens
> 7.) Humans are losing
> 8.) Deaths are visceral, you can be impaled by tons of spikes, smashed by hammers, or blown up by green bombs etc
> 9.) These men are selfless, (odst sniper)
> 10.) The Chief is our savior, but isn’t able to help yet
> 11.) The Covenant will win if things don’t change

I disagree with you…for multiple reasons…
This is what you get out of it:
The point of this is to introduce you to the universe and to halo 4.

  1. This is the flashback of thomas lasky, who is going to be a big part of halo four.

  2. This is what was happening right before the humans got attacked by the covenant and when they first got attacked. By this I mean, the unsc is at war with insurrectionists. These cadets are the future of the unsc, and they’re being trained to hate the insurrectionists. Thomas doesnt know why and he doesn’t agree with it. In episode three you can see that his brother seems to be changing his mind as well.

  3. You find out about the secret spartan project, intended to combat the insurrectionists

  4. You find out that cortana is losing her -Yoink- while chief is in cryo sleep.
    your arguments makes it seem like you haven’t even watched the show yet.

  5. thats pretty much all so far folks

And …I don’t remember lasky being whiny, or unfit…None of them are unfit. the asian was doing backflips while vickers was doing hand stand pushups…??? Again, the things you’re saying make me think you’ve barely watched the show.

16

> > It’s called set up. It does go on a little bit longer than necessary because obviously watching Chief go ape on helpless covenant is more entertaining than them talking and going about their lives. But hopefully you’ll get your carnage in episode 5. Btw, I have a friend that’s in a really prestigious screenwriting program, and she says that most of the video game writers in training, (I think it’s called interactive media) are really weird, so that may be the source of your design problem. A lot of writers want to be artsy with their movies and be the next Orson Welles with Citizen Kane but don’t realize that production values have really changed. I still think that the series is enjoyable to a pretty high degree, I don’t know if they have enough of a budget to accommodate the level of high action you put forward, I think that’s the biggest issue. They just want to amp up hype for the game, not make a blockbuster film. It’s cheaper to do the drama stuff and have a short peak of action that’ll keep the viewers interested and “glazed over” as you said.
>
> It is called set up, but half of the entire series is set up. A lot of the characters just flat out die or are just scared and along for the ride. I would be happy if the series had just 2 big battles, all out carnage fatigues the audience after a while and loses its impact after X amount of time.
>
> Just… why kids. Why? Can anyone answer this? Is it to appeal to younger audiences or the pre-teens? There’s a shot in the 2nd episode of them just sitting in the forest, picking their nails as flies buzz around them. Sums up how exciting they are pretty accurately.
>
> I guess I am being a bit picky, but following one ODST through his life would be amazing. His childhood, his father and mother maybe dying, him being troubled as a kid and having a guardian figure push him into the military, he grows into a young eager but not very experienced soldier, things happen, the audience learns things about the universe the entire way. He loses friends, learns things about himself, changes inside, feels like quitting but won’t. Maybe in his last moments the Chief saves him and watches him die. Then the audience is like wow I’m going to be that hero in the game. I don’t know… instead we have a siren going off and a kid mimicking its noise into the ear of another kid.

Yeah I totally agree with you. But I think you answered your own question. It is to appeal to younger audiences and preteens because that’s the main audience for the game. And they have all the different races and such because, like you see in most tv shows, they try to appeal across all demographics.

As a substitute for trying really hard to evoke emotion in the audience, (the plot you described), they just kill off characters because the writers apparently are in the school of thought where killing characters makes the story more deep. And to most of the people buying the game, that probably is. For example, I just watched “The Kings Speech” in my History of Motion Picture Class. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it, it’s really good, very touching. However, most of the people in my class (younger audience) thought it was boring. Forward Unto Dawn is just another example of where the film industry is going. It’s risky to go with a plot like you described. It could be amazing if they do it right, but it takes really good directors and writers nowadays to make truly meaningful movies that still appeal to most people. The dialogue throughout the series was pretty bland, so clearly they went with the “safe” option.

17

> > > It’s called set up. It does go on a little bit longer than necessary because obviously watching Chief go ape on helpless covenant is more entertaining than them talking and going about their lives. But hopefully you’ll get your carnage in episode 5. Btw, I have a friend that’s in a really prestigious screenwriting program, and she says that most of the video game writers in training, (I think it’s called interactive media) are really weird, so that may be the source of your design problem. A lot of writers want to be artsy with their movies and be the next Orson Welles with Citizen Kane but don’t realize that production values have really changed. I still think that the series is enjoyable to a pretty high degree, I don’t know if they have enough of a budget to accommodate the level of high action you put forward, I think that’s the biggest issue. They just want to amp up hype for the game, not make a blockbuster film. It’s cheaper to do the drama stuff and have a short peak of action that’ll keep the viewers interested and “glazed over” as you said.
> >
> > It is called set up, but half of the entire series is set up. A lot of the characters just flat out die or are just scared and along for the ride. I would be happy if the series had just 2 big battles, all out carnage fatigues the audience after a while and loses its impact after X amount of time.
> >
> > Just… why kids. Why? Can anyone answer this? Is it to appeal to younger audiences or the pre-teens? There’s a shot in the 2nd episode of them just sitting in the forest, picking their nails as flies buzz around them. Sums up how exciting they are pretty accurately.
> >
> > I guess I am being a bit picky, but following one ODST through his life would be amazing. His childhood, his father and mother maybe dying, him being troubled as a kid and having a guardian figure push him into the military, he grows into a young eager but not very experienced soldier, things happen, the audience learns things about the universe the entire way. He loses friends, learns things about himself, changes inside, feels like quitting but won’t. Maybe in his last moments the Chief saves him and watches him die. Then the audience is like wow I’m going to be that hero in the game. I don’t know… instead we have a siren going off and a kid mimicking its noise into the ear of another kid.
>
> Yeah I totally agree with you. But I think you answered your own question. It is to appeal to younger audiences and preteens because that’s the main audience for the game. And they have all the different races and such because, like you see in most tv shows, they try to appeal across all demographics.
>
> As a substitute for trying really hard to evoke emotion in the audience, (the plot you described), they just kill off characters because the writers apparently are in the school of thought where killing characters makes the story more deep. And to most of the people buying the game, that probably is. For example, I just watched “The Kings Speech” in my History of Motion Picture Class. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it, it’s really good, very touching. However, most of the people in my class (younger audience) thought it was boring. Forward Unto Dawn is just another example of where the film industry is going. It’s risky to go with a plot like you described. It could be amazing if they do it right, but it takes really good directors and writers nowadays to make truly meaningful movies that still appeal to most people. The dialogue throughout the series was pretty bland, so clearly they went with the “safe” option.

one of the things they’ve been trying to show about the human-covenant war, ever since halo 1 is the toll it has taken. The covenant kill everyone, that’s part of halo

18

It ain’t that bad but it couLd be better i think halo would be better as a anime series not live action

19

yeah i was really dissapionted in it…corny dialogue, slow moving story, and waaaay to many characters trying to be developed to feel an emotional tie to any of them. Special effects have been amazing, but to me has been wasted potential

as a side not i downgraded my LE after seeing the last episode…im not spending my money just to get a streaming code for a movie i dont like. Its too bad too cause i really WANTED to like it and give 343 my money… :confused:

20

You may not like it because you are expecting a “Man vs Enemy” type of story, where a guy wants to overcome his adversary, primarily by becoming more badass than him.

This isn’t one of those kinds of stories.