Forum:Hang on to your helmet!

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So, recently came two news items that excited me.

The first was the official confirmation of the existence of Cortana yesterday, Microsoft's answer to Siri. I have to saw, I was impressed by the teaser trailer. Not because I have the capacity to support a Third-Generation Smart AI in MJOLNIR or an Android, but because it perfectly captures how I think the robot uprising will look like in its opening stages. Trust me, the Terminator isn't going to turn up at your door asking about John Connor. It'll already know where he is.

But I digress.

The other thing was apparent confirmation at last that Ridley Scott and David Zucker are actually producing a "digital feature project". Just as exciting to me is the claim that Battlestar Galactica director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who has also collaborated with Steven Spielberg, is in talks to direct it. I was a huge fan of the rebooted BSG back in the day, though I will be hard pressed to find an ending as infuriating as "It actually was God all along lol Jimmy Hendrix". Moreover, he's also worked on Heroes, another show that I initially loved until the second season got weird, and The Pillars of the Earth, an adaptation of a book I loved which I still haven't seen yet but dearly want to. Scott, the producer, director and cowriter of the original Alien movie, Blade Runner, and Prometheus, just to name a few influences on Halo (I count Prometheus. Did you see the Didact?) was rumoured to be working on a Halo Movie a while ago, which was denied pretty solidly at the time. Does the fact that it will apparently get only a digital distribution mean that we're getting something akin to another Forward Unto Dawn? I liked FUD, but splitting it up into episodes made it feel weirdly paced, at least to me. More importantly, what does "a surgically-enhanced super soldier who is not Master Chief" mean? Is this going to be Spartan Ops 2, or, as I'm hoping, is this going to focus on older, more experienced Spartan-II or III characters, like Blue Team? And, of course, does the fact that this story was broken by a news website that specialises in Hollywood news make it any less credible?

Opinions? Worries? Theories?

Comments

Yeah, is it available for Apple-based tech, like iPods and iPhones? --Xamikaze330 [Transmission|Commencing] 22:43, 2 April 2014 (EDT)Xamikaze330

I don't think it is. If I'm not wrong, the feature is internally attached to the mobile OS, and is not just an app that is cross-compatible with other mobile OS. — subtank 08:49, 3 April 2014 (EDT)

I have little to say about Cortana: it's a nifty feature but I doubt it would be of any use to me. I'm still waiting for a holographic avatar friend though.

As for the supposed Halo film, I would say that Ridley Scott would not be the best director for the film. He tends to do it his way and deviates largely from source materials. This can be good and bad for the franchise: it is good such that his directorial style will give a new perspective on things, just like how he did with Robin Hood and Prometheus, but it is also bad in the sense that it will not hold true to what people would come to expect (case study, the Xenomorph connection in Prometheus). In any case, I would still prefer Neill Blomkamp to any grizzled director/producer when it comes to a Halo film. — subtank 08:49, 3 April 2014 (EDT)

My bet is on Gabriel Thorne.Sith-venator Wavingstrider (Commlink) 09:03, 3 April 2014 (EDT)

Might be Palmer.— subtank 09:11, 3 April 2014 (EDT)

Might be, but my money is on our star rookie. They grow up so fast. Leader of Majestic already.Sith-venator Wavingstrider (Commlink) 09:16, 3 April 2014 (EDT)

Honestly, my advice to them would be to stay as far from Spartans as you could, and expand on the "regulars". ODST is still my favourite story for that reason - and the fact that comparing the ODSTs with how they otherwise stack up against Spartans, it makes the Spartans feel all the more legendary. Portraying Spartans as "relatable" undermines the point of them. I'm fairly sure non-Spartan servicemen and servicewomen must get at least some kind of augmentations - standardizing people from a range of planetary conditions and all that. Plus, I find it hard to believe that at least some of the medical advances made in the original ORION Project, its 25th century reboot, and S-II and III didn't filter down in a safer form to less expensive warfighters. You can refer to Spartans as mythical figures, play with how people react - awe, derision, skepticism, etc. Maybe even have one or two show up to overawe the characters and audience, or in a twist, reveal that a character we'd dismissed as anything special was an undercover or former Spartan the whole time. If I was going to use an existing show as a model, I would use Stargate - focus it on a small expeditionary team, probably ONI, working in a complex political environment to destabilize the enemy. Hell, give us some awesome Jackal collaborators! Brute mercs! Elite zealots! Grunt rebellions! Innies running guns back and forth! Naval battles! Ronon!

I miss Stargate. -- Qura 'Morhek ^{The Autocrat of Morheka} 00:38, 4 April 2014 (EDT)

I agree on all counts. "Humanizing" Spartans, in the sense of making them act like ordinary humans, undermines the Spartans (at least the IIs and IIIs); this is something most writers apart from Nylund haven't seemed to get. It's also why I don't particularly like the premise of the S-IV program; I can see why they called them Spartans, for both in-universe and real-world reasons, but I'm still unsure whether 343 is trying to portray them as worthy successors to the IIs and IIIs, or merely glorified ODSTs riding on the fame of their predecessors. I'd definitely like to see more exploration of the augmentations normal troops get and UNSC medical tech in general. So far we've had the occasional hint at major advances but most of the time "normal" humans in the Haloverse are depicted as indistinguishable from the baseline. And for once, it'd be great if they built stories on something else than the standard Halo story mold involving the Forerunner MacGuffin of the week which must be destroyed/deactivated/stolen to prevent the Covenant from using it. Not saying they should never use it again, but it's gotten a little stale over the years. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 00:58, 4 April 2014 (EDT)

Agreed. With the both the Spartans and the Forerunners, the word that springs to mind is "saturation". Too much exposure removes that mystique that made us fall in love with the characters or concepts in the first place. -- Qura 'Morhek ^{The Autocrat of Morheka} 01:16, 4 April 2014 (EDT)

The point about saturation also applies to the Infinity and its crew. I get how much 343i must love their megaship and the people onboard, but I don't think it was the right decision to basically wipe the slate clean of everything and everyone that used to come before and thrust their new cast to the center stage. I mean, we do see Halsey and Hood but so far, Blue Team and the Spartan-IIIs are virtually swept under the rug after their underwhelming reintroduction in Glasslands (would like to see Buck and co. return too). Still, it seems 343i has at least started to get the memo, given the reintroduction of the Arbiter in Escalation (despite the fact he barely does anything but tag along while the Infinity crew remain as the stars of the show) and their stated future plans for the character. What makes this worse is the fact that 343's characters are often the unfortunate victims of bad writing; the best example is none other than the "fan favorite" Renegade Shepard expy Palmer. She has the potential to be a decent character but it's as if the writers are trying their damnedest to outweigh her "good" traits (which are most prominently showcased in the hagiographical Spartan Assault) with obnoxious ones (like her bully mindset and paranoia toward her intellectual superiors, most obviously Halsey), which are nonetheless portrayed by the narrative as if not admirable, at least acceptable. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 04:28, 4 April 2014 (EDT)