The first time I watched Forward Unto Dawn, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. My only exposure to Halo media was the multiplayer function in Halo 2.Despite that, FUD presented me with a story that made me care about the characters, it gave me enough information to understand some of what was going on, but not enough that I felt like I knew everything -- which I'm assuming was the goal, as the perspective we're given is that of the cadets at this officers' academy who also don't know the full story either.Some might call the buildup 'slow' or 'boring', but as a storyteller I can appreciate taking the time for your viewers to make some kind of connection to the characters before you throw them into the action and the chaos.FUD did a very good job of introducing The Master Chief, easily the most iconic character in the Halo franchise. As said before, I knew absolutely nothing about Halo when I started out, but the Chief's first appearance still had me jumping in my seat. It was very exciting, because even I knew that was when it was about to get REAL.I enjoyed the final confrontation with the Hunters at the end, and the appearance of the iconic Halo theme in the background when Master Chief defeated the last one. It was very dramatic, but in a good way.I also liked the inclusion of the other two Spartan-IIs we see in FUD - Fred-104 and Kelly-087. While not given much screen time, it's a nice nod to people who have been fans for a lot longer, who would recognize them.My one qualm is the death of Cadet Silva, as its only purpose seemed to be to inspire Cadet Lasky. Maybe that was just me. My honest rating -- 9.5/10

I could watch the movie, but someone who is not a player of the game... I don't want to see children playing at anything, let alone soldiers. The actors are too young, maybe 18 at best, or least they appear to be. The demographic seems to be steered to teenagers and high school students, and in that respect I find the movie just fine. Anyone older than 20 should reconsider their movie choice however. This is not a stand alone movie, I'm not sure if it was ever intended for that purpose. If you are young and a fan of the games then I'm sure you will enjoy this. If you happen to be over 20, browsing Netflix for a random action movie, pass. Decent CGI, not horrific, just very specific demographic.

In my opinion , this movie/web-series has been over-rated by Halo fans and in the end it will be to everyone's detriment. If Microsoft/343 Studios get the impression they can release something like this and hit one out of the park we will just see more of it in the future.As a Halo and Movie fan I believe this would be a shame. The source material (the Halo universe) has the potential to bring something truly great to the big screen but this is far from it.I won't go into plot, as it has been covered in many reviews, but I will say it is clichéd. The military boot-camp stereotypes have all been done before and with much more depth. These characters seemed one-dimensional and lackluster development left me indifferent to their fates. Some of the dialogue was corny to the point of cringe-worthy and the actors (including some of the adults) lacked the presence to pull off their roles and really set the scene.Given the relatively small budget some of these things can be understood but the hackneyed plot is not one of them. The special effects were good, despite said constraints, but too many "bullet time" segments bogged the action down. All in all I was disappointed by Halo 4: Forward Until Dawn and I (like many others I'm sure) am still praying for a Blomkamp/Jackson treatment of the source material.I do not believe that 10/10 rankings of an obviously flawed series/movie will get us there.

I've never played Halo so I was going into this movie somewhat blind not knowing what to expect. It started out ordinary enough with young cadets in a military school introducing themselves and stating why they joined. Much to my surprise, the wide swath of kids (teens really) had varying reasons for joining that extended beyond blood lust or just seeing how cool it would be to kill. That, in itself, was a big notch of respectability in my eyes. I expected a lot of HOO RAH type speech and antics and I didn't see that.Furthermore, I looked for the typical teen movie clichés, because these were teens after all. Although it wasn't a high school setting, I was looking for the ultra popular beauty queen, the muscle-headed jock, the dweeb and the supporting cast. Fortunately, those characters never appeared. Halo proved to be a deeper, layered, better thought out film than I expected. It could be considered slow, but I thought it was right on point. Very nicely done.