Tag Archives: Olwen Fouéré

Halo: Halo and Season 2 – TV Review

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TL;DR – It was a season of highs and lows, but it ended in a wave of potential.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

Master Chief looks up to the Halo.

Halo Review –

Well, we have reached the end of Halo’s sophomore season, and oh, do I have a lot to say. It was a wild swing from impressive to frustrating as we both rose above the mess of Season One while also falling back into the same problems. In today’s review, we will first tackle the season finale, the titular Halo, before looking at the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, the conflict between Humanity and the Covenant is coming to a conflagration. The main Covenant Fleet has chased Makee (Charlie Murphy) and the Arbiter (Viktor Åkerblom) to a non-descript solar system, except for what is hidden orbiting around it. After being tipped off by the infiltrated Cortana (Jen Taylor and Christina Bennington), Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) implements her plan to wipe out the fleet, even if it means taking every Earth spaceship with them. Parangosky knows what is in the middle of this system, and it is better to destroy it than let the Covenant get it. But it would be a shame if the very dead on Reach Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) turned out to be alive, the one person that can hold Parangosky and Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) to account. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Halo: Onyx – TV Review

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TL;DR – Alas, we have started to fall back on some of the previous problems that plagued the series.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

John stalks his prey.

Halo Review –

If there is one thing this new season of Halo has done, it has been to refocus what was a pretty meandering Season One. There were some series highs in both Visegrad and Reach that had me profoundly happy that the show had found its feet. However, since then, alarm bells have been ringing, and I am afraid that this week will be no different.  

So to set the scene, we open with Talia Perez (Cristina Rodlo) as a new recruit to the next wave of Spartans as she jumps out of a transport with her team to take down a Covenant Cruiser. Everyone dies, but thankfully, this is just a simulation led by Kai (Kate Kennedy), who we discovered last week threw her lot in with Colonel James Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana Azmi). But while they hide away on Onyx, a ship flies through their detection network, a ship with Dr Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (Natascha McElhone) and a giant of a man full of scars (Pablo Schreiber). Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Halo: Sanctuary – TV Review

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TL;DR – It’s an intriguing start to the season, even if it flounders a bit in the middle.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

Master Chief gets Cortana removed from his head.

Halo Review –

Back in the first season of Halo, we got an interesting story that actively went in different directions from the Halo series it was adapting. Some of it worked, some of it was a mess. I was not all that attached to the original story, so I didn’t mind the story changes. However, since then, while I might not have a greater love of the story, I have found a great love of the Halo games itself, which made me wonder how they would take the story from there.

So to set the scene, on Sanctuary in the Branta System, a platoon of Spartans are helping with a particularly difficult civilian evacuation. This is made even more so when a Covenant cruiser is spotted on an intercept course. It should be a routine evacuation mission, bar the fact that maybe the Covenant are already on the planet, and maybe Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) is all by himself outside of comms range. Well, it is a good thing he is a super soldier. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – Mandy

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TL;DR – This is a film that is all about the style, and if you dig it you find it to be one of the best movies ever, or like me you if you don’t, well then it turns out to be a dull frustrating mess

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit thing, but you don’t need to stay for it

Warning – There are several scenes that have extensive strobe effects

Mandy. Image Credit: RLJE Films

Review –

Style is something that can make or break a film for people, it is one of the reasons that you tend to see a lot of dull monotonous films pumped out, desperately trying to be something for everyone. So in this regards, I deeply respect Mandy, for in no way playing it safe, and committing to its style like there is no tomorrow with a full line-up of sex, violence, and nudity. Unfortunately, the style did not gel with me at all, so while I appreciate what the film was trying to do, I cannot say I found it to be a particularly good film at all.

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