Halo 4 launch trailer (David Fincher, Tim Miller) premiering Oct. 18th

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/59174

Saw this over at aintitcool.com of all places.

It’s an ad, so you don’t get a sense of deep backstory, but what that footage does show is how great the universe of Halo can look when translated into another art form.

Storytelling is storytelling. Games have been steadily veering away from monotonous repetition and more into myth building. In other words, they’re immersive (storytelling) experiences. Reading a comic isn’t like reading a novel, but that doesn’t mean comics can’t be art. Same with video games.

Anyway, that’s my two cents on the matter. I stand by my prediction that the next wave of giant summer films are going to be movie versions of these high profile games.

In the meantime, Halo 4 hits Xbox in a few short weeks. Prepare thy geekselves!
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derFeef said:
I read that now a few times. What acting? There is not much to act here...
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Oh please, they could've at least put some effort into setting up the scenes and give an idea that spartans are humans and not just robotic looking kids. It's not just the real actor stuff, but also the CG scenes. It just doesn't work for me. It looks unremarkable and dull. Which would be ok for a scene of a full movie, but as a trailer it simply left me unimpressed.
 
The hell was that about?
Anyway really didn't like the arm scars and everything so it makes me very uncomfortable.

The actual trailer was pointless drivel though. I don't have a problem with doing something live action, but end of the day - focus on the game in hand, not a bunch of stuff that could fit Halo 1's marketing campaign.

We know who the Master Chief is - why spend so long focusing on this 'scan' and not focusing on the new fight he has in front of him? Strange decisions.


I don't understand how this is seen as 'beneficial' in anyway; how does this get produced from a marketing strategy?
I've only played 3 (shoot me); but I cared more about the Chief/Cortana in the present than anything in the past; its the current relationships that define the series. I hope they don't go too backwards; this seems to indicate that it might.

Odd stuff.
 
grimshawish said:
The hell was that about?
Anyway really didn't like the arm scars and everything so it makes me very uncomfortable.

The actual trailer was pointless drivel though. I don't have a problem with doing something live action, but end of the day - focus on the game in hand, not a bunch of stuff that could fit Halo 1's marketing campaign.

We know who the Master Chief is - why spend so long focusing on this 'scan' and not focusing on the new fight he has in front of him? Strange decisions.


I don't understand how this is seen as 'beneficial' in anyway; how does this get produced from a marketing strategy?
I've only played 3 (shoot me); but I cared more about the Chief/Cortana in the present than anything in the past; its the current relationships that define the series. I hope they don't go too backwards; this seems to indicate that it might.

Odd stuff.
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build up. the whole thing is setting up the reveal of the didact.
 
Sai-kun said:
Funny wording, because that is the new fight standing in front of him ;P
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Oh I know; but they could have spent much more time on it.
It might have worked if there was a better tag line than the cheesy 'Ancient Evil Awakes' but am not too sure.

I just mean I'd prefer that to be the focus of the trailer - instead its all a bit 'odd' and the final scene wasn't enough to give me a sense of threat/danger that I think they wanted to go for.
 
my thoughts cross posted, seems the more active thread for trailer discussion...



not what i was expecting but cool nonetheless. did not anticipate our first view of the didact. by scanning, i had assumed we'd see the forward unto dawn "scanned" ala the infinity ship from the e3 demo - possibly admist the covenant boarding action from the first level. instead we get a glimpse of chief captured and scanned by the didact himself, possibly seeing the "evils" of humanity in chiefs life. a judgement of sorts? also, interesting to see that he appears to share, at the very least, some design elements with the knights.
 
I dug it. A bit meandering perhaps - people who haven't ready the books will be scratching their heads at most of it. But between this and the Forward Unto Dawn series, it's clear to me that they could easily branch off into movies/TV and be successful about it.
 
op_ivy said:
build up. the whole thing is setting up the reveal of the didact.
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Then it's very poorly done. If you play the games at all you already know what's up MC's backstory, and if you are somehow coming into Halo 4 and don't know that stuff you're probably not going to care either way. Serving as a buildup is fairly pointless to convey in a commercial; instead of serving as an ad to show off Halo 4, we mostly saw boring backstory that even someone who only plays Halo once on release knows about. And if you somehow aren't familiar with his backstory, the commercial actually seems like it could be confusing. This would be an interesting video for fans, as a mass-market commercial I don't think it's very good. I continue to feel that their marketing and messaging on this game in general has been pretty poor.
 
Awesome trailer, so hyped for this. Halo will be the reason I buy the 720 too, one of my favorite series to be created last generation.

EDIT: Meh, who cares.
 
I thought it was pretty decent. Though, I do admit I am a sucker for anything that gives a nod to Fall of Reach.

Now, about this gameplay trailer... :)
 
On the scanned trailer... That's Linda being called and walking through the door to the augmentation room

They call out 058 before she steps through

Might be slow
 
SailorDaravon said:
Then it's very poorly done. If you play the games at all you already know what's up MC's backstory, and if you are somehow coming into Halo 4 and don't know that stuff you're probably not going to care either way. Serving as a buildup is fairly pointless to convey in a commercial; instead of serving as an ad to show off Halo 4, we mostly saw boring backstory that even someone who only plays Halo once on release knows about. And if you somehow aren't familiar with his backstory, the commercial actually seems like it could be confusing. This would be an interesting video for fans, as a mass-market commercial I don't think it's very good. I continue to feel that their marketing and messaging on this game in general has been pretty poor.
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1) fans know the backstory, but i dont think all the flashbacks were *just* to show masterchiefs backstory. there is a reason why didact is scanning him and that is revealed to him. as i speculated in my post above, maybe didact bases humanities actions towards the spartan program as some sort of judgement. who knows. we'll find out in a few weeks - but this trailer, and what occours was at least unexpected for me, and allows fans a lot of stuff to think about before we get the game proper. so, success.

2) if you arent a fan, your opinion on a full length launch trailer is virtually meaningless to me. if your curious about the series i think this does as good a job as possible of conveying who chief is and introducing without revealing the new adversary of halo 4, in a 2 minute span. could it be confusing too? oh yeah, but as pointed out, with repeat viewing it should be able to be pieced together by anyone. not perfect, but again, thats the challenge with 2 minutes.

3) that isnt the mass market commercial, its well over 2 minutes. maybe the mass market one is just the chief ambushing the knights and the scene with the didact.
 
op_ivy said:
1) fans know the backstory, but i dont think all the flashbacks were *just* to show masterchiefs backstory. there is a reason why didact is scanning him and that is revealed to him. as i speculated in my post above, maybe didact bases humanities actions towards the spartan program as some sort of judgement. who knows. we'll find out in a few weeks - but this trailer, and what occours was at least unexpected for me, and allows fans a lot of stuff to think about before we get the game proper. so, success.

2) if you arent a fan, your opinion on a full length launch trailer is virtually meaningless to me. if your curious about the series i think this does as good a job as possible of conveying who chief is and introducing without revealing the new adversary of halo 4, in a 2 minute span. could it be confusing too? oh yeah, but as pointed out, with repeat viewing it should be able to be pieced together by anyone. not perfect, but again, thats the challenge with 2 minutes.

3) that isnt the mass market commercial, its well over 2 minutes. maybe the mass market one is just the chief ambushing the knights and the scene with the didact.
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I don't think that the trailer conveys information well, if at all to anyone other than hardcore Halo fans. I haven't been following Halo fiction or anything in the slightest since Reach came out, and outside of Halo 4 previews I literally have no clue who the didact even is. I think the whole thing is fairly confusing and put together unless you're already a big Halo fan, I don't see this as being a good introduction at all to people not familiar with it.

And if you want to make the argument that it's not for mass market, as a Halo fan I wasn't impressed at all. The majority of the trailer was spent showing backstory that we've known about for 10 years. MC being scanned for this information may make sense narratively, but that doesn't make for impressive trailer fodder.
 
The Halo buildup is always insane. I really hope that this time the game can capture t´he actual mood of the universe that is portraid in every single other media that deal with Halo.

That said, Forward unto Dawn is fucking amazing. Got me totally hooked for the game. Please god make that 343 made the game with mood like that. PLEASE!!!
 
Are people being ironic, blaming David Fincher? Thought it was Directed by Tim Miller.

Thought it was a really good trailer myself. But i do think it would have served much better, as a random trailer released a month or two ago and not as a launch trailer. But we're still getting our gameplay trailer closer to launch, so no problems i guess.
 
What a terrible trailer :/. I was really expecting MS to knock this out the park and bring some hype back to the series. I love the hype before halo releases but i felt nothing watching that trailer. It's not even in the same league as the other halo trailers.
 
SailorDaravon said:
And if you want to make the argument that it's not for mass market, as a Halo fan I wasn't impressed at all. The majority of the trailer was spent showing backstory that we've known about for 10 years. MC being scanned for this information may make sense narratively, but that doesn't make for impressive trailer fodder.
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i can see your point. its not as emotional charged as some of the better halo live action/cg trailers (believe being my favorite), but i think you do have to commend them for at least making this trailer tied directly to the events of thee game AND not spoiling said major events.
 
Thought it was cool, myself, but I guess I can see how people think it's shit...wait, no, I can't. Maybe not hype-worthy on the level of Halo 2 or Halo 3, but cool, anyway. Wish that MC could actually grip the sides of walls, tumble and roll, and 180°-turn in-game like the combat sequence at the end.
 
AdventureRacing said:
What a terrible trailer :/. I was really expecting MS to knock this out the park and bring some hype back to the series. I love the hype before halo releases but i felt nothing watching that trailer. It's not even in the same league as the other halo trailers.
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If you read the books you would have been hyped. It showed alot of stuff from Fall of Reach.
 
AdventureRacing said:
What a terrible trailer :/. I was really expecting MS to knock this out the park and bring some hype back to the series. I love the hype before halo releases but i felt nothing watching that trailer. It's not even in the same league as the other halo trailers.
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Yes, because no one is hyped for Halo 4.
 
The point is "this" seems a "high budget" leaked cinematic of near the end in Halo 4 that makes the player feels something before he can defeat some important final enemy.

But not seems a "selling a game" trailer. Good trailer has to give you want to start, not to end (as with this).

That's why some people do not fit the trailer.
 
Cool imagery and I always love seeing these scenes interpreted in live action but I have to agree that this was the weakest of the live action trailers. I think mostly it was lacking that emotion that all of the other ones seem to have. It felt like a short film that was too short and lacks a real narrative.

EDIT:
MaLDo said:
The point is "this" seems a "high budget" leaked cinematic of near the end in Halo 4 that makes the player feels something before he can defeat some important final enemy.
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Yeah this is what I'm trying to say. It feels like a quick cutscene from the game taken out of context as opposed to anything self contained.
 
Wow, that was surprisingly weak.

Maybe the in your face pathos from previous Halo trailers had me expecting something with a bit more punch.
 
Meh :/

had hoped for something better. I liked the other Live actions more because they were mostly about conveying a certain mood.

This one felt more as if it was a cutscene out of the game but was missing an actual beginning or ending.
 
soulassssns said:
If you read the books you would have been hyped. It showed alot of stuff from Fall of Reach.
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I have no interest in the books and i'd say that is true for the vast majority of people interested in the halo games.

Baconsammy said:
Yes, because no one is hyped for Halo 4.
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Did i say that? I just thought this was MS's chance to really bring the franchise back into the spotlight. This would have been more likely if the trailer was on a similar level to previous ones in the series.
 
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