Ex-Halo Director Calls Master Chief a Victim

[Geo Da Sponge]

He's abducted at the age of six and is forced to spend the rest of his life killing things. It's worth noting this is before the Covenant war, so he was trained to kill humans. If that's not a victim of the military-industrial complex, I don't know what is.

It's worth noting all the Spartans are socially retarded; anyone who's in the army from the age of six would be. Hence why Master Chief kills a guy just because a superior officer says they should fight.

 

[PixelKing]

No!I want a halo movie!

 

[The Great JT]

He's a victim, all right. A victim of poor character development.

 

[FistsOfTinsel]

All video game characters are poorly developed. Halo and other games just sidestep the issue by avoiding trying to shoehorn character development in to a game that's about shooting aliens.

As far as gripes about him being chosen because he's "lucky" - like others have said, I find that a far more compelling reason than BS about the fulfillment of prophecies, like you see in other games. At least luck (as a post-facto measurement) is something that exists in the real world. I think the luck thing is coming from Larry Niven's stories, anyway. A lot in Halo is inspired by Niven, and one of the characters in his Ringworld series was a woman named Teela Brown, who was the result of aliens either covertly breeding humans over centuries, or just selected statistically (I forget which) to attempt to get a human that was essentially a "lucky rabbits foot" to be included on a dangerous mission. The irony of that choice was that events that happened to be fortunate for Teela were not necessarily those that were fortunate for other crew members.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

He's got an interesting backstory, so before people say, "durr, he's a robot W/ a gun."
Why don't you at least look at some of the backstory... He is a victim of military going mad with power

 

[BonerMacTittyPants]

Oh he's a victim alright.

A victim of over-hyped mediocrity.

And an interesting backstory does NOT suffice for a HUGE LACK of DEPTH this character has.
You can write a 500 page epic of what a highschool jock did in his past, but he will still be a jock.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

What saddens me about this story is that it's living proof that Blomkamp, had the project not fallen through, actually would have made a good movie. From reading this, it sounds like Blomkamp was ready to take the Halo franchise and turn it into something of his own creation, rather than just cop-out a plain, soulless sci-fi action movie like every other director on the planet.

Yeah, I know it's Halo, and I know it's about a space marine killing aliens, but after seeing what Zack Synder did with the Dawn of the Dead franchise, I can't help but feel that a good video game movie is possible. Blomkamp just showed us that he was ready to take a franchise and make it his own, and after seeing District 9, I really hope he does.

I know it's highly unlikely. Forget Blomkamp and forget Halo; I just want to see a director show the world the correct way to make a video game film adaptation.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Right! He's a victim alright. A victim who can jump two times his own fucking height, fall from space and be perfectly fine, and of course, PUNCH TANKS.

 

[VincentX3]

A game is a game.... I guess.
Calling MC a victim is a bit overboard I think.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

Oh, poor superhuman masterchief, who picks bullets out of his teeth with a crowbar.
and he never gets a second chance, what with all those respawns.
Of course he's a victim.

In the film I seriously doubt re-spawns are likely... If you look at the story of Halo he is indeed a victim.

When discussing a games story it's best to forget game-play mechanics.

I think it may just be semi possible he was joking...

No need to take it so seriously.


Anyway, I think this guy is possibly reading too much into a game series but it's possible with the whole masses of backstory shit they did with the books.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

Good to see that Blomkamp actually has read the books. Way to many people know nothing of how must story there is in Halo. Too bad he won't be making the movie then :/

 

[wolfy098]

I would love to see a halo movie

I really need to read the books because they seem really interesting

BTW the Arbiter is so sexy

If they made a Halo movie

(this isn't a flame for once)

Unless they ignored Master Chief it would either Involve him killing loads of creatures...
Which would be predictable

Or he would look like he dies
Still predictable

Or he would really die
At which point they would all be shot by Master Cheif fanatics

It's a lose, lose, Megalose situation

You do know you just destroyed your own argument in your first line? The Blomkamp stated before that MC wouldn't be the central character as he would be too predictable. Instead he'd be "the most important secondary character" which I think could be quite cool. Do it as an ensemble piece, show how the marines react to hordes of aliens and this genetically engineered cyborg death machine.

You know... from the 2nd line onwards I only got MC as Secondary character...
Secondary characters generally back someone else up...
MC does it all himself, so MC 2nd doesn't make sense

 

[monostable]

hey if they can make films of the quality of the ODST live action short, let them make the damn movie

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Umm...I think this guy is giving Halo too much credit. It simply isn't that clever.

I'd certainly like to see his attempt at it though. District 9 was a brilliant film.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

In the books he was certainly a victim at first, but since he kept humans from getting annihilated by a Theocratic Covenant of aliens I would say he's less of a victim and more of a savior.

 

[DayDark]

Oh he's a victim alright.

A victim of over-hyped mediocrity.

And an interesting backstory does NOT suffice for a HUGE LACK of DEPTH this character has.
You can write a 500 page epic of what a highschool jock did in his past, but he will still be a jock.

A jock he may be, but then you will have 500 pages that defines, him. Thus making him one pretty deep character.

Don't blame someone for being skin deep, if you wont look any deeper.

 

[HobbesMkii]

A victim? I always read him as the enforcer of the Military-Industrial complex. I mean, I get that it's sad because he's been kidnapped by the government, but it's not like he seems to resent it in any way. He seems perfectly happy to blow the hell out of all the USNC's enemies. He even attacks the Arbiter in the beginning of Halo 3 (despite all the USNC marines who are apparently totally cool with the Arbiter, indicating a lack of danger) because he's bought the Government line too well.

 

[Meado]

A victim? I always read him as the enforcer of the Military-Industrial complex. I mean, I get that it's sad because he's been kidnapped by the government, but it's not like he seems to resent it in any way. He seems perfectly happy to blow the hell out of all the USNC's enemies. He even attacks the Arbiter in the beginning of Halo 3 (despite all the USNC marines who are apparently totally cool with the Arbiter, indicating a lack of danger) because he's bought the Government line too well.

Well, thinking about it, following orders is all he remembers. Not many people can remember much of their life before the age of eight, and he was kidnapped for the program at six. He's a victim, but he doesn't realise it, as his entire life has been devoted to war since before he can even remember. It's quite tragic, really.

But it gets worse in the Ghosts of Onyx book:

Spoiler

The original Spartans may have been successful, but they were expensive to train and maintain, and they took way too long to become effective soldiers. The second wave of Spartans were... well, there isn't much information on the second wave, but it's mentioned that they were still too expensive to produce.

With the third and subsequent waves, it's decided that instead of creating a soldier that will last, they'll just pump out some elite suicide troops. Fewer years of training, little genetic modification, cheaper armour... basically small squads of teenagers they can trust to infiltrate a covenant base and plant bombs effectively. And if they die, who cares? Plenty more where they came from.

 

[thiosk]

A victim of the military-industrial complex, eh? Well... yeah, okay, reading the backstory and the books, I guess one could make that argument. And here I thought Master Cheif is a pretty cool guy. eh kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything.

Just wanted to fix that quote for you.
You are very welcome.

Its strange to think of the master chief as a Victim-- I mean, genetically modified and trained to the point that he does high velocity unaided swan dives out of spaceships... I somewhat doubt the spartans CHOSE the life they lead... so you could certainly write him in as a victim.

I would tend to disagree, however, with writing him into a movie like that. Flawed character, sure, but victim? I see them using it as a way to turn a halo movie into criticism of the iraq\afghanistan conflicts.