Halo: The Fall of Reach Animated Film Review (spoilers)

And here we are. The next film production by 343 Industries, Halo: The Fall of Reach. A basic nearly word for word retelling of the novel of the same name set before Halo: CE. It tells the story of Doctor Catherine Halsey kidnapping 150 children and inducted them into the Spartan II program. We follow the candidate 117 AKA John 117, The Master Chief and we watch him slowly become a leader and the hero we know him to be in the Halo games.
Again 343 have pulled another great production out of their hats. H:TFOR is a fantastic animated feature and is true to the source material. The voice acting is superb and the story strong. Whats also surprisingly great is they don't hide how graphic and horrible the Spartan II augmentations were.

The Good

The Animation Style
The animation was, at first watch, jarring and confusing. why 343 would use that kind of animation as they've used better in Halo Legends: The Package? Yet on a second watch, I recognised the artistic value and the it resemble early Final Fantasy movies which i've always thought were artistic achievements. The film I believe attempts to use almost a water colour effect which works fantastically and the tense atmosphere that produces in certain scenes is brilliant.

Voice Acting
The voice cast is outstanding. Jen Taylor certainly works her magic and brings out the young Halsey in her voice. Steve Downes, though a minor role,  gives off so much emotion in his voice than any other game, minus the end of Halo 4, and the voice actor for younger John also gives off an outstanding performance.

How Real They Make The Film Feel
As stated before, The Fall of Reach does not hide the trauma these kids go through. You see a kid during the augmentation process and violently thrash about before kicking the bucket. Also when the introduce the Mjolnir armour, they again show a kid wearing the armour and it slowly twist and breaking his bones and the kids screams are not muffled or hidden. They are loud and you feel for how much pain these kids must have gone through. In Halo Legends: Homecoming. You understand the psychological trauma of the kids becoming spartans and here you see what the physical trauma. It's nice to see 343 expanding and seeing the different ends of the spectrum of Halo Lore and not staying tame.

The Bad
I have 2 minor gripes and one major gripe with this film.

Minor Gripes:

Continuity Error
Theres a point in this film where you see John, Fred, Linda and Kelly all in their mark 6 Spartan II armour on the planet Reach where Sam carved a symbol into a tree to show they'd been there and of their friendship. 
Ok:
1. If this is set during the novel they're in the wrong armour. They should be in either mark 4 or logically mark 5. 
2. If it's set after Halo 4 and John's return to the team, Why The Hell Are They On Reach??!! As far as I'm aware when the Covenant "glass" a planet, it becomes uninhabitable for several decades to everyone including enhanced super soldiers in armour. Time wise its only been 5, maybe 6 year, NOT SEVERAL DECADES!!!

The Run Time
Halo: The Fall of Reach runs for about 67 minutes (1 hour 7 minutes). Because of this run time, a lot of scenes are incredibly rushed and possible several crucial plot points are just shown in montage or are glossed over and they could have been expanded on.

Major Gripe:

THE FILMS TITLE IS A LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap on high!!! What I hate most about films of any kind is false advertising and/or lying to its audience. This film doesn't tell the story of the Fall of Reach. It's how the kids are indoctrinated into becoming soldiers, the introduction of the Covenant and the death of Samuel. In essence THE FIRST HALF OF THE DAMN BOOK!!!!! I'm not kidding. The primary story ends with the infiltration of the Covenant cruiser and Sam staying behind to detonate a nuke after his suit is compromised. When we return to the team back on reach next to the tree, he says his final line and then.... cut to credits. What the f**k 343?! When you emphasise in your promotional material about this being based off of the novel a lot of people, including myself, were gullible to think you meant the whole novel, not half the novel with some add bit that isn't in the novel or any expanded universe stuff, which I thought was excellent material and show Blue team as a family. This should have been called Halo: Spartan Origins. Yes its a crappy title and is too similar to Halo Legend: Origins, but at least it actually rhymes with the god damn story.

Even though I've torn this film a new one and it sound like its the worst thing 343i has made well it isn't, I'm looking at you Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike, This animated film is definitely a good watch and because of my major grip, i hope theres a "part 2" to this at some point.