Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie

The background behind this film is a shoe string budget, some real fans of the genre and a writer who is well respected in the realms of fantasy literature. So with that in mind to compare this CGI film with the best of Pixar or Avatar would be unfair as it was never going to have the same "wow" factor.

For the uninitiated it is the 41st century and the human galactic empire is at war. Humanity's front line of defence is the space marines. Genetically enhanced super soldiers utterly loyal to the emperor encased in powered armour suits with very big guns.

This is the problem because while the movie looked better than I expected the whole (rather short) film revolves around a platoon of these humourless, quasi-religious soldiers going on a very linear mission. The script may not even be 60 pages long, nobody talks in anything other than short sentences and there are far more lines like "For the Emperor!" than anything approaching character development/banter and while that's fine for action scenes, as a film it makes the whole thing seem hollow.

The action is perfectly acceptable but nothing special and the whole feel of the movie is like a group going into a haunted house and are picked of one-by-one. The fact it is CGI allows some impressive vistas, a very large mother ship and some spooky supernatural going on but while every penny is on screen, you never really care about any of the protagonists so more time should have been spent on the basics- story, characters and dialogue and little less on the tech.

Been waiting for this for a long time.... and now it's here.

The Good stuff: The voice acting was superb, everyone did a perfect job. 10/10.

Ambient music and general mood of the movie is dead on, I especially like the first minutes after landing on Mithron, the setting and mood just awesome. 9/10.

The detail of the warhammer 40k world, equipment & lore, is nearly perfect 9/10.

The Mediocre stuff: CGI and animation of characters notably melee combat was a bit awkward... maybe its just me, but it was fair for a first try 5/10.

The story... not bad, not good, a bit simple, expected a little bit more from Dan Abnett 5/10.

The Bad stuff: The Spacemarines! now I saw this with a friend of mine who has little or no knowledge of the 40k universe, and I had to explain a lot to him before and during the movie, and before the movie I told him about the spacemarines as being huge superhuman bad asses who kicks butt, whether its an army of heretics or aliens, after the movie he asked "whats so special about the spacemarines?" and to be honest I had the same feeling, you don't get the feeling they are anything special, not that I'm saying you feel like they are wimps, they just lack the Superhuman quality 3/10.

On board the Reclusiam, where are the Ultramarines serfs? who is flying the thing? are the only ones aboard the 12 Ultramarines and a couple of servitors? Here they could have put a few normal humans in, and see the Ultramarines stand head and shoulders over the tallest of the puny humans, but no instead you get a feeling that the Reclusiam is devoid of the and some computer flies the ship... 2/10 Way too short 76 mins? this is reflected in the plot of the movie which is pretty simple Buuuu! :o) I really wanted to score this high, but my personal verdict is... well 6/10 wait +1 just because it a 40k movie so final verdict 7/10.

Will I buy more 40k movies? yes! will I recommend others to buy and watch it? yes! will the fans be disappointed? no I think not :o)

The movie is mediocre at best, not only if you are a fan, but if you are completely uninitiated to the universe of Warhammer 40K. Scene quality is mixed. Some scenes are clearly much better than others in terms of design, and CG quality, still better than the trailers though. The story is decent enough, but the dialog is too limited to make the voice actors' time on screen worthwhile. The voice acting is good, but the vaunted lip syncing that Codex pictures was supposed to use, is actually used in very few scenes and then looks like an animated cut-scene from a game was used. Concerning the atmosphere, it's grim, it's dark, and it looks very lonely out there. The massive Imperium is not conveyed to the viewer. Overall, this movie has the feeling like it was an extra added to a book or game, and not a feature-length movie, at least not one worth going to the theater for. If you are a Warhammer 40K fan, you will not be pleased with the result. If you are not a Warhammer 40K fan, I don't think you will be thrilled with the thought of becoming one.

I think this film is 100% faithful to it's source material, which was a brave step, and may alienate the mainstream a little. This in my opinion was well worth while, because to a fan of the old Games Workshop franchise this film was all I could have hoped that it would be.

I found the animation really appealing and an ideal route to use. The voice overs chosen were perfect, especially the great John Hurt. I loved the way the story went full circle, it worked just like a good graphic novel which I understand is writer Dan Abnett's day job. Fans of 40K won't be disappointed in my opinion.

I couldn't stop smiling with every bolter shot!

ULTRAMARINES - Indeed it is. Folowing the story of a small squad out on a simple re-con and coming against harsh forces they are ill prepared for, I was expecting a highly action-packed movie.

Sadly for those who love action - You may be disappointed. This is far more atmospheric which only serves to draw you in further to the story.

It has been a long wait with many false starts on the CGI project - However it is not disappointing. The effects are excellent and the story has the right balance of suspense and action. Graphics are wonderful and there is a nice bit of gore as well which I expected given the nature of the 40K universe.

Would I recommend this film - of Course! If I have one complaint - Its a very simple one... They have proved they can make these stories work amazingly, it would be amazing to see an actual Series rather than a number of movies - However the cost of CGI makes this impossible at this time.

Will definitely be looking forward to future releases