Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2010)

A squad of Ultramarines answer a distress call from an Imperial Shrine World. A full Company of Imperial Fists was stationed there, but there is no answer from them. The squad investigates to find out what has happened there.

Director:

Martyn Pick

Writer:

Dan Abnett (screenplay)

Stars:

Terence Stamp, John Hurt, Sean Pertwee

Cast

Cast overview:
Terence Stamp	...	Cpt. Severus (voice)
John Hurt	...	Brother Carnak (voice)
Sean Pertwee	...	Brother Proteus (voice)
Steven Waddington	...	Brother Verenor (voice)
Donald Sumpter	...	Brother Pythol (voice)
Johnny Harris	...	Brother Nidon (voice)
Ben Bishop	...	Crastor (voice)
Chris Finney	...	Brother Boreas (voice) (as Christopher Finney)
Gary Martin	...	Brother Hypax (voice)

Storyline

A squad of Ultramarines answer a distress call from an Imperial Shrine World. A full Company of Imperial Fists was stationed there, but there is no answer from them. The squad investigates to find out what has happened there.

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Plot Keywords:

ultramarines | grimdark | warhammer 40k | space marine | outer space | 

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Taglines:

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 December 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ultramarines

Company Credits

Production Co:

Good Story Productions, Codex Pictures, POP6

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Terence Stamp and Sir John Hurt appeared in The Hit (1984).

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Goofs

A Chaplain's standard weapon is the Crozius Arcanum: a close combat melee power weapon which is designed to discharge its energy on contact and inflict damage on even armored targets. It's not a ranged weapon, suggesting that Carnaks was a unique piece of wargear with special abilities (a common thing in the WH40K universe)

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Quotes

[first lines]
Space Marine: Brother Nidon, report to the Chapel! Guard the Codex!
Nidon: I must protect the relic! In the Emperor's holy name! I must protect the relic...

User Reviews

Watchable but not great

It was nice to see a 40k based movie but I found Ultramarines a bit disappointing to be honest.

The voice acting was good but the CGI ranged from good to very poor. Close up shots of the faces looked especially badly done but the vehicles looked good and for the most part the marines did too.

In terms of story it's pretty basic. There's no real introduction to the setting, probably because most viewers are going to be familiar with it but I thought this was a missed opportunity to explain the background for a few minutes with some nice sweeping shots of Terra and maybe the golden throne, that kind of thing.

There's no really good pitched battles, enemies appear in handfuls so you never get a sense of a decent fight which was a shame. There were also a few oddities which don't really seem to fit in. For example the captain is commanding a squad that's never been in battle? That's a command squad of veterans that's never had a battle? Good one. I can see why they did it for the plot but it makes no sense in the 40k universe. Nor does ripping on the apothecary for being a coward. In the 40k universe he is one of the most important marines in the chapter and certainly outranks a bog standard marine that's never been in battle by quite some way. By the way all those first timers would be scouts not full marines..and I could go on and on but of course none of this really spoils the movie at all but for a film made for fanboys it's a bit slack.

Overall it's worth a watch if you like 40k. Hopefully this is the first in a series and they will improve. A better storyline and animation would be required though to appeal to a wider audience.