Astartes

Astartes is a fanproject but is for now simply the best 40k cinematic experience created so far.

The 3D animation and cinematography is near perfect. The sound design is incredible.

The story, while being from the 40k universe , is still understandable enough for outsiders to not be overwhelmed.

If we will ever see something better or close to the quality of Astartes is so far unanswerd.

That all these statements are no overexaggerations should everyone check out for themselves. Your expectations will not be disappointed.

There is a story here; a story about how awesome (yes, awesome) and ruthless the space marines are. It functions great in the last part as cosmic (Lovecraftian) horror. The rest of the parts are just a thrill ride of incredible directing, animation, cinematography, sound design, action, and style. The only problem is that the first parts are slightly worse when comparing to the last one as they are really short and their art/animation quality is a bit less detailed. There are a lot of dark shots where, when you are watching for the first time, you might not know what is exactly happening. Also, this is clearly for the fans of the 40k universe, thus someone who is going into this completely blind probably won't understand a thing, but they will enjoy it nonetheless.

This isnt just an animated fanfic of Giant Space Marines curbstomping the enemy, its far more then this:

• A top quality CGI film
• There is no dialogue, it conveys its premise with imagery, sound and violence
• It has Giant Space Marines curbstomping the enemy BUT the enemy are no push overs, they use actual tactics but against Space Marines.. its simply not enough. These Marines are professional beyond the limits of a baseline human.
• One man storyboarded and animated this all.

I was astounded by the sophistication of the directors storytelling eye, his economy of coverage. For someone who has no other directing credits. It's really impressive work. Forget the IP itself, or the actual animation and art (which is obviously beautiful, but plenty of people can make beautiful CGI, all you need is money and time) Far more interesting is the true skill in DIRECTING. Particularly directing action and staging. And temporal finesse. The editing. What he's leaving OUT for the mind to fill in is as important as the shots he does include. This guy need to know he's got talent. Don't get stuck in a CGI job. Develop this talent. Who ever gave this 4 stars is a stone cold cringe loser.

I will probably do myself no favours saying this but...I know very little about 40K. Yes I know about GW and the board games and miniatures, I've even played a Warhammer game over on the Xbox 360, it was pretty good, but I have no insight into any lore or the universe that the franchise occupies.

What I do know is that this showed up in my YouTube recommended and I preceded to watch. Wow. So glad I did because this was something else. It grabbed me from the off, there is something more going on here other than just great visuals. I'm not savvy in film/cinema speak but I'll say this then end my review, it gave me a vibe I very rarely get from films these days, short or no, and that vibe is mystery. It dripped with it. A touch of the Space Jockey if you will.

I'm off to read up on Warhammer things. To the creative behind this, don't pull a Prometheus.