Astartes

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.

I know next to nothing about the Warhammer 40K IP. I stumbled across this because of a Youtube recommendation.

Simply amazing work. The visuls are good and improved through the first 5 episodes--but it wasn't the visuals that captured me--it was the directorial/editorial skill.

It is simply a superb example of minimalist storytelling. Tight editing, strong emotion, essentially no dialog--everything just clicks. I didn't need to know the IP in order to be sucked into the story and experience. It didn't matter.

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.

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.

I remember back around my 19th birthday when my friend showed me Astartes out of the blue, telling me it was a great Warhammer 40K animated fanfilm. I didn't know too much about the 40K IP, other than my friend being really into it, so I decided to take a look. Today, I have watched the Astartes series hundreds if not thousands of times, and it still brings tears to my eyes. It is not simply an amazing Warhammer 40K fanfilm. It is a truly phenomenal masterpiece of cinematography, CGI, and storytelling.

• Very little dialogue, still tells a very intriguing and in-depth story through subtle imagery.
• CGI, models, motion, and physics quality are second to none.
• Both the story's "protagonists" and "antagonists" are built extremely well, there is no one side overshadowing the other, no "heroes good because baddies are bad", everyone is highly skilled and intelligent.
• With CGI you can move the camera wherever and however you want, however the cinematography feels extremely realistic and grounded.
• The combat choreography and cinematography is outstanding and very cleverly thought-out.
• The suspense, mystery, and cliffhanger at the end leaves us yearning and begging for what comes next.

This is truly a perfect film and deserves so much more support. I thank this man so dearly for the passion-driven creation he has put forth.