Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie

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!

After watching this animation, I had very conflicting feelings about it. I was a bit disappointed because it didn't work, for me, as a sci-fi movie. But then I also realized that I wasn't happy about the choice of the races portrayed, as I think the Eldar Harlequines would make for a much more visually pleasing experience. Nevertheless, as a sci-fi movie, it might not have delivered anyway.

Then I had another, retrospective, look at what the movie presented, and realized that some essential aspects of the Warhammer 40.000 universe were touched upon in a balanced way. It doesn't distract the casual viewer, and it probably wets the palate of the die-hard Warhammer 40.000 nerd. (I am neither, I just happened to study this universe for a few weeks.)

The plot is vaguely interesting, though the action suffers from tempo issues at times, which I am sure any viewer will notice and be a bit frustrated about. The action sequences range from boring to fascinating. Here, too, I have some conflicting impressions.

The characters are clichéd but one is really not expected to care much about them in a personal way. They are all warriors, and in that sense, the Warhammer 40.000 universe's flavor comes through and it probably doesn't disturb too much.

All in all, I think I could have spent these 70 minutes in worse ways, and hope most viewers will gain at least the same amount of fun as I did.

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.

This movie is an easy 10 for long time Warhammer 40k fans like myself, but I am looking at it through the viewpoint of the average viewer for the sake of fareness.

The plot was good and was very true to the lore of the gamesworkshops Warhammer universe. While the dialogue was sometimes short one liners and cheesy, the voice acting was magnificent. Terrance stamp and John hurt offer up truly inspiring performances along with the rest of the cast. The choral and atmospheric music is very well done and they avoided using gloomy or intense mash ups of sounds clearly stating what the mood should be, telling you how to feel. The downside is that the animation is somewhat low quality CGI, although not as bad as many people make it out to be. The story grabs your attention so well that you soon forget about the low quality animation. As far as run time, 76 minutes is not ideal, but you rarely realize how short it was unit you actually inspect the clock. Lastly, this film is aimed at a very small fanbase, being us Gamesworkshops wargamers. I look forward to more Warhammer 40k films in the future and I hope that Codex Pictures continues to produce them with the same quality and attention to detail as this one.

Ultramarines is based (thematically) on a futuristic tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40K. The Warhammer 40K universe is a heavily militarized, Gothic styled fantasy universe that masquerades as sci-fi, while keeping all the common fantasy tropes. Its main attraction are the human super soldiers "Space Marines" - basically medieval knights in space and their fight against "enemies of the imperium".

Ultramarines depicts that fight in a small scale, through one mission of the Ultramarines chapter (fraction within the SM). Unfortunately the universe is very badly conveyed and the storytelling scope is so limited its obvious that the primary target of this film are the fans of WH40K.

As it stands they are the least likely to be pleased with the outcome. What is shown is one uninspired mission, loaded with every cliché imaginable, gripping a terrible script (although the actors made an effort) and wrapped in outdated CGI.

Its like a single episode of a TV series, or a comic book in terms of storyline and characterization - a part of a whole that never comes.

As a passive fan of WH40K I really wanted to like Ultramarines, but apparently it had neither the budget nor the creative drive to truly embrace the universe that its supposed to portray. Instead its a routine military/horror flick with characters you can't tell apart and a story you will not care about.

Skip it.