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I've just always wondered, why was this movie so bad? Why do people hate it so?

I for one really enjoyed it. For what it was, I'm not saying it was anyone's finest moment. You had all the classic Space Marine tropes, bad voice acting, relentless Ultramarine stupidity and zeal. The Imperial Fists were dour and moody. No one knew what the hell was going on and yet somehow, they still stood in the middle of the table with no cover and nuked a bunch of CSM during overwatch. After which the Chaplain promptly dispatched the rest in melee with his Crozius, albiet not how we expected. But I mean, really that big winged stick looked pretty ornamental anyways...

Maybe I just like bad movies, but maybe I just take some films a lot less seriously? UM:40k was definitely NOT a cerebral film.

What do you folks reckon? Maybe go have another watch if you hated it and try to think of it in the terms of Army of Darkness, rather than Grimdark. Maybe you'll enjoy it more? Or less, haha!

It was fine, C+/B-, but it was a 40k movie.

I liked it too. For what they had in resources, and for the technology it tested (something to do with life-life eyes), it got the general feeling right. Out of getting both the flavour and the details right, I'd prefer flavour. Generally I reconcile the lore as a battle across alternate realities, although the notion of moving the timeline forward kinda makes you wonder who it would have gone if Chaos' inevitable victory had been slowed. I'm also a sucker for Sean Pertwee.

Well that makes us 3 for 30 or so.

I think they had to simplify a lot of what was going to go into that film, or rather they thought they had to, in order to make it more palpable for the audience. Include one detail, but omit another or not fully explain it and you risk all sorts of rampant fanboy hatred for messing up your own bloody story! I think they wanted to tell a simple story, in a simple way, and for the most part it worked quite well. Unfortunately that lack of accuracy and detail left a lot of viewers cold and for those watching who didn't play or read the books, it must have been kind of silly. However, the film did have a lot of good visuals and felt like it could have been quite epic.

I would like it if GW expanded more into animation, but perhaps... less of the boys in blue next time? I think I would lose my mind if we were subjected to a Fist of the North Star style series about a Khorne Berzerker.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Khorne Burns! A Berzerker Story.

I mean in comparison to some fanmade projects like Astartes, Helsreach... it's still pretty lacking in terms of quality. They clearly had either newer talent or didn't properly make it.

While people can like it (that's fine). The story is just not very good even at an objective level (at a 40k point of view). Its just a typical space marine story with little to no effort put in. Fantastic voice, and soundtrack, but the visuals did not match it.

Clearly a sign of a rushed development cycle or lack of funding.

I enjoyed it, just because. I wish the fight at the end had been a little more epic once Proteus had rearmed himself ( don't want to spoil anything). But otherwise it is a fun movie.

 darkcloak wrote:
Well that makes us 3 for 30 or so.

I think they had to simplify a lot of what was going to go into that film, or rather they thought they had to, in order to make it more palpable for the audience. Include one detail, but omit another or not fully explain it and you risk all sorts of rampant fanboy hatred for messing up your own bloody story! I think they wanted to tell a simple story, in a simple way, and for the most part it worked quite well. Unfortunately that lack of accuracy and detail left a lot of viewers cold and for those watching who didn't play or read the books, it must have been kind of silly. However, the film did have a lot of good visuals and felt like it could have been quite epic.

I would like it if GW expanded more into animation, but perhaps... less of the boys in blue next time? I think I would lose my mind if we were subjected to a Fist of the North Star style series about a Khorne Berzerker.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Khorne Burns! A Berzerker Story.

IIRC the film was direct to video and basicly needed to be ordered. something like that? you're better off appealing to the fan boys

It was cheesy, and had a strange mashup of well done CG effects and atrociously done ones. It is difficult to comprehend how the same team let that through (I work in 3D CG, so I knew exactly what was going on.) But I don't think that really matters that much.

The thing I didn't like was that its script wasn't very accurate to 40k, despite it being worked on by Black Library authors who know better. The most glaring example being how easily the bolters mowed down the berzerkers. That whole scene made no sense. They treated it like regular bullets vs unarmored bodies, not exploding rounds vs power armor. There was a bunch of similar stuff, but I don't remember it that well since it's been awhile.

I appreciated it for what it was, and thought it was great.

 Drudge Dreadnought wrote:
It was cheesy, and had a strange mashup of well done CG effects and atrociously done ones. It is difficult to comprehend how the same team let that through (I work in 3D CG, so I knew exactly what was going on.) But I don't think that really matters that much.

The thing I didn't like was that its script wasn't very accurate to 40k, despite it being worked on by Black Library authors who know better. The most glaring example being how easily the bolters mowed down the berzerkers. That whole scene made no sense. They treated it like regular bullets vs unarmored bodies, not exploding rounds vs power armor. There was a bunch of similar stuff, but I don't remember it that well since it's been awhile.

This. It was just loyalist marine bolter porn.

Also, anyone who plays the boys in blood knows that Berzerkers do in fact die to Bolter fire. Quite readily it seems.

I liked it.

Sure, there's problems with it (most of the squad are Scouts, this being their first combat outing in power armour - therefore, they should be Devastator Marines, not Tacticals; Black Legion CSM being mown down without regard for their armour), but the sound design is pretty much on point, the weight, movement and feel of the Astartes are fine, as is the architecture. Aesthetically, in sound and visual, is it quintessentially 40k.

The story isn't a masterpiece, but then, it's not *bad* either. It's a by-the-numbers military recon plotline (someone calls for help/no signal, team goes in to check, gets shadowed and ambushed along the way, learn the clues, mentor figure for the protagonist is lost, find the damsel/macguffin, big battle as they escape, think everything is safe, complications ensue, and hero changes and succeeds).
If anything, it's actually nearly blow-by-blow the same as Star Wars: A New Hope.
It's nothing special, the one main twist there is is fun but not mindblowing, and everything does feel earned.

On it's own, nothing particularly special or bad, but when put into the wider 40k context, it's more good than bad.

Smudge's Arbitary Rating TM: 6.5/10

I liked it for what I watched it as. Free space marine porn on youtube. If I had to pay, I expect my opinion to change drastically.

The problem was it was pretty much just Ultramarine spank bank material.

Because it was fairly awful and cut out most of the story originally written for it?
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Ultramarines:_The_Movie#Things_that_Suck

I've wasted 70 minutes of my life in much worse ways than this movie. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't awe inspiring either; it passed the time and was entertaining enough that I didn't get bored. Probably won't watch it again though.

I liked it as well, it wasn't the best movie ever but it's about what was expected anyway. Would be nice if they managed to do more, probably with a smaller budget and shorter, but it could be an interesting addition to the black library stuff.

mrhappyface wrote:The problem was it was pretty much just Ultramarine spank bank material.

Spoiler:

They had shown during the movie how the BL warband had slaughtered their way through a large number of IF but it only took an Ultramarine strike team to take the Warband on (sure, the Smurfs lost a few marines but no where near to how many BL marines that were killed). It seemed like they were trying to show off how the Marines are Super human warriors but made the mistake of pitting them against other Super human warriors. I think it would have worked better if the Marines had slaughtered their way through cultists, mutants and Daemons only to be humbled when they face off against something like a Chaos Champion/Lord, rather than thinking that a Smurf could take on a DP.

You could argue that the Daemons were the main thing that killed the IF, or that the majority of the CSM died taking the fort, but the Daemons were the ones that took it.

Maybe the majority of the CSM force already left? Doubtful though: my headcanon is that it was a token CSM force, they summoned a massive Daemon incursion on the world with some kind of ritual sacrifice or relic, and let them do the dirty work.

The_Real_Chris wrote:Because it was fairly awful and cut out most of the story originally written for it?
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Ultramarines:_The_Movie#Things_that_Suck

Most of the things on that list are just inane memes, and not real criticisms. There's a few that I agree with, but definitely the minority.

I liked how the Eldar were so sneaky, everybody missed their role in the movie.

I didn't particularly dislike it, and I guess since there's not really much else in the way of actual full length movies, I kind of enjoyed it. I"d like to see something of higher quality with more accuracy, though.

It's awful. It's so awful GW staff we're still obligated to praise it- I'll never forget my friend discussing it with one of them and he goes "It's our IP, therefore it's good."

I think that with all the incredible fan made alternatives whose teams would do it for free in a heartbeat if they had GW's blessing, they could have picked a more talented design studio and had a far better experience all round. I expected better from an Abnett penned story.

But then again, I think a Gaunts Ghosts miniseries would be a far superior option. Gotta protect that IP though I guess.

But, the production team was also kind of sort of responsible for the Bionicle movies.

The movie had a couple of good moments near the beginning, but by the time it reached the gorge, it'd just gone to hell, and got worse there.

I'll never forgot when they unload the land speeder that the bottom protrusion clips through the ground .

But here's a question for you:

Which is bettter: Ultramarines or the D&D movie?

The movie was disappointing.

What I like:

+ Cool actions.

+ Space Marines looks quite neat.

What I don't like:

+ A lot of nonsensical talking. I read the Ultramarines books by Graham and they don't talk that much.

+ Very slow to action.

+ Black Legion wiped out an entire Imperial Fist garrison, but could not take on like 10 Ultramarines? It could be that most of them died in the siege, but, come on, show more Black Legion bodies fighting the Fists. It makes it as if the sons of Guillemen are fully better than the sons of Dorn. Did Matt Ward co-write the script?

+ Captain Severus? Who the feth is this? He is 2nd Company Captain, so where is Cato Sicarius? Why the Ultramarines instead of one of their sucesssor Chapter?

+ Some clunky animations.

+ I don't even remember the faces or the names of most of the characters.

It makes it as if the sons of Guillemen are fully better than the sons of Dorn.

Well the Ultramarines ARE a first founding chapter

 Stormonu wrote:
The movie had a couple of good moments near the beginning, but by the time it reached the gorge, it'd just gone to hell, and got worse there.

I'll never forgot when they unload the land speeder that the bottom protrusion clips through the ground .

But here's a question for you:

Which is bettter: Ultramarines or the D&D movie?

Pfft!

D&D.


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BrianDavion wrote:

It makes it as if the sons of Guillemen are fully better than the sons of Dorn.

Well the Ultramarines ARE a first founding chapter

So are the Fists. Rainbow Warriors too if it makes any difference!

 Stormonu wrote:
The movie had a couple of good moments near the beginning, but by the time it reached the gorge, it'd just gone to hell, and got worse there.

I'll never forgot when they unload the land speeder that the bottom protrusion clips through the ground .

But here's a question for you:

Which is bettter: Ultramarines or the D&D movie?

D&D movie has Jeremy Irons laying on the cheese and ham xtra thicc. No contest.

I found the music to be the best bit.

It was garbage that got so many things wrong it's untrue.

Glad I didn't pay to watch it.