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Alpharius wrote:Just focus it on IG and only have the Marines in for a while, to showcase how bada$$ they really are. You know, Movie Marines!

It would be interesting (but probably not in the marketing strategy) to treat them as some of the books treat them: Space marines are near-mythical even to Guardsmen and the like. Do the Alien trick: never show them fully, they are always obscured by darkness, smoke, etc. This makes them mysterious and, coincidentally, covers up cheesy CGI.

Make them a bit feared. Sure, they're 'Heroes of the Imperium' but they aren't necessarily nice, especially to some raw-recruit Guardsmen who's just peed himself and maybe even (gasp!) fallen back a bit because he doesn't have power armor and decades of training. Have them hustle in (obscured), shoot up the enemy, sneer a bit at the Guard, and leave. They've got more important things to do than take care of Guard who are just supposed to hold a static defense line, after all.

Have one (maybe a regular Space Marine, maybe a squad leader) be a little nice and help one Guardsmen to his feet or something, then wordlessly walk away.

Yeah, a Gaunts Ghosts mini-series a la Band of Brothers would be my dream come true.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Yeah, a Gaunts Ghosts mini-series a la Band of Brothers would be my dream come true.

+1 to that!

dark6spectre wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Yeah, a Gaunts Ghosts mini-series a la Band of Brothers would be my dream come true.

+1 to that!

Ditto.

I'd rather settle for a more normal regiment than the Mary Sue brigade.

Its was ok, Not bad for a first attempt.

Just watched it....not impressed at all. I knew the CGI wasn't going to be great, I guess they deserve a pass there. Or do they? I guess for a 40k fan its ok, but I would never recommend it as a tool to get somebody into the hobby. I really looks no better than Beast Wars, if anybody remembers that. Maybe its the animation that bothers me?

The script was terrible, just never felt that invested in the story or characters.

I think my biggest problem with the movie was how weak the chaos marines seemed. There was no really challenge for Ultras, where is the drama? What is at stake here? Even putting aside the fluff (chaos are supposed to be much older wiser corrupted veteran marine) it just doesn't make sense to me to have such weak villains.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I enjoy a hero with more depth, one who must face a challenge he might not walk away from.

I guess overall this story a simple starting point, I'd say if you are a fan of 40k its worth a watch, but don't get your hopes up. It's just a shame that they chose this story for a movie. Hopefully if and when they make another its a better attempt.

I absolutely agree with you Hulkster and share you feelings. I'm just happy I downloaded it rather than shelling out hard earned money. I couldn't justify buying it under the guise of shouldering the burden of future efforts.

I was very unhappy with this movie.



Games Workshop should have paid more interest into the production of this movie. It did not do the universe, Space Marines, or Chaos Space Marines justice. The company should work with an established (bigger budget) production company and use an adaptation from a novel or a series of novels and do it right. Maybe have one of the predominant writers come up with a script that has more to it like a battle for Armegeddon or a black crusade or something where more than just one set of marines fights one set of chaos. Include more of the universe to appeal to more players. Personally I'm tired of seeing GW's Blue Boys all over everything they make.

I need to put out some facts here relating to the movie. Chaos space marines have been around from the heresy true but living in the warp has different effects than just warping the body. They might have been around during then but it is like a couple of months or years to them not 10k years it has been. Yes they may have been born in the 30th millennium it doesn't mean they have been alive that long.

Just watched the movie myself and well I have to say that it was a let down overall. The way the marines walk is just funny and so are the chaos space marines. Also nothing about the marines gives viewers the feeling of superhumans and the power armour seemed to be made out of paper or the traitors used solely kraken penetrator rounds... Storyline was weak and overall boring. On the positive side I like the way the Land Speeder is presented and deployed. Just my opinion anyway... They could have used something more compelling from GW's universe like the Tyranid Hive fleet attacking Ultramar or even a simple greenskin battle as their main plot...

just watched starship troopers and backed my view up even more that a 40k movie would be more badass with normal Humans.
IG, with almost no cgi. just do like a DKoK film or something, or even better the war for armageddon.

Hulkster - except it was a trap. The chaos marines were supposed to die, in order to get them to take the Daemon on board.

Very, very chaos-ey thing to do.

IG would be great, I assume though they'd be harder to animate. I also assume that was why chaos marines were used as antagonists- because the models for power armoured humans were already done, just needed some chaos-i-fying to make it work.

@nosferatu

I get what your saying, it just didn't seem like they put up much of a fight. Even then, the demon prince got his butt handed to him. I totally get your point, but I still feel the movie made the chaos marines look extremely weak in comparison to the ultras. I mean, come on some of these guys fought on holy terra! I guess I am a mark for the old pete haines chaos marines who were overpriced with veteran add ons.

I suppose my main point was that I'd of liked to see the chaos marines present more of a challenge.

Saw the movie; sorry folks its stinky doo doo. Don't be fooled by the fanboys and people sipping free drinks courtesy of Codex pictures, its a stinker.

Evilsponge - what a remarkably well thought out, reasoned and hyperbole- and insult-free argument. Well done.
/sarcasm

Hulkster - ah, but it was a legion relic - it could have had some form of Daemon bane to it. The "I need a new face" could also have been an indication of it being weakened over time (and due to the fight) and so not fighting at full effectiveness. Dan Abnett doesnt like to explain everything in a story, thats for sure!

I agree CSM were weak - as a chaos player this is annoying (and i loved my Tank Hunting las/plas squad ) - but I understand why it was the case. The Ultras HAD to get back to their craft believing they had vanquished the enemy, otherwise the ruse would not have had a chance.

nosferatu1001 wrote:

I agree CSM were weak - as a chaos player this is annoying (and i loved my Tank Hunting las/plas squad ) - but I understand why it was the case. The Ultras HAD to get back to their craft believing they had vanquished the enemy, otherwise the ruse would not have had a chance.

Been thinking about that one... Why? Why not have the Black Legion and/or the Daemon-Captain simply slaughter everyone and then the Daemon could return to the Strike Cruiser alone. His/Its report would be very easy...

"Yes, it is lamentable that the rest of the squad perished attempting to recover the Imperial Fists' sacred book, but they died with honor. Thanks to their sacrifice, I have recovered it and will make warp for Maccragge to place it in safe keeping".

With no one else around, who could question a Captain's word? No annoying folks left to risk ruining things...

I really did want to like it, but it just failed on too many plot-related points for me to give it a thumb's up.

Valete,

JohnS

Tyras wrote:I was very unhappy with this movie.

[spoiler]The company should work with an established (bigger budget) production company and use an adaptation from a novel or a series of novels and do it right. Maybe have one of the predominant writers come up with a script that has more to it...

Didn't Abnett write the script? You don't get more 40K than him in regards writing 40K stories. They should have used humans in this to show how much better marines are, marines on marines is just armoured guys shooting each other up, you don't get a perspective of just how much more than human they are.

I thought it sucked. Why not use the horus heresy as the story? thats the best story 40k has to offer. oh, and nice power armour chaos

Huge let down.
And really, I was mostly let down by Dan Abnet's story than anything else, but here are my 3 biggest non plot issues:



lame.com is my review

I have a few criticisms of the movie, but they have little to do with the background lore portrayed in the film. It's a film telling a story, not a tabletop game. New Black Library authors are instructed not to let their books read just like a game or battle report of 40K and the movie was clearly no different. No problem there. I think most of the criticisms based on lore are groundless nitpicking.

For example, the constant "geek critique" about the Crozius having a special power. There are unique magic weapons all over the 40K universe. There's no reason why the Chaplain in the film couldn't have had a special magic weapon. He's not an HQ choice from a Codex for a game of 40K, he's a unique character in a story and the 40K lore established long ago a universe where unique items and magical artifacts abound.

Space Marines do get old in the lore, much older than normal humans, but how that is supposed to mean they never look old is news to me. No problem with them looking old. Seriously, that ruined the film for some people? I think it would have ruined it for a whole lot more people if the aged battle brothers all looked 25. I also see endless nitpicking here about other various particulars of their size and appearance, but not all of them the same. I guess some people think they should have had a focus group before they made the film and made a change for every unique criticism offered by every fan. Imagine how the film would have looked then! It's ridiculous.

I could go on and on, but frankly, after reading pages of these types of criticisms I think they are groundless.

What I will criticize about the film is from a cinematic movie making perspective. To wit, the movie had padding! I can't believe that a film that is only 76 minutes long had an endless walking sequence in it to pad it out. The screenplay should have either been shorter or something essential to story telling should have happened during that extended walking sequence. It reminded me of some of the iconic jokes on Mystery Science Theater 3000, like "rock climbing, Joel" during the film Lost Continent.

The other criticism I'll make after discussing the film with some friends is that we found the behavior of the Ultramarines to be less than devoted comrades in arms toward each other. Instead of good-natured ribbing and competitiveness amongst themselves, there's fairly outright hostility and trash-talking early on in the film, especially toward senior officers like the Apothecary. It not only made the main characters less sympathetic, but if anything violated the background lore for 40K to me it was that aspect. Perhaps it was deliberate such that the story was supposed to be about how these young new Marines learn to work together and respect each other, but it made most of the characters seem like jerks rather than just being undisciplined from pretty early on in the film. And when the viewer doesn't care about the characters then they don't get emotionally engaged in the outcome of the story. The two most sympathetic characters in the film were the two Imperial Fists, but we don't encounter them to long after the padded walking scene. They are not the major characters of the story.

All that said, I enjoyed the movie, but mostly from the second viewing onward where I could enjoy what is entertaining about it rather than suffer in surprise at what was not well done. It's a lot of fun once you get to the first battle scene and the story from there is engaging and exciting, but the padded walking sequence before that is definitely a negative aspect of the film.

So five pages and no-one is pointing out that Space Marines are pinheads? And I mean that in a literal sense. Look at how much smaller their heads are in comparison to their helmets, then try to figure out how broad their shoulders would have to be for where their arms are.

Seriously! Look at this:


Try to figure out what they would have looked like without the power armor. (Hint: Goofy. They would look really damn goofy outside of their armor.)

First, your head has to be smaller than your helmet to fit inside said helmet and a helmet full of electronics, breathing apparatus and armor plates is bulky. The head should be considerably smaller than the helmet.

On a related note, so people are just noticing that power armor as it's shown on the miniatures is often fairly implausible as far as someone, even a huge giant of a man, fitting comfortably inside it and being able to move freely?

The problem with making anything like 40K into a movie is that it's never going to match the vision of it the fans have in their heads. It's why for many years the Disney studio owned the rights to Lord Of The Ring and didn't exercise their right to make a film out of it. Making anything with such a devoted following into a film is fraught with danger that the fans will nitpick it to death and Codex Pictures is certainly running afoul of that problem now.

Seriously... look at that old man!
And he only has one service stud?? He's already that old and he can expect to live 200+ more years if he doesn't die in combat...He'll be a walking corpse!

Brass scorpion, you can love old man marines all you want but I prefer mine the correct way

My report about this film : dont buy it you will regret that .

I cant explain how bad it is ,just try to think a diablo2 animation level rendering ( maybe worse than that) with a boring to hell story goes on. Even some one says this is made for the fan base people, a lot of stuff is not right compare to 40k fluff, ie explain how a flame thrower does any thing to a power armor CSM? even all those CSMs are stupid like moron, a bolter bullet easily pass through power armor like its from a sniper, etc. This whole thing is just lame and should be treated as a joke

and for me the best part was before the last stand on the planet...

SM says: the emperor protects....

apothecary says: and a loaded bolter never hurt either...


instant heresy....

seriously i thought i had seen some stiff moving marines some day ago in a fan made clip on youtube... but this and it costs some heavy money to buy this movie...
vik

BrassScorpion wrote:First, your head has to be smaller than your helmet to fit inside said helmet and a helmet full of electronics, breathing apparatus and armor plates is bulky. The head should be considerably smaller than the helmet.

On a related note, so people are just noticing that power armor as it's shown on the miniatures is often fairly implausible as far as someone, even a huge giant of a man, fitting comfortably inside it and being able to move freely?

The problem with making anything like 40K into a movie is that it's never going to match the vision of it the fans have in their heads. It's why for many years the Disney studio owned the rights to Lord Of The Ring and didn't exercise their right to make a film out of it. Making anything with such a devoted following into a film is fraught with danger that the fans will nitpick it to death and Codex Pictures is certainly running afoul of that problem now.

Actually the miniatures are significantly better proportioned than the CG we saw in this film. Go look at an unhelmeted fig. The head is about 80% of the size as the helmeted one which keeps the whole profile vaguely human shaped. This isn't a manner of not being able to make a realistic Golum or Urukai. This is what happens when your artists and animators seem to have never actually seen a human being before.

Even if we look past the story (which was bad), or the acting (which was at best mediocre), or the overall quality of the animation (which honestly, could have been serviceable for the most part), we have some fundamentally poor art design choices that make already lackluster animation look down right stupid.

well

if you have the comic you should understand why this bunch of Marines are so different.



I am waiting for the film to arrive here in Italy after I ordered it through my friendly local store (one month over ago.. is anybody having the same problem?)

You know how a kid shows you a picture they made or someone just started warhammer, and it looks pretty crappy, but you say something nice anyways since it is their first time? that's how I feel about the movie, story was unoriginal and boring, but worked; the only cgi that looked good was the training and escape fight scene, and the apothecary was bit of a winer. It's not worth the money, but it's worth downloading or seeing second hand if you can. I personally enjoyed it for what it was, but yes, it was pretty sub-par.


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Also, the movie was two critical things: tanks and giant explosions.