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The Ultramarines movie was the biggest waste of an hour of my life I have ever spent. CGI was terrible, characters were boring, bland and idiotic, storyline was gak-awful, and the entire 'atmosphere' of 40K was completely absent.

Dan Abnett should be ashamed that his name is linked to such an utter piece of dross.

L. Wrex

I enjoyed it, the HD download version looked a damn sight better I thought. But to be honest, i understand and agree with most people's critiques and the only thing that will make me watch again is the awesomeness of my 3 favourite actors (Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Sean Pertwee) appearing in the film from my favourite hobby as members of an army I collect.

I wanted it to be better, why did all the marines look like clay?

I would give it a 6 outa 10 imo and that's giving it a 1up for being a 40k flick.

Give it to black library, if they can do what they have done for the audio books, the future will be interesting.

The CGI wasn't all that bad, but the story... Well... It was crap. The Ultramarines were wearing the biggest plot armor ever. Chaos Marines didn't even get a line. Imperial Fists get some screen time to show the Smurfs how things are done, but that doesn't last for long. There were a lot of pretty colors, though. Oh, and the Apothecary makes a joke. I still think he would have been charged with blasphemy if an Inquisitor had been nearby.

It did suck in places, but hey when you have waited 20+ years for a 40k film you will take anything. I enjoyed the film, cant say it lived up to my expectations but until they make a 500 million budget, 14 hour Horus Heresy epic nothings gonna be good enough.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/347836.page

Ultramarines movie had fine story ( Dan Abnett after all ), but lot of lore rape and unlogical moments.

I was about too comment in that, then I realized it was 3 months old.

StarShade wrote:It did suck in places, but hey when you have waited 20+ years for a 40k film you will take anything. I enjoyed the film, cant say it lived up to my expectations but until they make a 500 million budget, 14 hour Horus Heresy epic nothings gonna be good enough.

I agree. I have seen worse movies that this, and about crap I don't give two shirts about.

Wasn't EPIC, but it wasn't that bad either. I enjoyed it.

Again I say, some people hated the movie and others think it is the best thing since sliced bread

I dunno man...
Sliced bread is pretty damn good.

purplefood wrote:I dunno man...
Sliced bread is pretty damn good.

True LOL

Well...i loved it....i guess i am in the minority here....it was just a nice escape for me...(have kidney failure and in pain 20 hours out of the day).. Plus i am a huge Dan Abnett fan and have talked to him several times...great guy... So i really enjoyed it!

In terms of plot, acting, etc, it was exactly what I expected, IE, pretty bad, so I actually enjoyed it.

The animation, however, was disappointing to put it mildly.

I thought the movie was... alright I guess. I didn´t really like it (all the bad CGI, wierd plot, awkward characters etc), but I´m generally a fan of low budget movies so I had a fun time watching it. But for me, personally, the Dawn of War 2 series has been my sort of "WH40K movie". In my oppinion the story, dialogue, setting, characters etc. in DoW 2 were all better and more in direction of the epicness of WH40k then the movie and Wh40k: Speeehs merheeen seems to go in the same direction as Dow, which is good. In the end, the one was a full movie, the other was/were (a) video game(s), so I don´t think they can be compared.

I was just thinking about the movie. If I had to read a one-paragraph breakdown of the plot, I'd say it was a pretty good idea for a low budget intro to 40k. A group of raw recruits get sent to a planet, get in over their head, lose their heroic leader, find new allies, are saved by the leader's surprise return, suspect & turn on new allies, only to find out the leader's dead & he's been an enemy in disguise since he disappeared. I think it sounds okay.

The most disappointing stuff was the strange disregard for the fluff it was supposed to celebrate: power armor marines dying to one bolter shot; guys in power armor who look & sound like they're in their mid-30's being raw recruits...I could go on but it's been covered. My assumption is that the script was either altered by the production crew or they could only pay Dan Abnett for one or two revisions. In the words of Ernest Hemingway, the first draft of anything is sh*t. Each subsequent draft usually reduces that quality by a small percentage.

It was neat to watch at first, but I got bored quickly. Reminded me too much of video game cut scenes. We have that already, how about a movie?

I didn't care for it. Glad others did.

briurso wrote:i loved it.... i thought it was better than most movies that are coming out now...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
that is until the next Christopher Nolan epic...and that is who i wold love to see direct a live action 40k film

How? Are you nine?

Brother Coa wrote:http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/347836.page

Ultramarines movie had fine story ( Dan Abnett after all ), but lot of lore rape and unlogical moments.

Dan Abnett being the writer doesn't it's automatically a good story. It was pretty average, and the plot 'twist' was completely predictable.

I liked the movie, almost rage quit my fist into the CD at one point when a certain someone came back from the dead but it was explained and shown why so i was content.

The voice acting was like Oblivion but whatever it was the first Warhammer40k movie so it can only get better from here (i hope )

It was a good start.

Now, it is only horrible if you set your standards too high. Yes its the universe we all know and love. but its the first time it was put to screen and by a small company and for a very small budget. the budget makes me amazed they even got it finished.

For these reasons, you need to NOT compare it to other movies from mainstream film makers.


The story was actually quite good considering it was Abnetts first screenplay. The story sure was a hell of alot better then Avatar's was. It actually had plot

I can assure you that there will be improvements, great improvements, as they make more.


Codex Pictures got alot of feedback about the content and how to make it better. They also managed to make a profit on the movie. These 2 combined will ensure they keep making movies, but will also improve the quality.

I said this on another forum, but...

My issue was the movie was trying too hard to be 40k, rather than be a movie set in the 40k universe.

They should've started with IG, made things easier on themselves.

Go live-action with Cain or Gaunt is my point of view.

-Loki- wrote:I said this on another forum, but...

My issue was the movie was trying too hard to be 40k, rather than be a movie set in the 40k universe.

Good point. I haven't seen it, but Im almost certain from what others have said that I wouldnt like it.

If a 40k film were to be made, I'd want it to be done 'right', i.e. as dark as the 40k universe actually is, not some action movie where space marines act like the colonial marines from Aliens.

They're supposed to be warrior monks, for god's sake. Or if not that then at least knights in space. There is supposed to be a certain amount of dignity involved. They dont fly around in thunderhawks making fart jokes. Even legions like that space wolves aren't drunk all the time. They have feast days & that fenrisian root that nullifies their alcohol processing organ, but the rest of the time theyre incredibly disciplined. Abnett had the way of it in Prospero Burns. Gah, I need to stop this post before it turns into a rant - ARRRGH, TOO LATE!

-Loki- wrote:
Dan Abnett being the writer doesn't it's automatically a good story. It was pretty average, and the plot 'twist' was completely predictable.

Isn't Dan Abnett best BL writer? Like:

I didn't like it that much, to much fluff rape, The thing that irked me the most though is how disrespectful EVERYONE was to the apothacary, I though apothacarys were highly respected? But everyone just gave him s**t the whole movie, and the cgi wasn't that great either...

I'm sorry but you are the only person i have come across that thinks this film was good.

i was just gak, there was so much wrong with it never mind the almost rediculas number of plots and fluff holes.

You need to consider that, while Abnett did write the script, he probably had a few things tweaked by other people in the studio.


Maybe the Cruxius doing its little energy field thing wasn't his idea, but the director or someone in the CGI department wanted an Energy Field.

It was horrible.

No more GW related movies please.

DeffDred wrote:It was horrible.

No more GW related movies please.

To late, rumors that they had earned some cash from "Ultramarines" and that they are making second movie. According to rumors - "Space Wolves"!!!

Dan Abnett is awesome...helluva writer..and more importantly really really nice guy...