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Watched it last night. It was very enjoyable. My only complaint about the art/animation is that all of the faces looked too similar, and the guns looked a bit out of proportion. Otherwise, everything looked great!

The Imperial Fists chaplain looked awesome!

Now....for my complaint about the story/fluff....

Since when did Chaplains have beams that come out of the crozius and will kill CHaos Marines>?>???????????????????????????????

Otherwise, I really liked it.......I wonder if they will change the rules to allow Chaplains "CroziusBeamofHereticSlayng".....

Digital weapon?

Chaos marines cant shoot there way out of a paper bag in the movie. There was what? 8 marines agenst 50 or so chaos and chain swords cutting through power armor like a power weapon would. I do understand the movie IS called Ultramarines after all. Got to make them look bad ass. Wooden bridge falling apart, with two what? 400 lbs Space Marines crossing at the same time. It was a great movie though. I cant wait for the game to come out at the end of the month.

Ah, but you forget....it was part of the plan to allow the Ultramarines to escape. That's why the Ultras were able to beat the Black Legion.

The graphics were pretty much what I expected from the trailers. It wasn't awesome but it was worth watching at least once. I didn't like the lighting during the indoor parts of the movie especially when they first fight the daemon prince it was a little to dark to really see the details.

I kinda watched it a little bit at the store Friday night. I had a lot of complaints. Firstly, the animation was inferior Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within, and the FF movie is a decade old. Secondly, the animators didn't seem to really understand the fluff that much. I remember more than one person watching the movie complaining about all of the shell casings coming out of bolters; bolters use caseless ammunition.

Though, we did all agree that a truly epic drinking game could be made from the movie. The rule would be simple: take a drink every time a trite, overused, silly GW stereotypical situation occurs.

Screaming bald guy? check
"Death to the heretic." check
"Purge the unclean." check
"Praise the Emperor." check

The list goes on and on.

Watched the movie last night. I thought it was great for the money they had.

Cool moments- Shakycam following the squad up stairs. I thought it very clever. Landspeeder going zoop and gone.

? moments- What's up with that crozius? Chainsword, chainsword, who's got the chainsword?

Meh moment- Marine gait looked wierd. But then I've always thought walking in armored bellbottoms would.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Good Lord!
Only seven of us have seen it!
They'll never make another at this rate.

If bolters use caseless ammo, why does the bolter shell I have on my desk have a shell? People have been modelling those for years....

General Hobbs wrote:

If bolters use caseless ammo, why does the bolter shell I have on my desk have a shell? People have been modelling those for years....

a buddy of mine is a big gun nut and a war historian...6 more months and he'll have a PHD in it. I was talking to him about this. anyone who has played modern warfare black ops has seen the G11. That is a caseless ammo gun. The army never used it because the ammo cost WAY too much and it got dirty fast. Its bullets had almost a cm or two of powder "glued" to the back... kinda like a solid rocket fuel of a sort.

In the 40k universe im sure the cost would drop down or it would be worth it for the SM. To keep it clean you would need a case so the gun wont get dirty and jam. Most likely the gun powder would trigger the mini rocket/more gun powder in mid barrel. So cleaner gun, more reliable and the ablility to keep propelling itself in dence atmosires to keep 100% stopping power were a normal projectiles would loose thrust and loose stopping power.

I didnt know this but bullets do loose power/range in cold/heavy weather such as snowy conditions in Alaska, northern Russia or in the SM case... under water, heavy grav, toxic places. In a Role the SM play it is the perfict firearm. No matter were its fired the round will always have its full effect.

Saldiven wrote:I kinda watched it a little bit at the store Friday night. I had a lot of complaints. Firstly, the animation was inferior Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within, and the FF movie is a decade old. Secondly, the animators didn't seem to really understand the fluff that much. I remember more than one person watching the movie complaining about all of the shell casings coming out of bolters; bolters use caseless ammunition.

Though, we did all agree that a truly epic drinking game could be made from the movie. The rule would be simple: take a drink every time a trite, overused, silly GW stereotypical situation occurs.

Screaming bald guy? check
"Death to the heretic." check
"Purge the unclean." check
"Praise the Emperor." check

The list goes on and on.

You can't really fault them for that when the artwork gracing much of GW's own products clearly show shell casings (look at the BA and SM codex covers for example).

I'll post my review from the other thread:



Ok, so just finished watching it. What can I say...

Ok, I'll start with the animation. It is better than the trailer had led me to believe. That doesn't make it good animation, but it's certainly better than what I thought it was going to be. The main problem with the animation is that it suffers from what a lot of 3D animated shows suffer from - a frictionless environment with no gravity. What I mean by that is everything moves too fast, and nothing feels like it has any weight. It's evident right from the start with the sparring session between Pertwee's character and the Captain. Movements are slightly too quick, don't carry any impact, and it feels like everything is floating. This is further exacerbated during the final fight, with Marines flying everywhere almost as if it was a low-G environment,a nd then sliding or clattering across the floor as though everything was covered in oil.

But my main issues with the animation were technical - the lighting for one thing. It was very dark in a lot of places, and that obscured a lot of things. Only when they were aboard the Thunderhawk was there enough light to see anything. They also used too many overlays of fire or smoke to compensate for the animation's quality. The faces looked fine - certainly nothing Blur level, probably... a bit better than Diablo II, if any'a y'all remember that.

The story was fine (even if you can make a dozen parallels with Aliens and half a dozen other stories). I liked the build up of tension, even in the instances where the foreshadowing was obvious (the Thunder Hammer, especially - they were never not going to come back to that) and the pacing was fine. The movie didn't feel short (as I feared it would) nor did it overstay its welcome and carry on too long. I liked the characterisation as well. The Apothecary was especially good, with the two good lines he got "The Emperor protects, but it doesn't hurt to check twice" and "The Emperor Protects, but a loaded Bolter helps". The Marines were suitably "Marine-like", equal parts heroic glory hounds, high-speak spouting knights and deadly primitive thugs. The rivalries made sense, and at no point did I feel like they weren't real (animation oddities aside).

I liked the twist. I thought it would turn out to be the single remaining Imp Fist Marine (seeing the Chaplain as too obvious a Red Herring). When he screamed I thought "ok, here we go, transformation scene coming!", but no... it was different to that. And that's good. It meant that the foreshadowing from the very start - even the helmet smash - all got a pay-off. And that's good.

The Bolters felt cool. Probably the best example of Bolters since... Chaos Gate. The main difference between the Bolters in Chaos Gate and in Ultramarines is that it took about about 10 shots to even crack the armour on a Chaos Marine in Chaos Gate. Here they were shooting HE uranium depleted slugs... how else were they cutting through the Black Legion Marines? But, again, it's not a huge issue - the Black Legion were a means to an end, a distraction and not a real threat, designed to whittle the squad down to the point where the real threat could leave without being discovered.

The Flamer guy... I guess he just liked lighting fires. The amount of times he shot that thing while walking down dark hallways was annoying. And the Landspeeder was awesome! It didn't do much, but I loved seeing one zip around on screen.

Overall the single greatest downside to this film is the completely lack of interest GW has shown in it. Maybe now GW will put a little grunt work of their own to cross-promote these things in the future. They're a company with their own chain of retail stores across the world for feth's sake and they think that their only role in such an endeavour is to collect the cheque at the end for the license rights they sold. If anyone in their promotions and marketing department had even half a brain their most recent issue of White Dwarf would have "Ultramarines - The Movie" as it's front cover, have interviews with the makers, the cast, a look at the film, a special movie-based scenario for people to play with rules for the main characters and - because they are a miniature company after all - a Ltd. Ed. boxed set with a metal model for each of the main characters (the exact same thing they should have done with the HQ's from Dark Crusade). But no, for GW all this means to them is more $$$ with no effort, when even the slightest bit of effort (White Dwarf) would allow them to further increase the sales.

Overall I'm giving this a solid 7/10. It's a 6/10, 5 being 'Average' and 6 being 'Above Average', and it gets a 7 because it impressed me far more than I thought it would.

Gridge wrote:

You can't really fault them for that when the artwork gracing much of GW's own products clearly show shell casings (look at the BA and SM codex covers for example).

Not to mention that all the bolter weapons have ejection ports for the spent casings. Here's a thought: they're not caseless at all. I think that solves the problem nicely.

They haven't been 'caseless' weapons for a very long time.

I loved the movie but as a graphic artist I was disappointed in some of the final editing, especially on the thunder hawk. Some of the final edit overlays where shaky and not staying in place. The story was great, I have a little more respect for smurfs and even more distaste for the Black Legion. I may be a chaos player but i don't like the black legion.

As for the modeling and all goes, I loved the chaplains helm. At first i thought it was black with etching to reveal the silver under the paint, something new for a chaplain. But it surprised me that it was actually reflecting the darkness from the room. I wasn't expecting the Ultimos captain to be the Daemon Prince in the end. I really thought it was going to end up being the tome keeper. Another thing that irritated me was how the Black Legion didn't speak hardly at all, all they did was roar, groan and yell. If I remember there where only about three lines spoken from the chaos side, not counting the Daemon Prince.

I do agree that GW should have done some marketing for it. I mean come on, fans going out of their way to make a movie of their beloved smurfs? That and they should have made models for the characters, especially the chaplain, and apothecary.

I loved the movie.

it's definitly a keeper. it's a movie you don't mind watching multiple times and can keep in your collection.

the rendering on the Thunderhawk was a little lackluster and the outdoor scenes on the planet were a little, empty shall we say?, but it was certaintly enjoyable.


hopefully they will continue to make more.



the Blue ray of death was odd. don't know where that came from, but i suppose it could be explained away as being an old Heresy era weapon that contains an energy projection field in addition to being a Power weapon.

one story thing i though was wierd was this. Why was the Shrine protected by a full Company of Impierial Fists? seems like an inordinate amount of protection, especially from such a well known chapter. a new, unknown chapter might protect a shrine like that, but not the Fists.




the final thing i wonder is this. Who is Captain Severus? the only Captain Severus of the Ultramarines 2nd company is Severus Agemmon and he became the captain of the 1st after the Battle for Maccrage.

this movie HAS to be after the battle for Maccrage because of the Tyranid motifs in the Reclusiam.

But the current Captain of the 2nd company is Cato Sicarus.


this leaves 2 possable explainations. either Cato is dead or,

Marneus Calgar is dead and Cato is Chapter Master and was succeded in his position as captain of the 2nd by another Severus.

Cato wasn't Captain of the 2nd all the time. Two Codices ago he was Captain of the 5th. He would have to be promoted later.

Captains don't start as captains of a different company.


the only promotion would be getting transferred to the 1st.

a Marine stays in his company untill he gets made a veteran or dies.

I felt the movie was fantastic, and I was anxious to watch it again the next day just because it was so entertaining. There were a good number of good lines from multiple characters:

From Severus:
"The Emperor protects, but it doesn't hurt to double check"

Proteus/Pythol:
"The Emperor protects."
"But having a loaded bolter never hurt either"

Pythol/Proteus:
"Still so eager to be heroes?"
"Someone has to be Apothecary. I heard you turned the job down."


I found it very interesting that Ultima squad was almost completely destroyed twice over two weeks. I hope they don't make another Ultima squad as it can't end well.


Anyway, I felt the animation was fine. It looked nice (not as nice as it could have, but it still looked very nice, and I was happier with the more interesting script/storyline/acting than a bit better animation. There were a few issues that I had with the movie (Why didn't the demon dodge the thunderhammer, why is Proteus still wearing his beginning armor when it seems he's acting as captain). But overall the movie was entertaining and quite believable.

One other thing that tells me it was a good movie was that it made me want to play Space Marines.

I almost forgot i was watching Ultramarines on the screen.

in all the books i have read, only Uriel Ventris and Passinus weren't total D-bags, but every other Ultramarine has been this stuck up RAW lawyer.


nice and refreshing. Dan Abnett can take over Mcneill's job as Ultramarine writer.

H.B.M.C. wrote:I'll post my review from the other thread:


Ok, I'll start with the animation. It is better than the trailer had led me to believe. That doesn't make it good animation, but it's certainly better than what I thought it was going to be. The main problem with the animation is that it suffers from what a lot of 3D animated shows suffer from - a frictionless environment with no gravity. What I mean by that is everything moves too fast, and nothing feels like it has any weight. It's evident right from the start with the sparring session between Pertwee's character and the Captain. Movements are slightly too quick, don't carry any impact, and it feels like everything is floating. This is further exacerbated during the final fight, with Marines flying everywhere almost as if it was a low-G environment,a nd then sliding or clattering across the floor as though everything was covered in oil.

I don't think the movement of the marines were too fast. They are always described as moving far faster than humans even in power armor. I agree that the armor itself didn't seem to be weighty enough (this I think could have been accomplished through sound effects and more impact to their environment) and didn't seem to offer as much protection as one would expect, but I guess we can assume the Ultramarines were just rolling well.

it is certailtly difficult to judge the quality of the marine performances when there arn't any IG to compare them too.


the part where they were crossing the stone bridge did add weight to their movements. they were thudding pretty heavily when they were jumping around.

it really demonstrated the dexterity marines in PA posess.

Grey Templar wrote:Captains don't start as captains of a different company.


the only promotion would be getting transferred to the 1st.

a Marine stays in his company untill he gets made a veteran or dies.

The nids attacked Macragge in 745

According to Lexicanum

Soon after Sicarius became captain he was announced the Suzerain of Ultramar in 849.M41

That's about a hundred years between the nids attacking and Sicarius becoming captain. Severus could have been the captain before him. If his title is Captain Severus then that would suggest that his last name is Severus and not his first.

Grey Templar wrote:Captains don't start as captains of a different company.

Since when? Says who?

And since Sicarius went from 5th to 2nd between the time of Captain Invictus and now, I'd say that yeah, they can change companies.

OR we could say GW doesn't stay consistant with their own fluff.


@cadbren. Lexicanum states that Sicarus was the successor to Captain Agemmon

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ultramarines


the movie CAN'T be before the battle for Maccrage because the Ultramarines hadn't encountered Tyranids enough to devote decoration on their Strike Cruisers to depicting them.

this MUST have occured after Cato moved on in either position or death.

Grey Templar wrote:OR we could say GW doesn't stay consistant with their own fluff.


@cadbren. Lexicanum states that Sicarus was the successor to Captain Agemmon

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ultramarines


the movie CAN'T be before the battle for Maccrage because the Ultramarines hadn't encountered Tyranids enough to devote decoration on their Strike Cruisers to depicting them.

this MUST have occured after Cato moved on in either position or death.

Very true about their fluff. As for the timeframe of the the movie, as was stated above, there is a gap of nearly a century between the Tyrannid invasion and Sicarius becoming captain. But, we are likely never to know where this fits in to the Ultramarines history so it's best just to relax and enjoy...sweating the details with anything GW is often an exercise in futility and a good way to cause an aneurysm.

that century gap isn't enough for the Sevrus in the movie to die, new captain Sevrus Agemmon to be promoted, Agemmon gets made 1st company Captain, Cato becomes Captain.


and this IS important. Sir D-bag himself might be Chapter master.

Grey Templar wrote:that century gap isn't enough for the Sevrus in the movie to die, new captain Sevrus Agemmon to be promoted, Agemmon gets made 1st company Captain, Cato becomes Captain.


and this IS important. Sir D-bag himself might be Chapter master.

A 100 years would be plenty of time. Unless you know of some fluff that states how long Agemmon served in the 2nd company before being moved, then it could still work.

it is highly unlikely for a Captain to be promoted to the 1st company with less then a century of service.

Why would Calgar promote a realitivly new captain when he had 8 other Captains to choose from?

sadly, there isn't much fluff on Captain Agemmon so we don't know for sure.

Grey Templar wrote:it is highly unlikely for a Captain to be promoted to the 1st company with less then a century of service.

Why would Calgar promote a realitivly new captain when he had 8 other Captains to choose from?

sadly, there isn't much fluff on Captain Agemmon so we don't know for sure.

Perhaps his performance was that fantastic? No one can say really, but it is at least a possible explanation. Personally, I feel they could have chosen another, lesser known company to fit the purpose of their story (and I would have preferred that they weren't mostly novices), but it is what it is and I still enjoyed the movie. Also, I don't believe Abnett is very strict in his following of the fluff (GW themselves aren't for that matter since they often change it to suit whatever purpose the wish).

Loved the movie - the quality of the voice acting was superb. Again it helps that at least a few knew of the game, and its background, before taking part. John Hurt, for example, is regularly in Oxford St Plaza with his nephew (from memory) - and his voice realy lent a gravitas to the "in the 41st millenium...." spiel at the start. Perfect casting.

The extras cracked me up - seeing Sean Pertwees reason for mostly enjoying this film role as "I didnt die in this one" was hilarious

Yes, the animation wasnt great. However comparing it to Spirits within, one that broke records for its render-farm at the time and was the culmination of years of software development is a little unfair.