Ok guys, Here is my big ass review for Ultramarines the movie. I know, I know, its a bit late, but I kinda sat here not really planning to do one, but I never saw a truly extensive one. So here it is guys! Hope you enjoy. Feel free to disagree, (yes you need my permission) I ask that you realize there simply IS going to be spoilers in this thread. This is also going to seem like a massive rant but its just the truth from my view. Scroll to bottom for
TL;DR
Synopsis
The story revolves around a 2nd company captain (funnily enough with the same name as the current 1st company captain of the Ultramarines) and 10 new recruits, plus an apothecary. They are sent on what really is a scouting mission, and turns into a gak-fight between them and some chaos over an Imperial Fists relic.
Story and Truth To Background
The story is...interesting. Im trying not to spoil it, but the ending is...unrealistic. And I mean unrealistic in
40k terms, you cant even compare real world realism to what happens, its simply apples and oranges. The entire movie left me sitting there thinking "This doesn't convey what a space marine chapter is" because of a LOT of factors.
First off, the whole brotherhood thing going on in actual
40k is just not apparent in this movie. There is rivalry between the brothers, and downright favoritism from the captain. Proteus, the main protagonist of the movie, gets the type of "Up yours" comments my grade 4 teacher gave to me constantly. At one point, they must appoint a new banner bearer, and the captain says "Who will it be?". Proteus gladly stands up and says that he shall carry the banner, to which the captain replies "I think not, brother proteus" and then hands the banner to another marine, who didn't even ask for it! Odd indeed. At another point, Proteus fires his boltgun at a shadow, which is made out to be ... a very agile chaos marine...anyway. All his brothers ridicule him and the captain hates him for the rest of the movie. Those 3 bolts could have saved thousands of people Proteus! What a waste!
Second. I never got the feel of space marine chapter because there was literally 12 ultramarines in the whole movie. I was hoping for Lord Macragge himself to make an appearance, I mean, it is an "Ultramarines" movie isn't it? Wouldn't it have been badass to see Calgar and his honourguard make an entrance onto a battlefield that stretched for miles - the true embodiment of
40k - and kick some chaos butt? Yes, it would have, but there was none of that. No famous characters made an appearance in the movie, all were created for the movie. Not only this, but there wasn't any faceless brothers or other squads doing anything, just 12 space marines on a strike cruiser doing a scouting mission...yeah. No crew on the ship either by the looks of it, except maybe a servitor that likes setting purity seals on fire.
40k is meant to be about the toiling billions, the thousands of space marines, not the little groups.
The Imperial Fists are met with suspicion and cautiousness, and Imperial Fist fans are not advised to watch this movie
The might of the Imperial guard makes an appearance as well! You see one stabbed on a spear at one point! Yay for guardsmen!
The Emperor and the rest of
40k is left totally unexplained. There is no mention of 99% of
40k. Not even the heresy. I didnt expect much, but jeez, it was pretty bad that the Emperor and the Age of Strife and the Heresy werent explained, even in a synopsis at the start. The apothecary in the movie is an extremely un-space marine character. You would expect space marines to be neither naive or cowardly, even as recruits, but the recruits did act blood thirsty for battle, and in return, the apothecary reassured them they would die soon enough. Honestly, I expected much less logic and sense from the space marines and much more religious, zealous monk talk and war cries and general manliness. The demeanor I got from these space marines was nothing short of Imperial Guardsman status. The apothecary seems quite bitter about how often space marines die, and generally doesnt like the Emperor. I would have thought it was utter heresy to reply to a captains prayer of "The Emperor Protects" with "That he may, but it helps to have a boltgun" but whatever. The belief in the emperor is never really explained in the movie, and anyone who was unfamiliar would assume the emperor was even just the leader of the chapter.
Wargear
Wargear wise, the movie was dead off. The most advanced piece of equipment (Other than a daemonhammer) that was in the movie was a multimelta, which was never fired. None of the Space Marines had any sort of close combat weapon, except the captain, who started with a chainsword, which is apparently this insanely powerful weapon that can slice through powerarmour and...daemon...with ease. So the chainsword was off, but more over...he is THE second company captain, shouldnt he have a power sword and plasma pistol at least? No terminator armour, vehicles other than the landspeeder and thunderhawk, no drop pods, no dreadnoughts, and no plasma weaponry meant that wargear wise there was no variation really. The complete list of weapons in the movie goes as follows.
Boltgun
Bolt Pistol
Sword
Chainsword
Daemonhammer
Heavy bolter
Multimelta
Flamer
Crozius Arcanum
Im going to write quite an extensive written review on these. So Ill start with the fact that bolts DO NOT EXPLODE. Once again, we do not see explosive rounds being fired. On the plus side, when seen in slow motion, bolts do have flames coming out of the end of them where they are being rocket propelled. There is a single bolt pistol in the movie, and I must say it claims at least 50,000 years worth of experience from the chaos marines in lives. At one point the captain uses a sword, but it doesnt seem to be a powersword. None the less, it has the same relative effect. The daemonhammer is very satisfying, and the marine wielding it even has trouble wielding it. I would say far to much trouble personally, he almost drags it on the ground, and swings are very slow. It makes it out to be an extremely impractical weapon. The heavy bolter does not claim a single chaos marines life during the movie, although it does spray around one thousand rounds at some. It is well portrayed as a heavy weapon, but I was oh so longing for the heavy bolter marine to be the one claiming all the lives when some chaos marines charged a ridge the Ultramarines stood on. But nope, still nothing. Wish I had seen more. The Multimelta did nothing. The Flamer, oh dear the FLAMER!
New paragraph for the poor flamer. The flamer in this movie is portrayed with burning heretics as its secondary function, its primary function being... lighting up dark rooms. Me and my friends even joked and imagined the flamer marine walking to each lantern and fireplace on the strike cruiser each day, letting off a quick jet of flame to light each one and moving on. He literally fires his flamer in every scene. Even in one of the desert scenes when visibility is low due to dust, he FLAMES! He is a serious pyromaniac. BUT. The Flamer marine does claim 4 chaos lives, with one insanely quick burst of his flamer. Its almost stupid, I imagined marines to be immune to flames, at least for short periods of time, but this almost instantly kills them. Oh, and the 3rd function of flamers is uh...miniature nuclear explosive devices used only during times of dire need... Jokes aside, the flamer was a lantern for most of the movie.
Last on the wargear list is the crozius arcanum. Now comes with inbuilt smite librarian psychic power! Or was that just an EMP attack? (Think of those poor chaos marines, their armour locked up and shut down, lying in the desert screaming for someone to itch their back for them)
Lastly Im just going to say I have no idea why they put the sergeant in the landspeeder.
Are They Really Space Marines?
No. They are Guardsmen in flak armour with Mp5ks. There is exactly one marine who does not get instantly killed when hit by a boltgun, and thats only because it hits him in the hand, before another couple hit him in the face, and kill him. Chainsword, sword, and boltgun alike ignore the power armour all together. The space marines are not tactical, and they certainly dont show their 20 years of combat experience as scouts. Its as if they gave some school boys power armour, but hey, whos complaining? Speaking of getting instantly killed by boltguns, there is one marine who is sniped by SOMETHING at one point, and the round catches him in the back, goes straight through him, and apparently his armour. How it kills him is beyond me, Space Marine wounds stop bleeding instantly, so he didnt die of blood loss, and at best, the round hit ONE of his hearts, which isnt going to kill a space marine, once again. That really annoyed me.
What else is absolutely horribly off is the Chaos Marines. They may be mad, but they also have experience, and gods, too. Most of the chaos marines in the movie dont have boltguns, but have an uncanny ability to
The chaos marines in this movie get the gak kicked out of them. By noobs.
From a Non 40k players standpoint
This movie is good, if a bit to open. Not open ended, just kind of unexplained. A bit like the matrix movies, I mean,
wtf happened to earth in them??? Back on topic. If I never knew anything about
40k, I would wonder if everyone had power armour, I would think space marines are police, and Chaos are like...drug dealers. Im not sure it does
40k justice at all, I mean you cant have
40k justice without Orks in the first place, but thats not the point. The point is no explaining is done. Well there is a bit, but not enough.
For
40k, this movie still has the
WTF factor, its not grimdark enough to satisfy me, but theres plenty of head chainsawing and daemon purging to be done, plenty of heresy, betrayal, headshots, close combat, heroes and blood. It has some nice twists, one of which will really just make your jaw drop like a bungie cord, then when you shake your head in disbelief, your jaw will literally fly around and slap you in the face for not realizing it sooner, I mean OBVIOUSLY that was going to happen. You seriously didnt see that coming? Jesus.
TL;DR
Its good, watch it, dont buy it. Dont expect to be watching
40k, expect to see some space marines, some boltguns *cough*mp5's*cough*, some blood and some action. And PLEASE, dont be an Imperial Fists fan! Or a fan of chaplains! Or banner bearers! Or flamer marines! Or heavy bolter marines! Or captains! Or daemons! Or apothecaries! Or Chaos! In General! Just don't even like
40k, just to be safe.
