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we all knew the quality wouldn't be very good.. but i liked the idea of a 40K movie..

but indeed from the moment the Apothecary said for the first time? uho wrong.. if they are tactical mariens.. they have served in devestator squads assault squads and scout squads..

another thing.. a space marine kiked aside by helmet in the face..ok but a deamon?? uho wrong..

I was also a little bit disapointed by the sound of firing bolters I expected a little bit more.. "herioc" with more bass..

voices are good, story is good, proteus is to eager to earn some stripes XD comic book was worse then I expected actually..

as someone already mentioned: it looks like they are going to the fight with the idea that they have already won.. no cover or stealth.. just walk into the fight and see what comes next..

Roboute must have been crying when he watched it.. if he was still alive..

Altgough I liked the movie despite some fluff errors..

gave 3 1/2 (didn't read, thought it was out of 5)

graphics - for the budget v.good. Some excellent scenes, some poor (no shadows etc). Good sense of depth in several scenes, good use of smoke throughout.

voice acting - about as expected, nothing to shout about but could have been worse. Script lets down the cast.

sound - good for the most part, plenty of thought put into it. Bolters etc. sound right.

script - Did Dan really write this peice of c#@p?!!!! expected much more from him. I can excuse the lack of characters in favour of more time spent on graphics, but the whole thing felt like a drawn out 10second cut scene from a game to link several 'nice' things gamers want to see - bolters firing, speeder put into a thunderhawk etc. For a first movie to 'show off' the poster boys, Chaos marines were a poor choice of antagonist. 'Hey we've got superhuman future fighting wariors that can take down 100 normal men single handed, I wonder how to show off how good they are? hmmm, how about an enemy of equal match?' Yeah great idea, except they apear to be the usual bad shot enemy. And at no point is the armour shown off. single hit kills? hmmmmmm

Hopefully next time will be better. I'd say buy it, only so there is demand there to encourage a second that can fix the problems.

Deadshane1 - I think its safe to say that i do have an opinion (a well founded one at that) and have stated it well enough(without any unnecessary detail).

Just because an opinion isn't the same as yours does not make it less valid (even if you feel the points raised are obvious).

I stand by what i said before, the movie was a disappointment all round. There are many 40k based stories from the black library that could have been set to film much better in my opinion, of which most of them are far away from the predictable and somewhat unimaginative writing that went into this movie.

I understand that the movie was designed to sell to fans of the 40k universe, but just because its got marines in it doesn't mean its watchable by default, there should be some real story telling in there too. Graham McNeil along with Dan Abnett and Henry Zou (along with too many others to mention) have proven that SMs can be interesting 4D characters with out all seeming like clones of one another. In the Salamander books for example the protagonist (an SM) even recalls there past life before they became a marine, if only in fragments, and this past life directly influence his choices throughout the story. Dan Abnett is even a proven script writer on the GW payrole (well published through BL), having written script from many fiction scripts from shows like Stagegate, Star Trek an even Doctor Who. So why he, or any of the other BL writers couldn't of had a say in the script is a mystery to me. Surely there retainer isn't that much? (Apologies if they did have a say at all, i haven't checked that out, but i would be surprised if they had)

As for the 'Acting' i do agree with Deadshane1, there isn't a lot an actor can do with a poor script except their best, and i have to say i don't have a problem with the voice actors at all.

I also understand the limitations of graphics when compered to budget, and yes i agree that a good story does not need massive amounts spent. But only if the story can hold its self up on its own, but this one couldn't. But its not the Technical quality of the graphics that i'm too bothered by, its the lack innovativeness of it. The look of the movie just isn't quite right IMHO, it could have been ripped from the cut scenes of the first few GW computer games. Some fesh artistry would have been fantastic, but even the first scene contains published GW artwork rendered into the stained glass of the chapel. If the had been a 'nod' to GW then that would have been fine and dandy, i would even go as far to say, a nice touch. But as the movie when on it was apparent that the guys at codex had just been handed an average sized file of GW art work, the web address of their site and told to get on with it.

Sticking with the graphic theme, i feel that perhaps the whole low grade CGI should have been avoided altogether. Instead going down the route of animated sketches, roughly done like some of Jew Goodwin's earlier stuff. I think that the Grim Dark feel of the 40k universe could have been encompassed much better this way, instead of the ultra clean lines of the CGI. I also feel it would have been more artistically in tune with most hard core fans view of the 40K universe. But as i am a layman when it come to film and animation costing, i'm not sure whether this would have been a possibility when considering the budget, i know that the frame rate for a good animation can be quite costly. Still, i would love to see a series of 40k sketches, somewhat like the ani-matrix or even some of the halo legends animations. Even the special features animations from the i am Legend movie would have captured the feel of 40k, better than cheap (sorry, low end) CGI.

Im not trying to be a 'hater', i REALLY wanted to see a good 40k based movie (and still do, finger crossed for the future), as there is so much interesting mutli-layered/themed background. This movie could have been really quite good, even a cult classic, but it just lacked any real punch from any angle.

Best stick to BL publications if your looking for a 40k fix IMO.

Sorry if my previous post was too flippant or if this offends anyone, but its just my opinion.

----- Just read the post above, and it seems Dan Abnett could have written some, if not all of the script. If so i'm really disappointed in the effort. Saying that his last couple of books and short stories weren't quite up to his best standard (still good reads tho). But still, a whole lot better than this movie.-----


----- Amazing! Just checked the cast a crew, and yes Dan Abnett is indeed the screen write for this, sad times -----

i havent seen the movie is it on download allready? in holland we dont get too see it in theaters.....
but what is it i hear about the story line? hasnt the script been written bij Dan Adbnett? or did they discard his script?

We watched it with my gaming buddies and my sister today. Cant give it more than 6 stars, tbh.

Plot holes were already mentioned - the lack or Rhino support, 15 guys on a Strike Cruiser, no Alarm sounded when the demon gets loose, Newcomers being on suspicion of being heretics given free reign over the ship, only 15 guys being sent to help a COMPANY of Imperial Fists etc etc.

It seems the whole movie would be better if it only lasted 30 minutes, it would save us the walking, moving, walking, jumping etc.etc - it seemed all these long scenes were there only because there was no idea of what to show.

Land Speeder was neatly done, tho why it moved fast like that I don't know. You did not even get to see it right.

Nice foreshadowing on using the Thunderhammer, though, and nice linking of the end and begninng with that speech part.

Clunky graphics.

All in all, not impressed. Was an O.K watch for a bunch of buddies, but I doubt we will ever get back to it.

Nice product placement using the Imperial Bastion with the WHFB Chapel.

I'm trying to figure out what this was on a table-top level. Seems most like a Kill team mission, you have 1 HQ, 1 Troop, 1 Fast & bad guys are jut mobs of basic troops of army "X".

Any way the movie is not a super Hollywood- Jerry Bruckheimer style extravaganza but it was targeted at 40K enthusiasts so give it some credit there.

3 stars, And make another one please.

My friend and I rated it 3.5 out of 4.

After reading whatever everyone said, and I was expecting a giant stinking turd. Low expectations made this a great movie.

Most of the technical errors I missed out on because I didn't watch the movie to nit pick and complain, which seems to be the theme on half the reviews. Sure it is no Avatar, but did you expect it to?

And as for being predictable, well duh. When was the last time the story of the 41st Millennium expanded? No matter who the enemy was, someone would have called it predictable and that they saw it coming. There isn't too many options for enemies without making your own fluff.

And as for the one line about them being them being new Ultramarines, I am pretty sure they don't mean novices. I wouldn't consider myself a Space Marine till ALL of my training is finished.

I will be buying this movie for myself, and maybe for a friend or two. Hopefully this will get us another movie, which will be better than the first.

WTF? Such negative reviews?

I enjoyed it, sober and well, maybe with the help of something other than tea but green the second time IT WAS EPIC! Even my friends who consider my 40k side a bit nerdy loved it, although the Demon part was a bit "I need to go outside, I cant handle this right now".

Connor McKane wrote:2 STARS:
"This is your first time going into battle as Ultramarines."

Uhh... no. They are full battle brothers which meant they would have spent time as scouts, and seen alot of combat before becoming full battle brothers, so it was a total fail on that plot device.

The Ultramarines also walked around without any sense of "Tactical" purpose. No stealth, no cover... they walked about like they were going for a snow cone. Not like an elite fighting unit.

For one what he said is correct, the first time going into battle as ultraMARINES, scouts arent full marines, therefore what he said is true.

Also since when do marines do things in a stealthy manner? They have their armor and their faith to shield them Cover yes, but one of the few times cover was available they deduced it was a trap and not offering any safety.

The movie could have held to the canon a bit more, but they were trying to make it accessible to people other than diehard 40k fans, and if it got more people into the game then its a good thing.

3 stars.

oke ill grant you all who say there only full marines iff you finished the training but how on earth do you explain the gunner of the speeder who came from the "new" squad. did have a red helmet the sign of a veteran?

Artistic license and those colors tested better in focus groups probably lol ...

Wow all you guys complaining about the cruiser only having a few marines. READ THE GRAPHIC NOVEL< IT EXPLAINS THAT.

kill dem stunties wrote:

Connor McKane wrote:2 STARS:
"This is your first time going into battle as Ultramarines."

Uhh... no. They are full battle brothers which meant they would have spent time as scouts, and seen alot of combat before becoming full battle brothers, so it was a total fail on that plot device.

The Ultramarines also walked around without any sense of "Tactical" purpose. No stealth, no cover... they walked about like they were going for a snow cone. Not like an elite fighting unit.

For one what he said is correct, the first time going into battle as ultraMARINES, scouts arent full marines, therefore what he said is true.

Also since when do marines do things in a stealthy manner? They have their armor and their faith to shield them Cover yes, but one of the few times cover was available they deduced it was a trap and not offering any safety.

The movie could have held to the canon a bit more, but they were trying to make it accessible to people other than diehard 40k fans, and if it got more people into the game then its a good thing.

3 stars.

that is very wrong.. first.. ultramarines comes from Ultramarine the color (blue).. you don't say blood angelses or black templarses.. They are Ultramarine scouts you also have Ultramarine space marines and so on.. you don't say ultrascouts.. than if you want to be a tactical marien you must have served in space MARINE devestator squad or Space MARINE assault MARINE squad.. and riding bikes as well..

the red helmet guy is the sergeant and his story is written in the graphic novel.. red helmet => sergeants white laurel =>veterancy..

Deadshane1 wrote:Bad script, terrible acting, worthless graphics, no plot....typical complaints of one who really doesn't have a solid opinion of the movie and is simply trying to be a hater.

Excuse me? People who said that explained why. No one here's pretending to be an expert, but you're expecting everyone to bow down to this movie just 'cause it's 40k?

Deadshane1 wrote:I cannot see how the script/plot was bad...it was a very lackluster script. Cliche. Plot was predictable.

And, in some people's opinions, that is bad. Filled with clichés, "fluff"-holes. I found it not to be bad, but atrocious.

Deadshane1 wrote:Worthless graphics. State of the art? No. Passable to tell a story for fanboi's? Yes. CG is expensive...friggin expensive. Also, this movie isnt meant for the mainstream. What that means is that the money being made BACK is going to be limited to begin with.

I used to make excuses for the CGI, and got into an argument of sorts with MajorTom. But now I just think they used every trick in the book to cover up for their lack of money, which combined with the poor script, the badly-executed faces, makes a rather poor experience IMO. If CGI was the only problem with the movie, I would've rated it higher.

Deadshane1 wrote:Stop being a hater just for the sake of bashing the movie. If you want to critique the movie and actually be taken seriously, come up with solid complaints...not easy ones.

I was one of the people who defended the movie before it came out. I didn't suddenly change my opinion because I felt like jumping on a bandwagon. You, on the other hand, seem hellbent on having everyone that complained about the movie provoked, as you say, "with solid complaining".

Deadshane1 wrote:If "Ultramarines" was a poor movie, it was still a REALLY GOOD cartoon.

'Cept it isn't a cartoon per se. It wasn't even marketed as one, so no argument there.

Deadshane1 wrote:It's plot may have been cliche, the graphics may have been lower than the industries best, but the makers of "Ultramarines" truly tried to give out a true "fan service" in the form of a solid cartoon that does a decent job of maintaining the feel of a 40k adventure w/o dumbing it down for the kiddies and without too much history to dull it down and pull away from the story in order to cater to those that have no idea what 40k is.

While that might've been an objective, it didn't feel like a 40k adventure. It felt to me like a bad generic war movie, in the sense that you could take it's plot and apply it to any sci-fi context. But that is a pet peeve of mine, one that I felt happened in Eisenhorn and Gaunt's Ghosts and has led me to dislike Dan Abnett, but this is off-topic.

Deadshane1 wrote:Before you bash this film, think of what it COULD HAVE been. "Let's make sure we 'dumb it down' for the kids!" or "We need to include tons of backstory so everything is explained to 40k noobs." Let your imagination run wild on those two points and think about how poor this movie could have truly been.

That is no excuse, DS. Think on the otherside, that it could've been a Sci-fi movie like Blade Runner, that could present a credible sci-fi environment without even explaining what a "Voight-Kampff test" is. I gave it one and a half without thinking too hard about it.

While I have waited for a long time for this, there's just too many things I didn't like, and that's excusing the animation, random details

EDIT: I fail at quoting.

uh what?

why would they be tac marines scouts are devastators then assualt squad then tac

huge plot holes

I felt sick when it was over

who pulled your panties in a bunch? Whe make these coments based on the FILM not the book. if they expolained it in the movie it would be more obvious. the movie is good if you know nothing of the hobby otherwise its by MY oppinion not a super movie but it aint bad either

theduncan wrote:why would they be tac marines scouts are devastators then assualt squad then tac

codex clearly states this.. before tac you must finish dev, assault, bike, scout bike and scout training and duty

So much hate, these threads always go this way.

I can agree with the problems in fluff and would have been more happy if they were fighting the tyranids. Also the movie could have used more action and less walking...but overall it was a good start and I hope to see more movies in the future. 2.5 Stars

Bryce-2-Good87 wrote:So much hate, these threads always go this way.

not really hate.. more a heated discussion

well 1 star purely because it was aimed at the fans of 40k but there was realy not much content and the last half hour was a total waste of time and money :[

2 stars.
Awful script. Dan Abnett? Really? That´s sad, and it does not make sense.
I do not believe it. I think it was written by someone with a very shallow knowledge of the background.

The best:
The worst:
So-so.
I hope they keep trying.

This weekend I had the chance to watch the Ultramarine Movie. At first glance it wasn't to bad of a movie give the limited bugget and the pure Caliber of voice acting that they had in it.

My first issue arrose when they spit in the eye of every othe chapter of marines ever by stating the best marines are Ultramarines. I am pretty sure that there are a hell of alot of people that would disagree.

Second issue The Captian has had over 100 hundered years of survice in the Marines now has he never realy had a grasp of tactics or has his bravodo pulled him threw then entire time. A full company of marines have been eaten by some unknown force that turns out to be the Black Legion run by a Demon Prince and you Captian Severous do not pull back and blockade the planet until reenforcements arrive. No No lets go balls first into the unknown with neophytes thats a great idea.

Third issue why did no one listen to the apothocary with over 200 hundred years of experience. He was the unheard voice of reason through out the entire movie.

Fourth Issue the Chaplian. Ok one I never knew that the Crozius Arcanum could create a stasis field untel now and why oh why did he go down like such a punk?

Fifith and final issue. Yes yes you won and beat down the demon prince trashing the relicquary in the mean time. If the Ultramarines banishes Urial Ventris because he has the shear gall to lead a deathwatch squad to destroy a hive fleet and gets banished to the Eye of Terror on a suicide mission for his efforts I am pretty sure they would have stripped that Neophyte of all his "Honor" and cast him out to wolves.

I give it a 3,5, mostly because of the daemon prince at the end.
For the rest it where reasonable graphics and the voice cast was as mentioned great!

The one thing that really bugs me is why is an important artifact for the Imperial Fist kept safe in the middle of nowhere? I don't have much knowledge of the fluff but still...why?

let's hope a next movie will be made with more action instead of walking

Reaper.exe wrote:
The one thing that really bugs me is why is an important artifact for the Imperial Fist kept safe in the middle of nowhere? I don't have much knowledge of the fluff but still...why?

I also noticed this one.. but didn't care actually maybe it's build in a sort of canyon for strategic purposes.. altough a skimmer or jump infantryman will deal with that in no-time..

Saying the animation was "good considering the budget they had" is like saying a girl has a "great personality". Everyone knows they both look like the underside of a well worn boot.

jestyr wrote:Saying the animation was "good considering the budget they had" is like saying a girl has a "great personality". Everyone knows they both look like the underside of a well worn boot.

*angry gf hijack* what ! thats just mean

getting back on topic i find the level of inteligentce very low


or


and what i dont get

Draglide12 wrote:Wow all you guys complaining about the cruiser only having a few marines. READ THE GRAPHIC NOVEL< IT EXPLAINS THAT.

Explaining it doesn't fix the problem that its a stupid plot hole.

Furthermore, knowing the 40k fluff and surrounding world elements actually makes the movie make even less sense actually, its not scripted right to explain the universe to the un initiated AND to the indoctrinated it's also wrong on most levels.

I think the negative comments here are all pretty well based, and the 3+ star reviews of 4 are from people generally happy they finally did something.

I say 1, and I think that's generous.

1.) Personally I find all Space Marines boring and bland, so having boring and bland Space Marines characters in the movie met my expectations, everything else would be unusual, as even in BL novels, most Space Marine characters are that way. Because of my non-interest in SM, I didn't get every fluff error, so another main critique that didn't effect me.

2.) I hate fascist propaganda movies. This one comes close with all the "blood and honour" (a nazi slogan, close to the movie slogans) and "for the Fuehrer" talk and the 3rd Reich aestetic (faces, architecture) but when you watch a Space marine movie, you have to take the plunge and temporarily accept that as official fluff (and hope everyone else also sees it as contextual, not follow that doctrine themselves ). Well, I managed to ignore this propaganda while watching the movie.

3.) The script is simple, but not bad, as it is an almost exact copy of the Aliens movie script, just flavoured with 40k elements. Of course it doesn't stand closer scrutiny, but it worked while watching it. Okay, some less walking and climbing staircases scenes would have been fine And it is for 40k players only, others might be bored or offended.

4.) There is no acting, the movie is animated! I find the animation sufficient, better than expected. The voices are above average, but of course limited by the blandness of Space marine dialogues.

5.) As many have said, one of the best things in the movie is the ornate chaplain helmet.

Conclusion: For someone not interested in Space Marines, a Space Marine vs. Chaos Space Marine movie has a limited fun factor. But within these limits, I enjoyed the movie, gave it 3 stars and hope for less bland non-SM movies from that company.