Warren declares “Ultramarines was Pants!” SHOCKER!
January 14, 2011 by warzan
Having just watched the movie I felt compelled to write up my feelings, but opted to sleep on them first, as I feel like I'm kind of the only dissenting voice here in the studio. The other crew members either don’t agree, don't really care or think I may be getting kranky in my old age!
But having thought about it, I can't hold it in any longer. Grab your hard hats... cos here's what I think!
The Packaging
When I first got my hands on the box, I really liked the product Codex Pictures had put together (I got the special edition version from John, which he covered here), its a very high quality package and it really did build a sense of buzz.
The inclusion of the comic book was great, but I'm a sucker for graphic novels... even more so if they're 40K (curse you Boom! Studios)
The Movie
Now, I'm getting the feeling that I may be a victim of my own experience. However, I've worked in digital media for what seems like forever and when you've been at it that long, you just can't help noting all the little errors. Albeit, the ones I spotted, were mostly just niggly technical things... still, for me, they made the movie uncomfortable watching...
The Setup
I thought I would play the movie on my setup at home, a 42" LCD with stereo sound, mainly to give me some peace to enjoy it, but also to see it as the vast majority of viewers will see it.
Picture
For me, the picture seemed to lack clarity, but this is not surprising, as its only DVD resolution. Certainly a release on Bluray should be razor sharp and I suspect that Codex Pictures may be doing a "George Lucas" impression and aiming for two bites of the fanboy cherry... sneaky... 🙂
Sound
I remember when the team we sent to the previews, came back from London. They gushed like schoolgirls over the immersive sound quality, they heard during movie.
However, when I played it, the sound seems to have suffered after being mixed down to stereo... which is unfortunate. This became clear to me from the opening scene, where I was forced to rewind the show a couple of times, just to hear what was going on.
Edit - Lloyd has threatened to set me down in front of his stupidly expensive home cinema setup, to see if that changes my mind. If the audio is as good as he says, I'm sure it will.
Cinematics
From the outset of the movie, I found that scenes felt very claustrophobic... and not in a good way!
It’s clear that budget constraints have meant that epic alien vistas were going to be off the agenda, but I found the constant fog to be a little cheap in its execution and it felt really deliberate, rather than a natural part of the movie... again... I'm forced to wonder if that’s just because I know why it’s there!
Graphics and Animation
I've been prepared for some time, to be forgiving on the graphics and animation front and I've never really expected Ultramarines to be a Pixar-level, mind-blowing experience, but having said that, I was disappointed at the lack of attention to detail.
For example, I think the Chaos Marines looked incredibly bland. Not only that, but here and there some of the textures looked very low res. One scene in particular had a close up of a Chaos Marine's face, which looked like rotting flesh (well... it was supposed to be anyway) with a shoddy gloss texture applied to it, which just brought me crashing out of the moment.
There were also moments where graphically Codex hit the nail spot on. I just wish the levels had been a little more consistent, to help me stay absorbed in the story.
If I had to sum the animation up in one word, it would be "fine", but again the devil is in the detail. Certainly the film had severe issues with uncanny valley, and I’m not sure the 'cutting edge' face tracking system used can replace the work of a good animator.
The movement of the characters was on the whole, good, but little things (like no footprints) jolt you out of the story.
Some scenes just felt unnatural, like the Marines jumping, leaping and generally pirouetting across the broken bridge... the sense of weight and power was lost in these scenes and it all ended up looking a little silly.
Ultimately of course, none of this matters... as I was telling the crew here in the studio... I would be quite happy to see Ultramarines become a TV series (like clone wars) and perhaps over time the vast majority of these little problems could be ironed out.
I really hope Codex have a go a pitching it to some of the TV channels as I think "Ultramarines the Animated Series" could be absolutely massive... both for Codex and the hobby in general!
However... all this brings me to the stuff that I think really needs to be fixed...
The Plot
I can see the meeting now...
Codex- "Dan (Dan Abnett) we need something epic... I mean truly epic! Can you go off and think us up a story that will blow people away"
Dan- "No problem I'm your man! I have this idea for a massive Macragge style battle where a chapter of Ultramarines are making a desperate last stand down to the last few men"
Codex - "Great idea Dan, unfortunately our team says its too much for the budget"
Dan- "Oh... In that case what about a desperate battle where a few squads of Ultramarines... with land raiders and landspeeders and dreadnoughts, battling through the streets of an imperial city, kicking ass!"
Codex- "More great ideas Dan! But we need to keep it to about 10 characters in total, also non flying vehicles are a no go, as they are tricky to animate. So no landraiders, tanks or dreadnoughts I'm afraid.”
Dan- "Right... OK... so what about a big squad of Ultramarine terminators, sent to a Space Hulk to fight the xenos scum! Everyone loves terminators right!"
Codex- "Great idea Dan we just don't think the budget is going to stretch to doing a space hulk. There's a bit too much modelling required and sorry, but xenos are out too. Once we have modelled the Space Marines, we would like to reuse the models if possible"
Dan- "Um OK... what about a small squad of Marines sent to save a few survivors who are... well ... also Marines from a place where there is lots of dead... umm... Marines from an evil force of... well... evil Chaos Marines... we could have a landspeeder in there as it flies and thunderhawks fly too"
Codex- "Dan your Genius knows no bounds mate!"
While the above is a total piss-take (it's obvious that I was not party to the conversation), my little skit does show how budget is the ultimate arbiter in these things... imagination is easy... its execution that’s hard!
Despite the many constraints that obviously had a hand in shaping the plot, I think the core idea was pretty good and still held promise.
So why is it that the film lacked all trace of humanity and soul?
I think this is the crux for me... I love movies and stories... I get sucked in effortlessly, but watching this I just felt like an independent observer. I didn't manage to connect in any meaningful way to any of the characters or even the situation they found themselves in. The relationships between the characters seemed so forced that almost every word they uttered seemed contrived and cliché.
So, how much does budget effect these things?
Well... this is where I have no clear answer, because these things are nailed through the talent of the team and talent is budget related... but not always!
The power of the voice acting was almost completely lost on me, because it lacked any sort of humanity. I know Abnett can bring us "Humanity" -- with a capital H, as one of my favourite characters of all time was Gabriel Lokan from the Horus Heresy series... so what happened?
To truly enjoy this movie... and I mean truly enjoy it... you either have to be under the age of 13 (where it's only bolter fire and posing that matter), or have a personality type, where you find it difficult to relate to others (again posing will probably be enough... but you no-doubt like gunfire too).
Is this a gross generalisation? You bet your Nelly it is! But I think you'll find it’s not far off the mark... even if some of the crew here look like they want to bash me!
In Conclusion
Of course the elephant in the room is that 80% of the fluff from Games Workshop is exactly like this, so perhaps I am in the minority and the movie hits the mark exactly.
Then it struck me, for these last few years I have been trying to understand why 40K has never made it to the big (or small) screen. I wondered was it because of the cost of the special effects, or maybe a lack of contacts in Hollywood, but now I wonder if it’s simply because it has little to no soul, no human element that we can connect with or feel moved by. Could it be that anyone who’s looked at it can't find the human component that would allow it to appeal to the rest of the world as a story.
Perhaps it’s a universe that’s just high on tiny unimportant details, heavy on cliché... you know... all that stuff that makes us both cringe and ecstatic at the same time, but is missing a soul... something that will ultimately make it all feel juvenile and absent of the key ingredients that would carry it to the silver screen.
Perhaps a good director only needs the setting and can give it the humanity and characters we can endear to, but for me this movie just didn't.
BoW Warren
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My eyes…my eyes….smurf pants…and no warning
For the time and money allotted to this movie, I thought they were able to get a lot done. The end result was really good with these considerations.
But I’ll be honest, it wasn’t great. There wasn’t enough production time, film time or money to make it great. Despite this, I really liked it, it was a good beginning. But I’m extremely forgiving and understanding of others, a failing I’m sure.
The modelling was excellent for the guns, the character modelling and animation, only average. I’m a video game developer, 3D modelling specifically so I do know what goes on behind the scenes to make this stuff. It gives me perspective.
I felt through the entire movie that Dan’s story really just got cut out, using only his bullet points to make more time to show off the models. I can understand that they want to show off their hard work, I know I would, but it made the story suffer.
I don’t own a TV, my computer is my world. I watch everything on my computer, I work from my computer, so the movie looked great to me, and my headphones made it sound great. I can’t comment beyond that due to lack of knowledge.
I have to strongly disagree about the “no soul” part. I don’t feel that Warhammer 40000 is the ginger of sci-fi. There’s a lot of soul for those who would take the time to look for it, but due to the massive cuts clearly involved with Ultramarines it didn’t get to be presented. A shame really, but this was a first time for most of the team involved so it’s really hard to place blame. I don’t regret buying the movie one bit, I really like it, and it shows a lot of promise for the future. I hope it only gets better, that this isn’t the end, because it honestly could have been a lot worse.
o.k just so you know Warren I wasn’t entirley sold on it. Graphics weren’t great and story had a few wholes in it. like how a unit of ten ultramarines could succeed where a company of imperial fists could. Having said that what did sell it too me was the amasing voice acting, especially from john hurtz (Burn Heretics!), the really good soundtrack and its overall epic atmosphere. Which is why I bought John’s second copy off him the other day. He said he’s lent it to you in the mean time. No rush i just really want to see the comic.
BoW Sam
Well you will need to wait it’s going on my Surround Sound for a blast first 🙂
(SPOILER) I think that the fact that the Imperial fists were slaughtered is because of that there was some kind of warp gate opened and daemons poured out. When the Ultramarines came the storm was mostly over, so they only faced a bunch a marines that remained behind. Mithron was a trap, that is also why the two marines of the Imperial Fists survived.
p.s I hope those aren’t your pants up there. if they are where can i get a pair? haha maybe they should come with the bluray releases. that will make john’s next unboxing interesting
I had issues with the movie on my surround sound, in the end I just stuck it on 2 channel audio as otherwise the voice track is STUPIDLY QUIET! Which is a tad irritating, but this was one of only two complaints the second being the p&p charge.
All in all loved it.
Hmm. It’s a difficult one to answer as the scope and scale of 40K demnds the cliche. Small characters take time to develop. How, for example, do you get Ciphas Cain on screen? It’s not enough to have Rowan Atkinson play him. There are plenty of small characters in 40K who are human. Kryptman? Yarrick? Cadian commanders reading Imperial Armour 9 at the moment Lugft Huron has a very rich background and could easily be developed as a character, then there’s Dan’s own beauties: Larkin, Brag, Domor, Gaunt himself? We’d be able to affinitize with any of those characters. The first Ghosts novel would transfer wonderfully but this is a 40k first, it had to be Marines and it had to be Ultramarines.
I agree that the character models lacked ‘weight’. Foot prints are a classic example. I found the bolters absolutely comical. A weapon that big is useless! If the critique is budget then, well, that was fairly inevitable. The fan base isn’t huge and the movie wouldn’t appeal to the same cross section audience as Cars, Shrek or Toy Story would.
On sound and the fog, well, blame the ruddy X Files. A black screen you can’t see anything in to cut budget is not big or clever. It does not build suspense, it does annoy the audience. Think of Ultramarines as 40K’s Avatar is to 3D. Flat characters, cliched story line aimed at presenting the background / technology. I for one hope they move over to animation but they do need to use the Guard. Personally adapting Titanicus would be amazing. You never expect to be welling up by reading the last pages of a war novel filled with 100 metre tall war machines and alien monsters but hey, that’s Dan Abnett’s genius.
Apologies for going on.
I second Titanicus…
I find it also a bit lame of you Warren that you now all of a sudden start hating the movie and basically call 40K crap.
I wrote it because I love 40K not because I hate it, read deeper 😉
To be honest this was really a fan aimed film, this was made purely for the fans to gush over however i have to agree that it wasn’t executed very well. For what it is the movie hasn’t much of a story (marines go from point A to point B and go back to A again). One of my family members said that the whole thing was one big trailer, and I have to agree this is Codex showing the world what is possible with the 40K universe. If Hollywood has a look at this and thinks “hmm theres something we could possibly do here,” then I would love to see them produce the movie from ” The Horus Hearsay.” The books are begging to be put on the big screen methinks. However i don’t think thats going to happen for a while after all another “space marine” series developed by Bungie hasn’t been made into a movie either. to be honest Hollywood has lots of material to use but not the creativity or the budget, mores the pity.
I’ll come out and say I thought it was OK.
I’m not a big 40K fan, but I watched it with my brother who plays a bit with his Blood Angels army. We grabbed a couple of beers and despite talking over most of it and laughing at the antics of the “jumping marines”, it wasn’t so bad… I’ve certainly seen much worse…
Then again I had no preconceptions about the film at all and I haven’t picked up a GW book in any serious way for 15 years… so what does that tell you… 😀
BoW Andy
This is why I love Warren most 🙂
I agree with a lot of that Warren, I was very disappointed with this movie – overall I can’t help feeling it was a wasted opportunity and I’m surprised how much other people seem to like it.
I don’t care too much that it didn’t look as good as other animated movies, as story comes first for me, but the story told here was dull and stretched really thin.
I think the 40K universe is fantastic and full of potential, and I have no doubts that a truly great 40K movie can be made some day – I just don’t think this is it!
I think a lot of people say they like the movie because they are hoping the next one will get better and have a bigger budget if enough people show interest and let GW now there is money in this.
If there are too much nay-sayers GW would just be like: “Told you so” and we might have to wait another 20 years for a new movie.
Considering Ultramarines, I could wait another 20 years.
I liked the movie but……
The rinkled faces sucked. The face software was over hypped a ton.
The Deamon was really poorly done, awful really. Except when he was sctraching runes.
The Marines where weightless. The boots should have pounded.
The image was to soft, and the color was very low. Everybody turn up the color settings
on your TV for it and you’ll be happier.
The walking stance of the marines was weird. They looked like they were sneaking.
I don’t know what Darrel meant by claustrophobic but to me it was weird that only one squad was one that massive ship. There was not enough support personel on the ship.
Still I liked the movie
This was SUPPOSED to be made for the fans… Tell me fans; what Imperial Fist company would dare hold a relic of such importance in a fortress of that utter awfulness? A WOODEN bridge? Seriously… An entire starship that carries only 1 squad of marines? And how freaking OLD were these guys? Holy crap, if you give the service studs per hundred years, for a space marine at least, the apothecary should have looked like the captain! A freaking desert?! In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war…. Every freakin novel tells about huge hive cities or sprawling metropolises; even the death worlds are teaming with interest. But a freaking desert that leads to a mountain fortress that apparently has many mile deep cracks that can only be crossed by rope bridge is the way to go. We waited 10 years for this. Not this particular movie, but I distinctly remember mumblings back in 3rd ed. This was supposed to be for the fans, and as a fan, once you get past the OMG moment of seeing marines in action, this stunk. If you want a glaring contrast. Look at a good ole classic, Final Fantasy: Spirits within, then watch this movie, and realize that FF was made several years before… And even with it not being a true FF movie, it at least did what it was supposed to do and entertained.
To be fair to codex FF had a budget about 100x in size (I’m not joking here) and it was a flop at the box office. I’m not sure if it’s made it’s money back even yet.
Trying to make a 40k feature length animation with big name voice actors on that budget is a nonsense … a waste of time and effort, a major disappointment to fans and it tars the IP with a cheap and nasty history when it comes time to pitch the idea to people outside the fanbase. Better to use the Dawn of War intros as examples of the potential and if you can’t raise the interest then don’t bother.
Wait. So the movie was that poorly recieved?? does anyone have any links? I know it wasn’t Great but I still enjoyed it! I want there to be more atempts until they get it Perfect!
If nothing else it was good to see something on screen from the 40K universe, last thing I remember was some space hulk type video I had way back when. My main issue (as a chaos player) seems that the black legion were extras from a 80s Arnie movie.
Black legionnaire – so what do I do here
Director – well you run about a bit, shout a bit, shoot very badly, then fall down dead, oh and tell those 200 guys over there to do the same thing
Without having seen the movie i totally agree to Warrens conclusion. Warhammer (40k) didn’t have a soul. But it doesnt need one either.
I once watched an interview from the guys that made the Warhammer Fantasy MMO and he said: “We were looking for an excuse for our players to battle everything, everytime they want. Than we found it: Warhammer!”
And thats it.The only reason for the whole “In the future, there is only war….” thing is “because we can”. But it doesn’t matter, well? All we want is grab our armies and kick some butt, or we like the tactical challenge.
I just remembered what GlaDOS says at the end of Portal: “We do what we must, because we can.” That would be a nice slogan for the Space Marines i think.
MY EYES
Seriously though, I watched the movie and it was a outstanding “Meh” for me.
I found the Graphics alright believe it or not, it was the massive holes in the plot that killed the movie for me.
“Why did the Imperial Fists hold this artefact in an easily takable place? why did the new Ultramarines squad – on their first mission – preformed better than a hundred Imperial Fist verterans? why did they STILL take the artefact to Macragge when finding out its really a Warp Gate that would spell the end of the planet if they take it to Macragge? Why was the Chaplain – Being one of the most feared people of the Space Marines – incredably incompetent?
I’m not totally on your side Warren. Ok, the graphics wasn’t that great and the animation wasn’t good in some of the scenes(its funny, I think the walking sucked, but the action animations were nice). The Characters looked very similar (there are scenes where I couldn’t divide between the captain and the Apothecary because they both looked like bald, old drunkards ). But I think the overall atmosphere was creepy and fitted 40k. The movie had enough action and was entertaining. I liked the story and don’t think it was only kept only on a smaller scale because of the budget. It would not have been very convincing to send a landraider, a dreadnought and a predator on a recon mission with some noobs. They could have spend more time to develop the characters or maybe focus on Proteus’s back story, but overall I was satisfied.
I suppose we will never see a Film without Space Marines, but I think Inquisitors or Imperial guards are much better suited for a movie, since you can explore the craziness and inhumanity of the 40k universe a lot easier than on a drop off with SM.
Warren I agree with you on a lot of things. I felt it was going to be difficult with the budget and it was nice to see a warhammer movie, but it still was lacking a bit.
The graphics were sometimes nice but generally not great, but this isn’t something we can criticise too heavily because of budget, though as you said the constant cloud was a bit cheap.
I think the only thing I disagree with you on is the voice acting: I felt that was pretty good.
You want 40k with soul? I give you Inquisitor, small group so character is to the fore, the bizarre aspects of the 40k universe are easily displayed and you can have Space Marines as well, probably more effectively since the mix of marines and normal people will emphasise the scale of a marine.
Oh come on! That picture should have a warning label, woof.
I thought the film was good, not amazing, but good, especially for the budget. It had some excellent little touches (fluff related) that were excellent. The story did feel rushed and could have been so much better (with more time and a bigger budget). A film of the Space Wolves books would be good (in my opinion).
So I think I do agree with Warren in some respects. It was more Aliens 3 than Aliens!
10/10 for the review, agree 100% but -10000% for the pic, I’ve never seen anything so disturbing (insert being sick smilie here) 🙂
40k is all about scope; you have 3/4 of the galaxy run by the imperium, planets populated by billions upon billions of people, and space ships the size of Ireland. When I saw that the that the trailers were focusing on tight shots and closups I was skeptical about whether or not the film would capture the most essential (in my opinion) aspect of this fictional world. I dont want giant closeups of space marine faces talking to me about warrior philosophy, the nature of heroism, and whatever other insipid rants these idealists go on.
I haven’t seen the film yet, so I shouldn’t be too negative and i’m sure there is lots about the film that I will like once I do see it…but a movie about 40k that comes off as clausterphobic and constrained seems to miss the mark.
Hey Warren, this was the response I was expecting from you guys initially after checking out UltraMarines for myself.
Personally, I feel the way Ultramarines turned out is the exact reason why GW never made a movie before. And honestly, if the next movie is going to be like this – they can keep it.
If I was Games Workshop, I would have given some studio in Japan the License to do a 45min animated short story and be done with it.
Oh, for the love of god, no. The last thing we need is another Halo Legends.
Personally, with something like this you either need to go big or go home. GW was afraid that this movie would do poorly so it didn’t provide the resources CODEX required to make a truly good 40k movie, and as a result it became a self-fulfilling prophesy; this movie was doomed from the start. It is sad, but true.
who watches movies in stereo? foot the bill and get yourself a proper 5.1 receiver.
If you really want to know what a 40k movie should look and feel like… Intro to the First Dawn of War… Watch that and tell me you dont get chills at the end… With this movie, if you watch the trailers again, you will see that you have just witnessed the entire movie minus the twist at the end and a lot of trudging through the desert…
I think Warren makes a bunch of good points. But he is perhaps being too harsh here. Of course as a man who has worked in the media industry Warren has an uncanny ability to spot things that many of us would miss the first few times round, and myself having been a video editor for about 3 years i can spot the odd thing.
Now that said i think the use of “smoke and mist” may well be a little overplayed but in the majority of scenes within the shrine of Mithron and onboard the ship and thunderhawk this is not present. I would go as far to say that the scenes after mithron in terms of lighting and animation are superior, more due to using more dynamic lights and being within a darker environment that lends itself to nice moody atmospheres.
Of course Warren has the keener eye than me and i do agree on a fair amount of his opinions. All in all i enjoy the movie for what it is and i don’t find myself dragged out of the story at any point. It has a low budget and was it worth the voice actors? yes, it was, would you have wanted a bunch of half assed drama students trying to have the same presence as John hurt? no! of course not. And the less said about an American Space Marine the better…
I want the movie to do well. for only for this reason… They put the sequal in to production and take with them the feedback from this first one. Bare in mind this is not the first 40k “movie” the fan made Damnatus and a GW made peice of rubbish that was live action mixed with CG where the costumes were nice and everything else was as interesting as a small lump of cat poop.
So when you complain, don’t forget that everything must have a starting point, Codex have done a good job based on their previous work and i think the community (being full of perfectionist nazi’s as we all know) has been overly harsh and quick to judge. Sit back with a bunch of mates and just enjoy it. Forget the communities opinions, they don’t matter when all you need is your own enjoyment.
Fair comment but someone was able to whip up enough cash to make Mutant Chronicles (which isn’t as bad as some would say) so why not a all out 40k movie …
ARRRRGHHHH!!!
Those Smurf pants create a deep pain into my eyes…
AAAAAAAArrrrrgh the horror!! put your trouser back on! That image has scarred me for life LOL 🙂 !
I mostly agree with you, esp about the marines doing all those jumps, climbing and what not and the marines don’t even leave foot prints and don’t cause the ground to shudder. What i don’t get about this film is the very little GW invested into the film which was absolutly bugger all!
I mean you would think that it being the first offical movie they would of tried everything they could to make it succesfull but instead they hardly did a thing. I know that someone said they were affraid of the samething happening as what happened to the first Final Fantasy film, which was a technical masterpeice but was a rubbish story, (thankfully they didn’t repeat it with Advent Children.) but surely GW doing basically nothing to help codex ensure’s the same problem?
I can forgive the animation as the budget was so low and again GW didn’t pay a penny, good old GW making sure they help out to get a kick ass product LOL.
I can also forgive codex as they have only done childrens animations (bionicle) so i know they haven’t had much experiance at doing more adult stuff.
As for the 5.1 sound problems people have been mention i haven’t had any of that, must admit it sounds awesome on 5.1
Agree with you on most of this Warren.
I admit to being one of the grumpy sods who moaned because the trailer looked rubbish but as time went by and people saw the film all the feedback and reviews seemed positive. Due to this I was actually really excited to see it but as the end credits came up I could’nt help but think HOW COULD ANYONE SAY THAT IT WAS GOOD! It looked even worse than I expected, the dialogue is awful and there’s no sign whatsoever of Dan Abnetts story telling skills. Doing what they could with the budget is no excuse for a terrible film, I’d rather have no 40k film than that shite. Such a wasted opportunity.
*Spoiler alert* I enjoyed this film, seeing it as entertainment only. For all those crying foul as to how 12 ultras did what 100 fists couldn’t, rewatch it and think it out. There appeared to be a warp rift, with daemons pouring out of it. When the ultras arrived, no rift. I only saw 1 deamon. There were a few chaos marines, sure. Their goal was to let the ultras escape with the relic and the daemon. I call bs on a couple of points. One, supposedly the chaplain never removes his helm before his battle brothers. Two, since when does a scout become a tactical marine first? Progression is to the Devastators first. Third, obviously the Emperor doesn’t protect, as regular bolter rounds pass cleanly through a marines’ armor and body. Four, how does one sneak about on stone silently, and not leave footprints? Oh well, I still enjoyed it. And watched it again.
i have one thing to say here, I enjoyed it and if it ever gets a second movie I will go to see it, this was the first outing for the universe in the market and i think its only a matter of time before we see the soul your talking about warren, if there wasn’t one no one would read the books or read the fluff in the codex, I say wait and see
Well i thought it was cool,With all the negativity surrounding the movie i really expected a bag of spanners.But after the credits had rolled i thought it was a damn good attempt at a 40k movie,the only fault i found was the length of it.Don’t forget G.W is not a movie studio and don’t have mega bucks to splash out on big screen epic animation like Toy story or The incredible’s and run the worlds largest table top games company. I think Codex pictures made a Passable 1st attempt and i look forward to another hopefully without a decade long wait. One last thing i really hope that’s a shadow on those keck’s and not some kind of leak….Cheers
I have to agree with Warren. The already confusing story was not helped by the poor audio quality. I watched the movie with two other 40k players and there were times where we each thought something different was happening.
I forget the character’s name but the one guy caught the flag before it hit the ground then wasn’t allowed to carry it. We all thought that was because he wasn’t trusted. Then he becomes the squad leader after the captain falls out the window. This really had us quite confused.
As far as the film having no soul I think I know the problem. The movie was based on emotionless super human monstrosities. Perhaps if the movie was based on an Imperial Guard unit or a Tau Hunter Cadre or an Eldar unit trying to reclaim a lost spirit stone there would have been some amount of soul that we could connect with. But space marines know no fear. Fear is what proves you have a soul. If you aren’t afraid of losing anything you have no attachment to anything or anyone.
I don’t think the budget was a problem with the quality of the movie. I think that the appropriation of the budget was the problem. For an animated movie you do not require the best voice actors. Terence Stamp (Valkyrie, Yes Man) and John Hurt (V for Vendetta) could not have come cheap. Not to mention they may have set our hopes for the movie too high.
It was not a horrible start for Codex but it did not meet my expectations. It is too bad the GW did not contribute anything to the budget especially considering how this film could affect GW sales. I would like to see them make another movie hopefully improving on certain aspects and using more than just Space Marines.
ps. Why was that huge ship sent out with only 10 Space Marines on it? Is there a shortage of Ultra Marines or are they that arrogant?
Warren I think you placed in words the 40k universe I’ve felt for some time. The idea of soul is absent in the most part. The reason is because they set a frame work that removes feelings as a motive (besides the “You backstabbers I will hunt you down till the end of time!” revenge). When every emotion leads to powering the warp and daemons you can’t really work with much in the story builds the bond between movie and viewer.
My 5c worth. This movie SUCKED big time.
Apart from the rather poor production values, the script, story and dialogue were all dreadful.
First mistake made, they based it on Space Marines. I think the story would have been a LOT more appealing if the main characters were Imperial Guard. You could still have your Space Marines in there, maybe have a small scene with a couple of Marines bailing the Guard out of trouble…at least then you would have some sense of scale as to how hard a Marine is. As it stands the depiction in Ultramarines is that “humanities greatest warriors” die pretty much like any other chump, very easily. You get nothing to compare them to.
I understand what Warren said about the budget would not allow for much of anything, but if that was the case, why bother at all. If anything the piss poor effort that was turned out has made me more likely to shun any future projects they may try.
For the price paid, I think it was a total con. Hell, even to download it illegally would be overpriced as it was not worth the price of the bandwidth it would take to get a copy.
Warren you are fu***** right. You words came straight from my heart. Thats all i have to say.
what i have seen of the movie was ok but i didnt like it. i agree with warren for the most part.
well Warren i agree with, but i don’t think the 40k universe needs a soul there is no soul left in this dark future. there is only war. well for the animation the faces where very poor done, i saw that immediately but the armor was very cool and well done, for me. the cast was great (burn heretics). but i agree with someone that said that this is just the beginning. if Hollywood see’s this something will happen, or maybe not necessarily Hollywood just some company that has money and man power to do a movie like this and the creativity.
when i watched the movie for the first time it was great except for the jumping bridge scene, it just didn’t add up. but i cant watch it again because they’re just walking around being cool and pissing each other off.
but i will not be satisfied until there is a movie with a few squads of marine pined to gather in a hole or a bastion or something with with thousand if not millions of crazy bloodthirsty ork’z trying to kill every single one of them. well that kind of movie is gonna cost allot of money butt i think it will be worth it. and for doing the ork army, when i was watching the making of the lord of the rings they found a software called i think “Mass” well i think you know what i’m talking about if you’re a LOTR nerd like me. for da emperor… not. WAAAGH!!