Ultramarines: The Movie

I thought the animation really let this down, the look and feel could have been much darker.

Felt the voices, at times were good and the music fairly so so.

Watched this with no expectations and it still managed to leave me feeling "meh".
 
Just watched it, major disappointment. One of the greatest universes for epic sci fi space opera/war films is turned into a very cheap small scale horror flick that makes Space Marines seem ****. Ultramarines vs Chaos is a terrible choice for any storyline, unless they actually get into the whole horror of the warp thing properly and juxtapose the Space Marines with the regular Imperial Guard and how they fall by the thousands.

It really looks like it was made on a shoestring budget, so fair play to them for giving it a go but...
 
Makunouchi said:
Oh god could you imagine a Avatar quality animation with Tyranids? I think I just wet my pants :(
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Would be awwwwesome! But would never happen. I'd settle for the animation from DOW2 intro. Heck, I'd take either DOW intro over the quality of the Ultramarines movie. Even the single lines of dialogue were better delivered and sounded more appropriate compared to Ultramarines.

Try again with more polish, and up the scale. One SM company minimum versus lots of Orkz / Tyranids / whatever.
 
Got hold of a copy and just finished it. After all the neagtive comments on here I wasn expecting a crapfeat, but i'm pleased to say I was pleasantly surirsed. The voice acting was imo wesome, with some real English stalwart actors lending a very archaic and gothic feel to the characters... voices that tell of pride and grim determination, that conveyed gravitas, and others which well represented the wise veterans.

The story was of a small-scale expedition, but the atmosphere was suitably grim and forbidding. Animation was average, but this was not intended as a big budget exercise, it was a "tester" to see the reception it got before I imagine they start putting effort into more upscale productions.

All in all I enjoyed it, 7/10.

However... would I pay £26 for an average quality CGI test movie on DVD, more than it costs for a premium Blu-Ray blockbuster? Nope, not a chance.

Somnambulist said:
Just watched it, major disappointment. One of the greatest universes for epic sci fi space opera/war films is turned into a very cheap small scale horror flick that makes Space Marines seem ****. Ultramarines vs Chaos is a terrible choice for any storyline, unless they actually get into the whole horror of the warp thing properly and juxtapose the Space Marines with the regular Imperial Guard and how they fall by the thousands.

It really looks like it was made on a shoestring budget, so fair play to them for giving it a go but...
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In Warhammer 40k fluff the setting is full of these "small scale" battles, and the numbers of the Space Marines are so comparatively small that fielding large armies of them at a time is nigh-on impossible except in times of direst need, they must spread their forces delicately over numerous locations and frontiers, given that one space marine is equivalent to many imperial guards.

As for Space Marines being a terrible storyline... I think you will find that Space Marines vs Chaos is pretty much THE major storyline and running theme of the entire universe... from the corruption of Horus through to the current state of the Chaos legions waging continual war against man. It is the ideal scenario to use when portraying this scale of battle, as the Chaos Marines are almost a match for the regular space marines, and the Imperial Guard simply wouldn't have been present in situations like this, considering many of the IG never got to see any of chaos throughout their war careers, it was almost always the domain of the Space Marines, as Chaos combat specialists, except in times where Chaos would launch major excursions such as the Black Crusades which were effectively full-scale wars.

Even without the above factored into it, common sense dictates that fielding thousands of Imperial Guard and Orks/Tyranids would have increased the complexity of the productions many-fold, raising costs, development time, and likely running time too.

For a first effort it wasn't that bad... and i'm really looking forward to what they do next. :)
 
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Richdog said:
In Warhammer 40k fluff the setting is full of these "small scale" battles, and the numbers of the Space Marines are so comparatively small that fielding large armies of them at a time is nigh-on impossible except in times of direst need, they must spread their forces delicately over numerous locations and frontiers, given that one space marine is equivalent to many imperial guards.
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a lot of 40K books are 5 Vs 50000000. Dan Abnett does this a lot - even though the Ghosts are Guard they remind me of Kelly Heroes Vs the entire 3rd Reich!!
 
EddScott said:
a lot of 40K books are 5 Vs 50000000. Dan Abnett does this a lot - even though the Ghosts are Guard they remind me of Kelly Heroes Vs the entire 3rd Reich!!
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Inded, but I'm just respnding to it being a "bad" choice for a scenario, when its quite normal. :)
 
Richdog said:
except in times where Chaos would launch major excursions such as the Black Crusades which were effectively full-scale wars.
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Nah The Black Crusades are just Abaddon's 'time of the month' :p

I think the main problem is the choice of ultramarines. They're the wallpaper paste of the space marines. Every other chapter is more interesting.
 
Shamikebab said:
Nah The Black Crusades are just Abaddon's 'time of the month' :p

I think the main problem is the choice of ultramarines. They're the wallpaper paste of the space marines. Every other chapter is more interesting.
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The thing is if you are trying to get more people intrested in 40k stuff then using the ultramarines makes sense as they show exactly what space marines are in there most simple form without showing the likes of blood angels with the red thirst etc. But they said this was a film for the fans which makes what ive just said pointless since you aint really trying to appeal to a new set of people.

The animation was so so but i could handle it. I also get that the reason they used chaos as a cost cutting method as they dont have to model a whole new race which is fine.

We can only hope that if there are more in the future they will be a step further forward each time.
 
Throughout the film, it was constantly bugging me that the storyline had the members of the squad being combat versions. The general fluff lays down the story that an individual is initiated as a Scout while the transformation of their body is taking place, working their way through Assault and Devastator duties before finally becoming Tactical Marines. To have a squad that had not been in combat was contradictory to the general fluff of the universe.

The whole universe has always been a backdrop for the game and I'm not sure it'll ever make it easily to the silver screen unless it was based on the Horus Heresy and spread over a number of films.

The animation was in places was pretty poor, but overall it wasn't too distracting. If the film had have been done to the quality of the intro cinematic to the original Dawn of War then it'd be purely amazing.
 
horus_vs_emperor3.jpg


Greatest picture of all time!!

Film should be based on the Emporer vs Horus
 
Good call on that. To be fair, he must have spent 5 mins of his time coming up with the plot for Ultramarines. It really wasn't much of surprise with the possession element.

In fact, now that you've mentioned the Brothers of the Snake, I would have loved to have seen that book turned into a film. It's a great story about the progress of one Iron Snake and the events he's involved in. Too bad it wasn't an Ultramarine... not your bog-standard Chapter, and not as recognisable.
 
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