Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie

The background behind this film is a shoe string budget, some real fans of the genre and a writer who is well respected in the realms of fantasy literature. So with that in mind to compare this CGI film with the best of Pixar or Avatar would be unfair as it was never going to have the same "wow" factor.

For the uninitiated it is the 41st century and the human galactic empire is at war. Humanity's front line of defence is the space marines. Genetically enhanced super soldiers utterly loyal to the emperor encased in powered armour suits with very big guns.

This is the problem because while the movie looked better than I expected the whole (rather short) film revolves around a platoon of these humourless, quasi-religious soldiers going on a very linear mission. The script may not even be 60 pages long, nobody talks in anything other than short sentences and there are far more lines like "For the Emperor!" than anything approaching character development/banter and while that's fine for action scenes, as a film it makes the whole thing seem hollow.

The action is perfectly acceptable but nothing special and the whole feel of the movie is like a group going into a haunted house and are picked of one-by-one. The fact it is CGI allows some impressive vistas, a very large mother ship and some spooky supernatural going on but while every penny is on screen, you never really care about any of the protagonists so more time should have been spent on the basics- story, characters and dialogue and little less on the tech.

After watching this animation, I had very conflicting feelings about it. I was a bit disappointed because it didn't work, for me, as a sci-fi movie. But then I also realized that I wasn't happy about the choice of the races portrayed, as I think the Eldar Harlequines would make for a much more visually pleasing experience. Nevertheless, as a sci-fi movie, it might not have delivered anyway.

Then I had another, retrospective, look at what the movie presented, and realized that some essential aspects of the Warhammer 40.000 universe were touched upon in a balanced way. It doesn't distract the casual viewer, and it probably wets the palate of the die-hard Warhammer 40.000 nerd. (I am neither, I just happened to study this universe for a few weeks.)

The plot is vaguely interesting, though the action suffers from tempo issues at times, which I am sure any viewer will notice and be a bit frustrated about. The action sequences range from boring to fascinating. Here, too, I have some conflicting impressions.

The characters are clichéd but one is really not expected to care much about them in a personal way. They are all warriors, and in that sense, the Warhammer 40.000 universe's flavor comes through and it probably doesn't disturb too much.

All in all, I think I could have spent these 70 minutes in worse ways, and hope most viewers will gain at least the same amount of fun as I did.

Ultramarines is based (thematically) on a futuristic tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40K. The Warhammer 40K universe is a heavily militarized, Gothic styled fantasy universe that masquerades as sci-fi, while keeping all the common fantasy tropes. Its main attraction are the human super soldiers "Space Marines" - basically medieval knights in space and their fight against "enemies of the imperium".

Ultramarines depicts that fight in a small scale, through one mission of the Ultramarines chapter (fraction within the SM). Unfortunately the universe is very badly conveyed and the storytelling scope is so limited its obvious that the primary target of this film are the fans of WH40K.

As it stands they are the least likely to be pleased with the outcome. What is shown is one uninspired mission, loaded with every cliché imaginable, gripping a terrible script (although the actors made an effort) and wrapped in outdated CGI.

Its like a single episode of a TV series, or a comic book in terms of storyline and characterization - a part of a whole that never comes.

As a passive fan of WH40K I really wanted to like Ultramarines, but apparently it had neither the budget nor the creative drive to truly embrace the universe that its supposed to portray. Instead its a routine military/horror flick with characters you can't tell apart and a story you will not care about.

Skip it.

It was nice to see a 40k based movie but I found Ultramarines a bit disappointing to be honest.

The voice acting was good but the CGI ranged from good to very poor. Close up shots of the faces looked especially badly done but the vehicles looked good and for the most part the marines did too.

In terms of story it's pretty basic. There's no real introduction to the setting, probably because most viewers are going to be familiar with it but I thought this was a missed opportunity to explain the background for a few minutes with some nice sweeping shots of Terra and maybe the golden throne, that kind of thing.

There's no really good pitched battles, enemies appear in handfuls so you never get a sense of a decent fight which was a shame. There were also a few oddities which don't really seem to fit in. For example the captain is commanding a squad that's never been in battle? That's a command squad of veterans that's never had a battle? Good one. I can see why they did it for the plot but it makes no sense in the 40k universe. Nor does ripping on the apothecary for being a coward. In the 40k universe he is one of the most important marines in the chapter and certainly outranks a bog standard marine that's never been in battle by quite some way. By the way all those first timers would be scouts not full marines..and I could go on and on but of course none of this really spoils the movie at all but for a film made for fanboys it's a bit slack.

Overall it's worth a watch if you like 40k. Hopefully this is the first in a series and they will improve. A better storyline and animation would be required though to appeal to a wider audience.

ULTRAMARINES - Indeed it is. Folowing the story of a small squad out on a simple re-con and coming against harsh forces they are ill prepared for, I was expecting a highly action-packed movie.

Sadly for those who love action - You may be disappointed. This is far more atmospheric which only serves to draw you in further to the story.

It has been a long wait with many false starts on the CGI project - However it is not disappointing. The effects are excellent and the story has the right balance of suspense and action. Graphics are wonderful and there is a nice bit of gore as well which I expected given the nature of the 40K universe.

Would I recommend this film - of Course! If I have one complaint - Its a very simple one... They have proved they can make these stories work amazingly, it would be amazing to see an actual Series rather than a number of movies - However the cost of CGI makes this impossible at this time.

Will definitely be looking forward to future releases