Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2010)

I really wanted this movie to be great. I had been waiting months for this to be released and although my expectations weren't that high i still felt let down by this title. As i watched this i really wanted to get in to it and had read many of the warhammer books in the past so felt I could overlook any failing in the movie as i really wanted it to be good. Unfortunately the animation is so poor that it constantly pulls you back out of the story. Characters look wooden and reminded me of older animated TV series e.g. starship troopers. The special effects, such as explosions and gunfire look terrible. There is only one half decent fight scene but even there the characters move as if they have arthritis and clunk about the place with as much grace as the miniature figurines upon which this movie gets its source material. Again. I wanted this to be good and wish i could give it a higher score but honestly. The cut scenes in many of the games are of much higher quality.

The good: excellent voice acting/casting. good music. Attention to detail of 40k lore. decent story if a little slow.

The bad: Animation is very poor.

Fmovies: 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loaded with every cliché imaginable, gripping a terrible script (although the actors made an effort) and wrapped in outdated CGI.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.

The movie is mediocre at best, not only if you are a fan, but if you are completely uninitiated to the universe of Warhammer 40K. Scene quality is mixed. Some scenes are clearly much better than others in terms of design, and CG quality, still better than the trailers though. The story is decent enough, but the dialog is too limited to make the voice actors' time on screen worthwhile. The voice acting is good, but the vaunted lip syncing that Codex pictures was supposed to use, is actually used in very few scenes and then looks like an animated cut-scene from a game was used. Concerning the atmosphere, it's grim, it's dark, and it looks very lonely out there. The massive Imperium is not conveyed to the viewer. Overall, this movie has the feeling like it was an extra added to a book or game, and not a feature-length movie, at least not one worth going to the theater for. If you are a Warhammer 40K fan, you will not be pleased with the result. If you are not a Warhammer 40K fan, I don't think you will be thrilled with the thought of becoming one.

Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie fmovies. 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

Firstly I have to confess to being a Warhammer 40K fan. This film was made for fans, the setting exposition is minimal. I also believe it was made on a shoestring budget. I was therefore nervous that the result would be awful – but it's actually a great 70 minutes. I've watched this film once on my own and my son has had it on twice now. I found myself entertained - all three times. That's three more times than either the Transformers movies I sat through which had x100+ the budget.

The CGI was mostly fine – only a couple of scenes looked rushed. I think the story perfectly fitted the 70 minutes the makers had to tell it. The opening act set the scene and built the tension well. In my opinion the fight scenes were well directed and choreographed. The final battle was particularly good and conclusion affecting.

Identifying the characters was difficult with helmets - but it not obvious how that could be addressed without going sans helmet... Which they did fairly often. The armours were all different, so it is visually possible.

At the time of writing the film is only available as a collector's edition at about £25. However, that's about the same money as a family trip to the cinema, so in those terms I judge it worth the money. I guess it will be about £12 in the spring, so I hope many more 40K fans buy then. I really hope the producers/investors see a great return and we see more 40K films.

This is a positive start to seeing the 40K universe in film.

After many years of waiting we have an authorised movie set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe (aka 40K).

This movie is not destined to set the world alight, but it is a very competent introduction to the setting and some of its complexities.

The movie focuses on a very small event within the context of a much larger conflict, concentrating on one or two of the more iconic parts of the background rather than trying to cover everything in one go.

The overall plot is, in itself, quite simple but adding much more would have simply added unnecessary complexity and confusion to the story.

What was missing was an explanation of why the group were in the situation. This was covered by the included mini-comic but it would have been far better if it were included in the movie itself, possibly as a flashback.

As CGI movies go the production team have taken a more stylised approach, rather than a photo-realistic one which in some ways reduces the specific detailing while giving the movie a more distant, almost fantasy, feeling. Some of the settings are absolutely perfect for the setting, others are more bland or generic. The CGI is definitely not perfect but the occasional issues are not enough to reduce immersion in the story.

For first viewing we were a varied group. Ages between 25 & 50; 3 male, 2 female; 2 fans of the 40K background, 1 who knew a little of it, 2 with very little exposure. All were engaged by the movie with very little of our usual heckling and virtually none of the usual irrelevant chatter. After the movie finished there was even a small discussion about our differing interpretations of what we had seen.

As a long-term fan of the setting for me it rated 10/10 (if only for the number of little bits in there just for the fans) but for general viewers I'd have to go with a 7 to 8 (though my bias towards the setting may have inflated this).

Overall a competent movie.