i saw Ultramarines: The Movie

[blueshift]

yawn.

what did you guys think about it? dan abnett appears to be a lot better at writing for imperial guardsmen than space marines. would you all agree?

pros:

- john hurt
- gun porn (bullet view shots, slow-mo, etc)
- good tie-in plot point at the end when protius smacks the demon prince with the helmet
- good production effectiveness for limited budget (but i still wanted to see other races)

cons:

- protius never developed as a character the audience will root for. in fact he was quite the opposite
- john hurt's chaplain died way too quickly
- no orks/eldar/bugs/etc
- cookie-cutter chaos story of corruption and iron will

i'm ok with GW spending the money i gave them for physical items in this manner, however maybe they should save a little longer next time and go for michael bay?

[HsojVvad]

I haven't seen the movie yet. Please use a spoiler warning next time. I don't want to know who dies or lives. A warning would have been nice. I was looking for a review, but no spoilers.

[blueshift]

merry christmas sir!

[Connjurus]

i'm ok with GW spending the money i gave them for physical items in this manner, however maybe they should save a little longer next time and go for michael bay?

Games-Workshop didn't put any money into Ultramarines, and if Michael Bay did the movie I would just not watch it on general principle.

[DarkLink]

i'm ok with GW spending the money i gave them for physical items in this manner

Since when did GW need your approval to spend their money? You gave up any say in how the money was used when you traded it for pieces of plastic.

[scadugenga]

Since when did GW need your approval to spend their money? You gave up any say in how the money was used when you traded it for pieces of plastic.

Now..be fair: I'm guessing some of the money was traded for paper with words printed on it too.

[Aldramelech]

On the whole I quite enjoyed it.

[Gir]

Games-Workshop didn't put any money into Ultramarines.

If anything, it was the other way around.

[SotonShades]

Overall I did enjoy the film. As has been said, there are a few flaws but that is to be expected with such a small production company and budget.

The art style used throughout the film is fantastic. There are so many fantastic references to John Blanche's work in particular, not to mention a host of models we all know and love (especially in the terrain!). For the first 40k movie, I'm glad they stuck to just a single enemy. Trying to explain the subtleties of Eldar manipulating other races worked really well in Dawn of War, but we had a lot more time to experience that compared to the length of a movie. I wasn't so keen on the fact that the loyalist space marines were so much better than the chaos marines. Could have been a really good point for suspence with the squad being massively outnumbered by their approximate equals (although as they are newly promoted to full astartes, that may be a bit of a stretch).

I'd love to see more from Codex Pictures. Given more time and more films, I'm sure they can take some deeper looks in to the grim dark we all love so much. I really like the plot, given it was Abnett's first screenplay. I think that's more the problem than his ability to write for Guard or Marines. Once he's had a bit more practice at it, I'm sure he'll get better. I'd also love to see a few more of the Black Library authors trying their hand at it.

[Grailkeeper]

I didn't think it was great.

The voice acting was ok, not as amazing as I had imagined. Terrence Stamp was particularly bad- I'vee never seen any of his otehr films apart from priscilla- going on this one alone I would doubt he's an actor of any great quality. He sounded like he was reading lines from a page in his space marine voice rather than acting. Sean Pertwee was actually the best imo.

The plot isn't that complex (spoiler free) marines go to a place, do a thing and come back.

(possible spoilers)
The only references to 40ks past i noticed were teh stained glass window which is pretty obvious and the space marines dialogue, particularly after the openeing scene, contained a few classic 40k litanies and quotes.

I would give this movie 5/10 - wouldn't recommend you buy it