Ultramarine Movie Reviews

[Rakene]

I thought the movie was OK, not fantastic, not terrible, just OK. I enjoyed it, some bits were unbelievable, some bits were re-used footage (like where the Daemon prince hurls someone bodily into a wall), you could TELL it was low budget, they obviously spent most of it on the voice actors. DIdn't like the way the marines kept questioning orders.

 

But I have to say, to all you people who are saying things like: "OMG 12 marines on strike cruiser :blink:?" and "WHY ARE THEY ALL NEW MARINES?"

Read the damned graphic novel, it's a prequel. It explains that the company is engaged in a battle and they get a distress call. The Captain takes a newly formed squad (because the entire squad dies apart from one guy - who becomes the sergeant - the rest are all newly promoted from scouts.) to respond, leaving the rest of the company to attend to some 'nids.

 

One of my big irks with the film is that they're second company. Captain of second company is Sicarius damn it. lol

[Aqatone]

But I have to say, to all you people who are saying things like: "OMG 12 marines on strike cruiser :D?" and "WHY ARE THEY ALL NEW MARINES?" Read the damned graphic novel, it's a prequel. It explains that the company is engaged in a battle and they get a distress call.

 

Just because there's a little graphic novel with it doesn't make it any less stupid.

[Rakene]

Well apart from the fact that they would have to go through Devestator squads and then Assault squads before becoming tactical marines, and the fact that the Strike Cruiser is missing all of it's legion serfs etc. I can totally see a Space Marine captain saying: "Yo I need to take some dudes to go and answer a distress call. Take over command of my dudes fellow captain I'll be taking a small force to go slap up some dudes and see :) is going on with these here Custard Marines."

[Serenad]

Here are my 5 cents on this movie.

(first i would like to apologize for the haphazard post this is bound to be, i tend to write stuff in the order they come in my head, irregardles of what it is about :D)

 

I will break it down in to sections like River for ease of reading.

 

Packing:

Nuff has been said, it is awesome. 10/10.

 

Fluff,

5/10

 

A lot has been said already and i do agree that the fluff is (at least for a warhammer fanatic like me with all BL fluff ever published in my shelf) at the very least confusing, if not down right contradictionary to previously established canon.

 

1. ultra marines are a strict codex chapter (they wrote it!!!) so their composition makes no sense, a captain and a tactical squad? nope, not going to happen unless it is personal.

2. The tactical squad are said to be untested in combat, which isnt true since they would have had to gone through a decade as scouts with grevious rates of attrition and would have seen A LOT of action.

3. I can buy that the Chicken boys (Imperial fists in yellow) would be guarding a shrine due to some honor oath, but not with a full company. at most a few custondians on constant rotation.

Also said marines (a full company mind) with all their support veichles, devastator squads, librarian, relics and whatnot apparently got wiped out out of hand (with little collateral damage aswell) is just not happening, Space marines are way to tough for that. also we dont see any black legion corpses amongst the slain, and considering the tactic they used agains our heros in blue there should be plenty of those.

4. The strike cruiser... umm... where are the crew? should be thousands upon thousands of naval ratings, serfs, armorers etc. now i CAN accept only a squad of spacemarines on it IF it was en route to something bigger as reinforcements, but that is never mentioned what so ever.

5. Crozius Arcanum does not work like that, period. Besides the guy in black is really...shy for a chaplain.

6. The black legion should not behave like the khorne berzerkers they do, admittingly the demon IS a khorne demon so yes, there should be some berzerkers in their ranks. but the main body should be like your standard Space Marine force.

7. Possessed captain thinking he could infiltrate Mcragge? he wouldnt make it 10 seconds on the surface, in fact i think they would feel the tain when he entered the system and blow the ship to atoms.

 

I think there are more points i missed, (i will edit that later then) but thats about sums it up for now.

 

Other then that i think they made it quite good. The marines look right, they sound right, their bolters kicks butt and all, only thing is that they seems a bit squishy for marines, but i guess that can be overlooked since they do face their chaotic counterparts.

 

Graphics:

Lousy, downright lousy, 1999 called and wants their cutscenes back.

the DOW intro movie is 10 times better quality.

They do manage some good shots of the marines, but in general this movie looks OLD.

3/10

 

Animation:

Well, they do move good and in general i think they made a good work all around, sometimes the marines looked a bit light, but then again, read the Spacewolves books an you will see they can sneak like cats. so why not?

7/10

 

Sound:

Nothing to complain here, the effects of the bolters rocked. in general i loved the sound effects.

9/10

Voice:

John hurt, John Hurt!!! :)

8/10

 

all in all i think the movie was well worth it, but then again i would buy a pile of turd and love it if it had the winged eagle of the emperor on it.

 

Comments to my fellow reviewers questions/statements. (not meant to muddy anything, just that i think some things have a logical explenation)

1. Bolters are not caseless.

2. the flamer marine covered the flamer with his own body, either dampening it sufficiently, or like a claymor directing the blast to the BL marines.

3. The apothecary stating the obvious was most likly for the benefit of the rest of the squad that couldnt see how severe the injury was and might have thought he survived.

4. Marines jumping like circus artists: well they can, read the spacewolves books, the powerarmor lets them do many astonesing feats of strenght and agility. it was designed to enchance a freakishly well trained warriors body, not turn him into a slow moving tank (thats what they have the terminator armor for after all)

[Xeonic]

I would like to note that I wasn't complaining about their speed or agility, merely that Mass X Velocity seemed to mean nothing to them in my eyes. A Marine can be quick on his feet in power armor(that's the reason it's powered, so it's not a drawback to be carrying such heavy armor IMO), I get that. Can he stop instantly while jumping long distances in several hundred pounds of ceramite? Apparently so. Did it bother me a little? Just a bit.

Perhaps I'm misremembering the scene where they jumped acrost the ruined bridge dealey though.

[Serenad]

i need to recheck the scene to be sure, i know one guy stoped his forward momentum with his ribs and chestplate all the times :tu:

[GooseDaMoose]

Okay, spoilers ahead, I just really need to vent here. Which is why this is gonna be really unorganised:

 

This movie was no good at all. I give it an all-round 3/10.

 

The first thing that bothered me, and this is only personal was that John Hurt said the Ultramarines were "the greatest" -cough-! Getting over that though, there are a lot of problems with the film.

 

I'm not gonna go into the graphics because I can get over it if it's a decent movie, but I think they could have done a MUCH better job with just a cartoon or something. All of the Space Marines here looked old and sick and really fragile. Especially the Captain and that Apothecary who reminded me much more of a tired old human, than a badass Space Marine whose duty is war and glory and nothing else.

 

There were sooo many tiny details fluffwise that I'm not gonna go that into cuz I could go on forever (Tac Squad with Capt., Bolters weighing nothing, Apothecary asking for permission to remove geneseed, I mean do they ask for permission to fire their bolters? the Space Marines themselves weighing nothing, Apoth. spotlight when they have nightvision helmets, etc) But mostly, my biggest problem was that they didn't act like gene-enhanced super humans at all and the mantra "We Shall Know No Fear" seemed like more something they said to convince themselves that they, in fact, were not afraid. A "nervous trigger finger"?! WHAT? An Ultramarine (supposedly the greatest) who has been conditioned from the age of 14 to fight and kill with brutal precision, whose fear has been literally bred out of him, with probably 10+ years of experience as a Scout, with "first combat jitters"!? Did they just find some thirty-year-old guys, dress them up in Power Armour and say they were Space Marines? Is that why they're so.. human? Everyone just acted like a bunch of snot-nosed kids playing "Guns" who are taking it just a little bit too seriously. Proteus is just a total brat. The apothecary is kind of a nob and way too tired of war to be a believable Space Marine, and the Captain? What kind of a Tac Squad is he running anyway, the amount of control he has over the squad seems to fluctuate wildly during the movie, first the apoth. is allowed to complain and whine, then everyone is obedient again for a while and then there's another quarrel. Emperor's finest? Hardly!

 

The voice acting. Now, I'm a huge fan of mister John Hurt but, I'm sorry, his voice is NOT fitting for a Space Marine. Especially a Chaplain. He fits the role of Olivander in Harry Potter perfectly, Winston Smith I thought he did quite well (and basically everything else he's in), but NOT a Space Marine. Their voices, as I said before, sound more like a bunch of kids playing "Guns" where one kid has been allowed to be "the Captain." There's no actual martial bearing in their voice, I don't get the impression Severus is a commanding figure at all.

 

The story sucked. Not that I was expecting much; and I can live with a sub-par story if the action is good, but it really wasn't. The movie was way too long for the amount of story and action in my opinion, but was too short to properly develop any believable characters or plot (if it had any). The characters were all totally clichéd, seen in just about every B-war movie since the 50's, all it was missing was a crazy tank driver for comic relief. (not hatin' on Kelly's Heroes, it rocks.)

 

And then tell me, how a squad of recruits, who apparently have seen no action before can beat an army of 10,000 year old veteran followers of Chaos? And what's with the Chaplain's magical powers?

 

This could've been done really well.. I'm sad now.

 

Thank you for letting me rant. Goodbye.

[twopounder]

Sorry, but I think this is an insult to ultramarines and chaos marines alike.

 

Ultramarines are the greatest of all chapters? Sorry, they have their place, but they aren't the greatest.

Untrained and untested marines filling an honor guard/command squad? My ass...

Geezer marines? Is that a corruption in the ultramarine geneseed?

Failure of any surprise... I was calling the plot twists before they happened.

Horrible dialogue... I wrote this stuff in high school, I expected better.

Drop zone - Why was it 10 miles from no-where when they knew exactly where the distress beacon was? Would have saved the land speeder crew's lives.

That annoying HUD combat display. That would be annoying as hell to go to combat with.

Marine hearing voices "Oh, just a vox error!" Reality "HERETIC, DIE!"

Banner is blazing with energy "Put it out!" ... :huh:? They would all kneel and venerate it...

They all have hellfire rounds with how easily they decimate chaos.

 

I'm going to stop here. The movie is horrible. The writing is horrible, the graphics are horrible, the dialog is horrible, the animation is horrible. They could have leased these from THQ or Relic for less money and made it that way. There are a dozen writers I could name off hand with better talent for the story. Can't say Abnet did 40k any justice at all...

[twopounder]

Here are my 5 cents on this movie.

(first i would like to apologize for the haphazard post this is bound to be, i tend to write stuff in the order they come in my head, irregardles of what it is about :huh:)

 

I will break it down in to sections like River for ease of reading.

 

Packing:

Nuff has been said, it is awesome. 10/10.

 

Fluff,

5/10

 

A lot has been said already and i do agree that the fluff is (at least for a warhammer fanatic like me with all BL fluff ever published in my shelf) at the very least confusing, if not down right contradictionary to previously established canon.

 

1. ultra marines are a strict codex chapter (they wrote it!!!) so their composition makes no sense, a captain and a tactical squad? nope, not going to happen unless it is personal.

2. The tactical squad are said to be untested in combat, which isnt true since they would have had to gone through a decade as scouts with grevious rates of attrition and would have seen A LOT of action.

3. I can buy that the Chicken boys (Imperial fists in yellow) would be guarding a shrine due to some honor oath, but not with a full company. at most a few custondians on constant rotation.

Also said marines (a full company mind) with all their support veichles, devastator squads, librarian, relics and whatnot apparently got wiped out out of hand (with little collateral damage aswell) is just not happening, Space marines are way to tough for that. also we dont see any black legion corpses amongst the slain, and considering the tactic they used agains our heros in blue there should be plenty of those.

4. The strike cruiser... umm... where are the crew? should be thousands upon thousands of naval ratings, serfs, armorers etc. now i CAN accept only a squad of spacemarines on it IF it was en route to something bigger as reinforcements, but that is never mentioned what so ever.

5. Crozius Arcanum does not work like that, period. Besides the guy in black is really...shy for a chaplain.

6. The black legion should not behave like the khorne berzerkers they do, admittingly the demon IS a khorne demon so yes, there should be some berzerkers in their ranks. but the main body should be like your standard Space Marine force.

7. Possessed captain thinking he could infiltrate Mcragge? he wouldnt make it 10 seconds on the surface, in fact i think they would feel the tain when he entered the system and blow the ship to atoms.

 

I think there are more points i missed, (i will edit that later then) but thats about sums it up for now.

 

Other then that i think they made it quite good. The marines look right, they sound right, their bolters kicks butt and all, only thing is that they seems a bit squishy for marines, but i guess that can be overlooked since they do face their chaotic counterparts.

 

Graphics:

Lousy, downright lousy, 1999 called and wants their cutscenes back.

the DOW intro movie is 10 times better quality.

They do manage some good shots of the marines, but in general this movie looks OLD.

3/10

 

Animation:

Well, they do move good and in general i think they made a good work all around, sometimes the marines looked a bit light, but then again, read the Spacewolves books an you will see they can sneak like cats. so why not?

7/10

 

Sound:

Nothing to complain here, the effects of the bolters rocked. in general i loved the sound effects.

9/10

Voice:

John hurt, John Hurt!!! ;)

8/10

 

all in all i think the movie was well worth it, but then again i would buy a pile of turd and love it if it had the winged eagle of the emperor on it.

 

Comments to my fellow reviewers questions/statements. (not meant to muddy anything, just that i think some things have a logical explenation)

1. Bolters are not caseless.

2. the flamer marine covered the flamer with his own body, either dampening it sufficiently, or like a claymor directing the blast to the BL marines.

3. The apothecary stating the obvious was most likly for the benefit of the rest of the squad that couldnt see how severe the injury was and might have thought he survived.

4. Marines jumping like circus artists: well they can, read the spacewolves books, the powerarmor lets them do many astonesing feats of strenght and agility. it was designed to enchance a freakishly well trained warriors body, not turn him into a slow moving tank (thats what they have the terminator armor for after all)

 

1) Many source books list bolters as firing ".75 self-propelled caseless rounds" which makes them a little larger than an M2 .50 machine gun (wiki it). However, GW dumped caseless ammo because it is being phased out in today's military. It has a horrible tendency to "cook off" and kill the shooter. Instead, marines use a cased accelerator in a self-propelled round that allows the weapon to kill at close ranges yet fire a specialized warhead instead of a solid non-ferrous metal (lead).

 

They aren't even close in size to this movie or any of the pictures. How big is .75 caliber? It's 3/4" That means less than an inch in diameter.

 

Prometheum makes a big boom, as it is supposed to burn like thermite instead of napalm. That means armor is about completely useless against it.

 

Marines are somewhat agile thanks to power armor being linked to their synapse (see my own writings). However, their ability to jump around would still be limited due to sheer weight. You're talking 800lbs of marine easy. HOWEVER, bear in mind that there are no physics and this movie has crap for animation. The marines probably would have shown more weight and environmental effects of jumping if they had a larger rigging and animating budget.I write this off as cheap animation.

[hairojin]

Sadly I agree with most of the negative reviews here. I really want to like this movie but the more I think about it the more I dislike it. I think it was a mistake having Abnett as the writer since IMO he is extremely overrated and I never liked his books. I think he got the job because he is a big name in BL from his popular but not very well-written Gaunts ghosts, not because he is the best writer in BL. Out of the BL books I only rate ADB, sometimes Graham McNeill and the most underrated of them all Sandy Mitchel. Ny of those would have done a better job, again IMO.

 

My major complaints: The space marines doesn't act like marines at all after they make planetfall. They don't even feel like soldiers at all, if anything they remind me of the most insecure people I had in my squad during basic training in the military. Questioning everything, acting out and generally doing everything wrong.

 

The story, it's just horrible, filled with plotholes and not well thought out at all. Why would the emperor give IF a book that summons daemons? Why would they keep it on a back-water planet guarded by a full company of IF? Why would anybody trust their captain that got back from a sure death fighting a daemon that has no explanation about how he survived? (The emperor protects is NOT an explanation, seriously if that line is all it takes to avoid any suspiscion...) Why is the banner only working when the plot requires it? Why don't the Black legion use their vastly superior experience as an advantage instead of just running towards people that are shooting at them? Why does it matter if the enemy wanted them to stand on the little pile of dirt if it wont affect said "tactics"? Why did codex pictures say on podcasts that they wanted to stay true too the background and then they didn't? Why does people like Abnetts writing? Why are the marines walking so closely together that all it takes is one grenade and all of them are dead, especially as power armour doesn't offer more protection than usual in Abnetts writing? Why didn't they use the thunderhawk as airsupport as it is intended? Why doesn't the daemon care about being shot several times but almost gets knocked out by a helmet? Why does the marine in the first duel ask his captain to yield when he should know by now that marines don't yield? Why doesn't ANYONE listen to the first person that says he saw something in these crappy movies? Why didn't the daemon disguise as an IF and try open a warp rift on terra instead of out-in-the-middle-of-nothing macragge? Why do I get lint in my bellybutton? Why is the chaplain not acting like one instead of the apothecary? Why aren't the marines acting like the rapid insertion blitzkrieg type of soldiers they are supposed to be?

 

I want to like it, I really really do but I have to say that they screwed up this oppurtunity beyond my low expectations.

[Brother Nezulius]

Sadly I agree with most of the negative reviews here. I really want to like this movie but the more I think about it the more I dislike it. I think it was a mistake having Abnett as the writer since IMO he is extremely overrated and I never liked his books. I think he got the job because he is a big name in BL from his popular but not very well-written Gaunts ghosts, not because he is the best writer in BL. Out of the BL books I only rate ADB, sometimes Graham McNeill and the most underrated of them all Sandy Mitchel. Ny of those would have done a better job, again IMO.

 

My major complaints: The space marines doesn't act like marines at all after they make planetfall. They don't even feel like soldiers at all, if anything they remind me of the most insecure people I had in my squad during basic training in the military. Questioning everything, acting out and generally doing everything wrong.

 

The story, it's just horrible, filled with plotholes and not well thought out at all. Why would the emperor give IF a book that summons daemons? Why would they keep it on a back-water planet guarded by a full company of IF? Why would anybody trust their captain that got back from a sure death fighting a daemon that has no explanation about how he survived? (The emperor protects is NOT an explanation, seriously if that line is all it takes to avoid any suspiscion...) Why is the banner only working when the plot requires it? Why don't the Black legion use their vastly superior experience as an advantage instead of just running towards people that are shooting at them? Why does it matter if the enemy wanted them to stand on the little pile of dirt if it wont affect said "tactics"? Why did codex pictures say on podcasts that they wanted to stay true too the background and then they didn't? Why does people like Abnetts writing? Why are the marines walking so closely together that all it takes is one grenade and all of them are dead, especially as power armour doesn't offer more protection than usual in Abnetts writing? Why didn't they use the thunderhawk as airsupport as it is intended? Why doesn't the daemon care about being shot several times but almost gets knocked out by a helmet? Why does the marine in the first duel ask his captain to yield when he should know by now that marines don't yield? Why doesn't ANYONE listen to the first person that says he saw something in these crappy movies? Why didn't the daemon disguise as an IF and try open a warp rift on terra instead of out-in-the-middle-of-nothing macragge? Why do I get lint in my bellybutton? Why is the chaplain not acting like one instead of the apothecary? Why aren't the marines acting like the rapid insertion blitzkrieg type of soldiers they are supposed to be?

 

I want to like it, I really really do but I have to say that they screwed up this oppurtunity beyond my low expectations.

 

 

 

 

I came here to do a movie review....but you basicly said it all.

 

In my opinion this movie kinda let us down. The graphics, sounds and voice casting are acceptable but the story and animation is just totally crap. When they advertised with the "Games Workshop approved", I expected it to have far less fluff flaws then it does now.

Receiving the movie a full month later then the official release date didn't made me happy either....

 

I'm hoping that they will now make a good movie with the money they received from this "first attempt". Maybe a story about the marines returning to their company and fightning the tyranids from the pencils?

[Legatus]

Ultramarines are the greatest of all chapters? Sorry, they have their place, but they aren't the greatest.

Undoubtedly in the mind of countless Warhammer 40K players they aren't. But in the official fluff they kind of are. At least that has been the official description since 2nd Edition. Though admittedly GW has not been touting that line much in 3rd and 4th Edition, so a lot of players were "surprised" when GW suddenly started pointing that out in the 5th Edition rulebook or the Codex Space Marines again.

 

 

Geezer marines? Is that a corruption in the ultramarine geneseed?

Space Marines usually start showing signs of extreme aging at about 300 years of age, but I found the medic way to frail looking myself. I did not particularly like the voice either.

[Captain Idaho]

I'm not sure I'm willing to spend money on this film. Too many mixed reviews...

 

As for the greatest Marines thing... Why do people get caught up moaning about that? It is actually written as far back as Codex Ultramarines. It doesn't mean they are the fierciest fighters, the most stubborn or the swiftest. It just means they are considered greatest. Why?

 

Subjective, but mostly because of their position in the Imperium, the fact they are highly successful and when they take back/save a planet they do so with a care to the people of the Imperium. They maintain an Imperial considered paradise. Planets all over the Imperium have benefited from their planning (not just in warefare).

 

So please, stop getting a bee in your bonet about Ultramarines being the greatest. They are considered that not just on fighting potenial. Your own Chapter is still just as good at fighting.

[The Emperor's Champion]

Okay, so I just watched it. I'm actually rather impressed, I must say. Quite a bit better than I expected....qualitywise.

 

That said, I do have my share of gripes with it.

 

++Beware of spoilers and all that jazz (if you're this far into the thread and are worried about spoilers...you're doing it wrong...)++

• Ultramarines crossing a rickety wooden bridge with hardly more than a mild creaking sound. I mean come on, a Marine weighs what, nearly a ton? That bridge must have been made of woodtanium... But eh, obviously it was MADE for Marines to cross since it goes directly to the Imperial Fists shrine, so whatever. I'll let it slide.
  
• I rather enjoyed how acrobatic they were with all the leaping over gaps and scrambling up onto stuff. You just don't normally think of a giant Power Armored Marine doing stuff like that, even IF we technically know they should be pretty well capable of doing cartwheels and flips, if they wanted to.
  
• The helmets... They still bother me. The grills are too wide and the "bridge of the nose" parts don't reach the brow-lines like they're supposed to. THAT caused me to get an "Uncanny Valley" feeling every time there was a helmeted Marine up close. And I just find it bizarre that all 13 of them wear the exact same helmets (decorations and lenses aside). Where's my beakies??
  
• I still say the helmets' top vents didn't come far enough forward on the helmets when I stop and study stills from the movie, but watching the movie I didn't notice it at all, so I'll let that slide.
  
• Eye lenses in red, gold(orange? yellow?) and green....and the Apothecary's in blue? Okay. Well, I guess that's fine with me. A bit against the standard red depiction, but not unprecedented to have green. Now I guess we have precedence to just go to town with the colors... Why the Hell not? *shrug*
  
• What in the hell was up with these Marines? They are like the worst Tactical Squad I've ever seen, attitudewise. Don't they tend to train that nonsense out of Marines before they get promoted to full Battle-Brother? I can understand one Marine being kind of an idiot, but 7 or so? Jeez... And how did these guys get to be a Tactical Squad if they haven't fought through Hell as Scouts, Devastators and Assault Marines?
  
• Proteus and the Captain baffled me a little. It seems like Proteus was the unofficial Squad Leader...but he got less respect from the Captain than anyone else did. I mean, granted, the Captain was a douche for a reason, but no one else seemed to think it was weird. Proteus was the guy the Captain trained with a sword, he had the fanciest armor of the regular guys, and he assumed command..and was given command when the Captain went missing/dead....and still EVERYONE treats him like a brash noob up til that point... He even does a 180 after his brothers start dying (as if he's suddenly understood the reality of the situation) and tries to enforce the Captain's orders when Boreas tries to go to the Captain's aid....and still the Captain's a douche to him.
  
• Honestly, Pythol and Sergeant Crastor seem like the only two real Ultramarines in the bunch. Maybe Verenor too....
  
• The Imperial Fist relic guardian....yea, he knows fear. Fairly obviously too. I found that...odd.
  
• Enjoyed Pythol's Apothecary pack searchlight. Nice to see it in action.
  
• Thought all the weapons looked really nice in the details department. Thunderhawk flying around was great. Land Speed was perfect. I really enjoyed that Land Speeder for some reason.
  
• Marines dying to one Bolter shot....uh... did they have to? I mean, come on, at least give 'em the 5/6 chance to survive the Bolter fire that the table top gives 'em. These guys are walking tanks...
  
• CHAOS Marines dying to one Bolter shot????????? Dude, what? No. They're walking tanks with thousands of years of experience, and yet somehow the noobiest Tactical Marines that ever existed are killing them with what, a 5:1 Kill:Death ratio? NONE of the sense was made there. How did they ever make it through all that time since the Heresy? Have they been playing XBOX the whole time? Did the Captain-Prince somehow talk them into dying like noobs as part of the plan?
  
• Why were there two Demon Princes that looked the exact same? That's not exactly chaotic... I mean, okay, so the Black Legion one looks like the Black Legion one on the cover of the box for the model they sell, but the other one too? Or are we to believe that it was the same one both times? If so, then that means that the Captain really IS just a douche/idiot, and I'm kinda surprised he survived long enough to be that old. The Apothecary being that old...THAT I get. "It's a trap. They killed a whole Company of Fists, and we have 9 noobs, we should leave and go warn someone/get help" is a sane attitude. "We're the only ones around ATM, let's ignore the fact that they slaughtered ten times as many Imperial Fists, who probably WEREN'T noobs, and go do it just because we're here" is a good way to get murdered in the face pointlessly.
  
• And if the whole thing was a plan to get the Ultramarines to come pick up the warp gate book and take it to Macragge, then how else could they have possibly engineered that situation without ol' what'shisface being possessed before they even landed? Is this in a future where Sicarius became Chapter Master and makes terrible decisions for the whole Chapter, starting with the guy he appointed as his replacement?
  
• The walk animations and run animations were awkward.... Having done my share of 3D animation, I know that run/walk cycles certainly aren't the easiest thing to make look natural, and I know Power Armor makes it more complicated, but I also know that I managed to get it to look pretty good when I did it in my spare time between projects in my highschool 3D animation class...
  
• Servitors who hand out Purity Seals? Were those Tech Priests? Where was all the red? Do they have the authority to hand out Purity Seals when the Chaplain isn't around to do it? Isn't that the same kind of logic as printing yourself a scratch-n-sniff photograph of garlic and wearing it to ward off vampires? Does it mean anything if a machine put it together?
  
• The Crozius Arcanum attack was pretty cool. I've certainly never heard of something like that, but I can't really think of anything saying that's wrong. Every Crozius is going to be a relic of its own anyways, right? So who's to say that his isn't just some weird unique one, or a rare variant? I mean, hey, why not? It sure looks like you could call that "4 melee range attacks that don't allow any Armor Saves"... Maybe it'll make it into the next Codex as a special power for the Chaplain. Like a once per game S4 AP1 flame-template attack that makes the Crozius function as a normal melee weapon in the following turn, or something to that effect. But where the heck was the Rosarius and Iron Halo? I mean come on, those would be cool to see in action.
  

 

 

 

But whatever. I liked it anyways. I think I'll go buy myself a copy now. ...I mean.....uh....yea. :mellow:

[NightrawenII]

SPOILER ALERT

 

[*]Ultramarines crossing a rickety wooden bridge with hardly more than a mild creaking sound. I mean come on, a Marine weighs what, nearly a ton? That bridge must have been made of woodtanium... But eh, obviously it was MADE for Marines to cross since it goes directly to the Imperial Fists shrine, so whatever. I'll let it slide.

Agreed.

 

[*]Why were there two Demon Princes that looked the exact same? That's not exactly chaotic... I mean, okay, so the Black Legion one looks like the Black Legion one on the cover of the box for the model they sell, but the other one too? Or are we to believe that it was the same one both times?

It's the same guy.

+

[*]And if the whole thing was a plan to get the Ultramarines to come pick up the warp gate book and take it to Macragge, then how else could they have possibly engineered that situation without ol' what'shisface being possessed before they even landed?

The Captain was possessed after he and the daemon fall during the combat.

[the jeske]

It doesn't mean they are the fierciest fighters, the most stubborn or the swiftest. It just means they are considered greatest. Why?

 

Subjective, but mostly because of their position in the Imperium, the fact they are highly successful and when they take back/save a planet they do so with a care to the people of the Imperium. They maintain an Imperial considered paradise. Planets all over the Imperium have benefited from their planning (not just in warefare).

a fresh 10 man tactical squad made out of new recruits[like puting fresh scouts in to marine armor etc] do something a full imperial fist company couldnt do and not an suprised company but a oath bound one that had a goal of nothing else but defending the book . 10 ultra scouts in power armor > full imperial fists company.

Or how they own our BL dudes [who also seem to be suffering from the ancient storm trooper sickness] , as If everyone of them was sniper , but firing from the hip .

+ ward did say they are best at everything , so till they make new fluff that is what ultras are , best fleet , best codex chapter , best all round hth abilties , best tank company cmd , best scout sgt etc etc etc.

[Captain Idaho]

It doesn't mean they are the fierciest fighters, the most stubborn or the swiftest. It just means they are considered greatest. Why?

 

Subjective, but mostly because of their position in the Imperium, the fact they are highly successful and when they take back/save a planet they do so with a care to the people of the Imperium. They maintain an Imperial considered paradise. Planets all over the Imperium have benefited from their planning (not just in warefare).

a fresh 10 man tactical squad made out of new recruits[like puting fresh scouts in to marine armor etc] do something a full imperial fist company couldnt do and not an suprised company but a oath bound one that had a goal of nothing else but defending the book . 10 ultra scouts in power armor > full imperial fists company.

Or how they own our BL dudes [who also seem to be suffering from the ancient storm trooper sickness] , as If everyone of them was sniper , but firing from the hip .

+ ward did say they are best at everything , so till they make new fluff that is what ultras are , best fleet , best codex chapter , best all round hth abilties , best tank company cmd , best scout sgt etc etc etc.

 

Don't get me wrong, the plot being silly to the point of making Ultramarines silly good against everything just seems cheesey. But the term Greatest is a long term issue with Ultramarines for some time.

 

Reading BL novels gives a cool perspective. Ultramarines are very good at what they do, but seeing the Raven Guard in it shows a different perspective.

[Kreon]

I give it a resounding "meh."

 

A host of woes have already been voiced here, I'll just add a couple of things that come to mind.

 

* A dusty, cloudy, beige planet. What a crap setting. I got tired of things being obscured so much of the time. It just comes across as lazy and cheap animation.

 

* If they could have used their T-Hawk to bomb their enemies the whole time, why didn't they?

 

* Dear God, why did they have to do this about Ultramarines? We took loads of flak when that was announced, and then to make it worse the movie makes us look like garbage. They should have done this about some no-name chapter they made up and then had chapter annihilated at the end of the movie just to rid the galaxy of their taint.

 

* Last I checked, the Crozius was a standard power weapon, not some type of mystic flamethrower. There is obviously confusion about whether Carnak is a Chaplain or a Librarian.

 

* The marines themselves looked weightless. Worse, they sounded weightless. Their armor didn't clink, their footsteps sounded like kids walking around in converses, and they jumped around like basketball players.

 

* The pacing was awful. The plot was crap. Abnett phoned it in.

 

That said, there was a part of me geeking about watching a 40k movie. I didn't really enjoy it, but I also didn't turn it off in disgust. I'd say it's about par for what I expected: It made a complete mess of a lot of things, but I've seen worse. Besides that, it was the first attempt, and I must applaud the team for that, especially considering the lack of funds and the short development cycle. Better luck next go! BRING ME HELSREACH.

 

 

And to weigh in on the ever present "Ultras are the BEST EVER" spat:

 

Don't consider this in terms of combat ability or anything like that. Consider where they're from (Ultramar is practically a paradise). Consider their combat record. Consider the honors they have won. Think of the fact that they have kept record of their exploits back to their time as a Legion. Quite obviously, the Council of Terra loves the Ultramarines, and with fairly good reason. Ultras never opened fire on an Inquisition fleet, we don't have a dark past we keep hidden, we don't have a terrible genetic problem, and we didn't fly off the handle after the Heresy. Guilliman embodied his Father's balance, and the Ultramarines take after their Father.

[Seahawk]

As an aside, power armor (by itself) weighs 180kg/396lbs, according to the Deathwatch rulebook. Add at least 200-250lbs of muscle into it and yea, they're rather hefty HOWEVER; they are supremely agile and sneaky in the book fluff.

[pingo]

Regarding this point that keeps coming up of a 10 man squad of Ultra rookies doing what a full company of Imperial Fists could not. Isn't that just misunderstanding the plot? As I understood it, the Ultras were simply pawns for the daemon to exploit to go to Macragge. The daemon and his chaotic minions did not plot to destroy the Ultras at all. It would not have served the daemon to destroy them all. He needed bodies to possess. Not all the marines were killed, just enough to make it look convincing.

 

At least, that's my interpretation.

[The Emperor's Champion]

A Marine on his own must weigh more than his armor then. A Marine has to be at least 400 lbs.

I weigh like 220lbs, and there's not a whole lot of fat on me. I'm only 6' or 6'1". I'm stronger than the vast majority of people I know, but I'm not exactly made of muscle. And I know I've got some damn dense bones, but I'm not rockin' a solid ribcage or anything.

 

If I was 8 feet tall, extra broad, made of solid muscle, and my skeleton was some giant reinforced crazyness with a solid ribcage... I'd weigh A LOT more.

 

Honestly, I can't imagine a suit of Power Armor weighing much less than a 1/2 ton.

[Captain Idaho]

I'm in agreement with you. I'm 13 and a half stone (probably pushing 14 actually...) and 6 foot and a half inch tall, so am definitely of the opinion that a Marine would be at least twice as heavy, as I'm not particularly heavy set.

 

It's hard to believe the armour isn't similar in weight, though technology should logically tell us things get lighter, the Imperium doesn't use our kind of technology advancement eh.

[Seahawk]

Well, the fluff has it pegged at 180 kilos, so that's what it's going to be until a retcon. Remember though, that is pretty darn heavy still, especially for being an advanced tech.

[Captain Idaho]

Ha I suppose so! Thinking about when I was training for the Marines, just a few kilos made joggin very difficult.

 

(I'm not a Marine though. don't ask why I didn't get into the Marines - let's just say I have been a bad boy in the past and I wasn't allowed in...)

[Marshal Rohr]

So my Dad bought it and it arrived today. It was pretty much what I expected, though there were part I enjoyed. The helmet cam in particular was awesome, as were the bolter shells.