Ultramarine Movie Reviews

[Ethrion]

I've read tons of reviews of the Ultramarine film but none so far have come as accurate or spot on as this one I have read:

 

I’ll be honest. The Ultramarines movie was the most disappointing thing since The Phantom Menace... Oh wait hang on maybe thats a bit harsh. It certainly was disappointing though.

 

Now let me be clear I’m not going to go on some nerd boy rage, rant. I’m going to be objective and consider it in exactly the same way I would when watching any film.

So, it is incredibly exciting isn’t it? At last a 40k film about space marines. All the things we have been reading about brought gloriously to life in a CGI film... Cool... I guess.

 

The first thing I want to do is to understand who this is made for. When films are commissioned, the producers pitch who is likely to come and see it, this helps decide things like the budget and the tone of the script. So Games Workshop had two options when they decided to make a film, they could either make a simple story designed to open up the universe to a new audience and (hopefully) new customers, or they could make a film fully immersed in the universe that will reward the current fans’ already extensive knowledge.

 

Now you might be asking why can’t they try to do both? Well if you do that then you tend to end up with an unfocussed mess that tries to please everyone but fails in most departments just like the star wars prequels. Unfortunately this is kind of what happened. I could go on a long rant now about the hundreds of little inaccuracies that occurred in this film, from the wrong colour lenses in the helmets, to the oddity that tactical marines have apparently never been in combat as scouts, to the use of the ‘and they shall know no fear’ as a battle cry thingy. But actually these things don’t matter as long as the film is designed to open up the universe to a wider audience and the writing is good, after all Marvel have changed lots of things in their films to make their characters more palatable to a larger screen audience and that seems to be working pretty well. But then there are several issues if the film is designed for that.

 

This brings me on to a larger point, the script. Now there are some good points, we are given a very clear hero to follow and root for in the form of Proteus. This is fine for people new to the story because he gives us someone to identify with and as he moves through the film he is the vehicle used to introduce new concepts as every conversation is in some way directed at or involves him. This also has a major down side in that it makes most of the rest of the squad either unnamed or heroically underdeveloped. We do spend some time with both Captain Severus and Apothecary Pythol but still both are criminally one note, Severus being the shouty, arrogant Captain and Pythol is the worry wart (he he he, warts...) and even Proteus is the over eager new recruit.

 

Also if the movie is designed for a new audience then we are told chaos is bad but we aren’t told who that is or why they are bad. Sure later on we see some Imperial Fists that have been desecrated but that is 40 minutes into the film and at that point we still don’t know our characters well enough to care that much and anyway there is no clear bad guy presented in the film, we have a protagonist but we don’t have an antagonist because we are told very little about Chaos and specifically nothing about the Chaos Marines on the planet. Even when we meet the Imperial Fists we aren't told anything beyond them being the black legion, so like I said ‘where is Gargamel, you know a visible villain to add real tension?’. But then of course if the movie was made for the fans then this is ok because we have the experience to know what is going on, but then they should have more attention to detail, after all I thought Sicarius was the Captain of the second company.

 

Either way the script is still lazy because we don’t know any of the characters beyond very shallow representations of archetypes. This has a knock on effect when we land on the planet. There is a very obvious attempt to build tension and an uneasy atmosphere by having undefined movement in the shadows but the scene fails because by this point we don’t care about any of the marines.

 

On top of this the writing seems lazy because there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to make the marines appear as a convincing military unit because of a few subtle but important things. Number one, again the script lets us down with simplistic instructions like ‘move to the left and you move to the right.’ Even in Dawn of war we hear more complex commands. Secondly they are landing near a site that has a beacon calling for aid, yet they display no caution, they just walk along in the open in a loose flying v formation like some migrating ducks! Now I’m not a military expert but anyone that has seen a vietnam movie would find this a little bizarre. Later on when they deal with a sniper they just get the heavy bolter guy to stand out in the open and shoot the position until it is destroyed safe in the knowledge that the enemy sniper is incompetent and wont fire in the few seconds it takes him to step out and aim at the tower. Now you might say that I am nit picking but little details are important and can take you out of the movie and break your suspension of disbelief.

 

Speaking of breaking my suspension of disbelief... The visuals. I have seen a lot of people saying that the visuals are ok but not the best as though this is something we should excuse. In a world of Pixar movies we have come to expect that movies made on computers should be of a high standard. In this movie we have marines that appear to have had a stroke as their faces are paralyzed. When they leave the planet there is a scene where the chaplain is looking in the codex/relic and one of the Ultramarines looks at Proteus as though he is signaling concern at what the Chaplain is doing. The problem is that the faces don’t really change in any way and that means it undermines the attempt to build tension. This is just one example but it runs through the entire film, whenever the space marines have their helmets off their faces lack an real ability to emote properly and this then breaks my suspension of disbelief again.

In several places this is also made worse by several different things, not only are we being distracted by the bland faces, often the lighting is poorly done and their movements are strangely jerky, especially when they move through the air or quicker than a slow jog.

 

This is also coupled to bad editing and direction which also takes you out of the action. There are two examples of this that were obvious but there are many smaller examples. Firstly when Proteus shoots at shadows after they first land on the planet he stops shooting and then a few seconds later the Captain shouts to stop shooting, twice. The dialogue doesn’t mesh with the visual which makes the greatest soldiers that mankind has ever produced seem incompetent and laughable. Later on one of the Ultramarines has the back half of his head sliced off, he slumps to his knees and lands face down in front of everyone. The Apothecary walks over and says “Head wound, fatal...” Again it is an unnecessary comment that becomes laughable when coupled with the visual.

 

However it isn’t all bad as when John Hurt arrives as the Imperial Fist’s Chaplain the movie starts to pick up as he seems to understand his character and lends some gravitas to the whole proceedings, but even he is ruined by turning his back on a fire fight when the chaos marines are still shooting at them and when the twist finally comes and the possessed character is revealed it isn’t a surprise and we don’t care about the people involved enough to be engrossed or concerned.

I realize that some of you are reading this and saying, “What did you want? Games Workshop doesn’t have a lot of money at the moment and we get to see the characters we love in a real film even if it has a small budget, cut them some slack.”

 

Well, to you guys I present two other models of how to go about making films with a small monetary outlay. The most obvious comparison would be to Marvel. They wanted to make films about their characters to boost flagging comic book sales and so they made a deal with FOX. This deal is now very famous, it simply was that they sold the rights to make a film using their characters. However FOX had to make a film using each character every so many years or the rights reverted back to Marvel. Marvel kept some of their characters in their own control so that once they had profited from the first films being made they could open Marvel Studios. Now we see Marvel Studios making the Iron Man films, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. So already they have regained control of The Hulk and some of the X-Men characters. GW could have done the same, let a movie production house make a Creed film, or a Pedro Kantor film and rake in profits and then start up their own films with the Ultramarines etc.

 

Secondly there is a film out at the moment called Monsters which a British guy made on his laptop for about ten quid. Most of the budget for the film was used for promotion after he had sold it to Vertigo Films and the post production sound mix done by Dolby. I raise this as an example simply because the effects in that film are amazing but the whole film was edited and the effects created on the same type of laptop that I am using to write this review.

 

So to sum up I am hugely disappointed by this film. It’s ok but seems sloppy, cheap and rushed. I mean it is cool to see a 40k movie and I hope they make more, but it could and should have been so much more.

 

http://shaken-not-stunned.blogspot.com/201...see-smurfs.html

[Candleshoes]

The most obvious comparison would be to Marvel.

http://shaken-not-stunned.blogspot.com/201...see-smurfs.html

 

Games Workshop is not Marvel, that comparison is meaningless. They also didn't finance the movie.

[eZieweZie]

In order to better asses the impact the movie had had on the community, an extensive survey has been created. The idea is for as many people as possible who have watched the movie to fill it in and a thorough statistical analysis will then be performed on the collected data. The results should give a pretty solid impression of how people reacted to the movie and why. The information could also prove useful in order to improve any next W40k movies, if there will be any.

 

More information here:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=220058

[Curis]

http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/comics/2011-01-03-ultramarines.gif

 

http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/comics/2011-01-24-ultramarines-2.gif

 

http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/comics/2011-01-31-ultramarines-3.gif

[ashrog]

It was a decent first attempt. Honestly, it could have been worse (wasn't expecting much). The final scenes aboard the strike cruiser were good, everything on the planet was paced too slowly. It was obvious that they only had enough material for about 30 minutes, and had to stretch it out. As corny and cliched as it was, Proteus' rant as he beat on the Daemon was my favorite part. "It is true that daemons may corrupt the hearts of men.... but i am steel! I am doom!..."

 

If I could have changed one aspect, it would have been to have the Ultramarine squad travelling aboard an imperial guard ship. Why add imperial guard into a movie about space marines? As the movie stands, we have no reference for the sheer awesomeness of the Ultramarines. We can't tell that they're 8 feet tall, or super strong, or super fast, because we only have other marines to compare them to. Guardsmen give us a point of reference for their capabilities. As well as being able to better show the pants-crapping terror induced by the black legion.

 

Speaking of, no need to change the chaos marines behavior, or have them use tactics or anything. They should have just painted them red and given them bunny ears. Then their 'tactics' make more sense.

[Captain Idaho]

I found that comic very amusing actually. Have they finished the parody for the whole film?

[crossatron]

I really enjoyed the film.

 

anyone who says this is terrible has obviously never watched anything with Julia Roberts in it...

[Captain Idaho]

I really enjoyed the film.

 

anyone who says this is terrible has obviously never watched anything with Julia Roberts in it...

 

Ha point taken! As long as it's better than Resident Evil Apocolypse I can handle it.

[Gunslinger87]

Sorry to those few that liked it, but sadly I have to stick to my point. A movie without a plot (or a plot a pre-teen could come up with) just wont cut it. I can't believe that with Abnett on board we got a story of a few guys who go somewhere, pick up 2 guys and one of them turns out to be a baddie and gets killed. Honestly. If you give somebody a single piece of paper and a pen, he can write you a dozen of these stories in half an hour. How this was possibly selected as the first 40K story to be filmed I just don't get....

 

I really wanted to like this... I would have (and actuallly have) forgiven everything. Honestly, people that have gripes about fluff need to get a grip sometimes... but a film without a plot is inexcusable. It was almost like some bad TV series where the writers couldn't come up withh something this week so just shot some action and a plot on the level of Mr. Men.

 

I really like Abnett and can't believe that he couldn't have done better. Maybe he was too restricted by the producers or what could be done. But even so... even if there was to be almost no combat at all, the film could still at least have some story.

[Cptn. Palladorus]

I can't believe that with Abnett on board we got a story of a few guys who go somewhere, pick up 2 guys and one of them turns out to be a baddie and gets killed.

I can believe it. Have you read his books?

[HsojVvad]

Do people in the UK really talk like this? If you are going to try and make the movie fluffy, then everything has to be fluffy. There is a reason why Peter Jackson made changes to Lord of the Rings. To make it entertaining. Ultramarines the movie is not entertaining. My wife couldn't get out fast enough when I put it on.

 

While the Ultramarines were talking, who was talking? Also they sounded b o r i n g and D U L L . Yes it may have been fluffy, it sure wasn't entertaining. This is only a 40K Space Marine or Ultramarine may like. Usually when you make a movie it's suppose to be entertaining.

 

Also I keep reading that Dan Abnett is suppose to be a great writer. I don't see it at all. Then again I thought Star Wars Episode I was a good movie, but I don't find Ultramarines a good movie, so I guess our tastes different.

[Gunslinger87]

I can't believe that with Abnett on board we got a story of a few guys who go somewhere, pick up 2 guys and one of them turns out to be a baddie and gets killed.

I can believe it. Have you read his books?

 

 

yes at least 15 of them... and they are some of the best 40K has to offer... Just don't see why the movie couldn't have at least a bit of that.

[Calacorm]

Well, for me, it was ok. Its hard for me to explain it as something seems a bit off with it.

 

But do you know that old Spiderman Cartoon that use to come on 20 or more years ago. The one that was about 30 minutes long per show, and out of those 30 min, 20 mins of it was Spiderman swinging to and from one place to another with weird crazy 70's music?

 

For me, Ultramarine was kinda the same way.. some talking, some walking, more talking, walk some more, oh, climb a rock face, shoot at something, walk, walk and talk at the same time then, suddenly a huge fight, and end off with talking..

 

I know people who watched for the first time and thought it was great, but they dont know the fluff of the 40K world. For me, I guess I wanted what all the books, codex's describe.

 

Not as happy as I would have like to have been about it.

 

EDIT:

 

Oh, the power armor. It didnt seem to stop or help protect them from anything. If they got hit, they were wounded. almost all the time. :cuss?

[Seahawk]

There's going to be a free screening of the movie at the theater in the city near me!!! Feb 26! With Q&A with the producer (meh). Well I signed me up for that! You'll get my review afterwards. Maybe the immersion of theater goodness can improve upon it?

[Cptn. Palladorus]

Now let's see here...how do I finagle a trip to Chicago on that short notice...

[Marshal Rohr]

Steal a car. Whenever it runs out of gas, steal another. Free trip.

[Teraphor]

I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars. It wasn't the worst movie ever made, but it wasn't the best. I was entertained. The plot could've used some work, but hey it's 40k a lot of the plots aren't that great (Blood Angels novels I'm looking at you). Animation was okay, as long as the animation style in a film is consistent I'm content to chalk it up to 'artistic style'.

 

Pros:

Ultramarines Captain was possessed, gets rid of the ridiculous "We're the Ultramarines and we're perfect in every possible way" stereotype.

Captain had a chainsword, Power Weapons etc. are supposed to be rare not every captain is gonna get one.

Combat wasn't boring.

Imperial Fists and Ultramarines working together instead of bickering like little girls.

No Metal Boxes.

Little details like the tactical arrow on the apothecary's shoulder pad.

 

Cons:

Too short

Not enough variation between character armour (I've only just finished watching it once, I could be wrong). It would make sense if an entire company was represented, but 1 squad? They could've done something to make the characters stand out.

 

That's all for now, I'll probably watch it again tonight with some friends and maybe come back with some more.

[OraIncognita]

I'd give it 1,5 out of 5 stars. And only because it was the only 40k movie I have bothered to watch to the end. Now that I have seen it three times (yes 3!) I made this short review (enough has been said in the longer reviews earlier in the thread).

 

Pros:

The end was ok, I wish they had made the entire movie shorter, maybe 20-25 mins.

Only 40k movie that anyone would bother to watch.

OK animations.

Decent first attempt. But not something you ask people to PAY for!

 

Cons:

Way too long for what they had.

Ridiculous Marines. All moving/tactics/battles were ridiculous, like a schoolboys running around with Super Soakers that made noise.

I was a bit embarrassed watching it actually. :(

No "weight". Power armour was paper..

Fists massacred by... the (this time berzerk) schoolboys that are Traitor Marines?

 

 

Seriously, I would like to rate it better but "its 40k" simply is NOT enough. Tau: Fire Warrior cutscenes are better!

[Muller]

To summarize this in two words: Utter :cusse.

Pretty much everything was off when it comes to fluff, well except for maybe the color palette, that was decent...

 

And to be honest, I'd rather watch Notting Hill 200 times than this one ever again (at least Notting Hill has the character Spikey in it).

[Gunslinger87]

Just a side note. I criticized the movie quite a bit (though in my case just because of the plot, the rest I forgive) but I have to admit that having watched in again a few times over the last couple of days, it is starting to grow on me a little bit.

 

There are a nice few tid-bits in there. The marines look ok. It is still way too long for what actually happens and the plot is still something like a fairy tale a parent has to make up in the spur of the moment when their child suddenly wants one, but fun to watch nonetheless.

 

Think of it this way. If it was an episode of a running series, (and lets say an average episode where the main plot isn't that important) it would be great. If we had Ultramarines 2 the week later and saw a different storty etc, eventually everything would be fantastic. Even with the graphics they have etc.

 

Btw what people often miss is the fact that the direction in the film is pretty good. Ignoring the choppy dialogue (which really isn't the fault of the director, it happens all the time in quasi-live action animated films, just remember Final Fantasy, the cast they had and what the dialogue was like...) there are some very nice camera movements, blocking and so on. (The part were the camea goes through the fresco and out into space as the ships moves on comes to mind, or the closeup on the apothecary's mutilated head even though he isn't the one speaking etc. but those are just some that I remembered a day after watching, just remember thinking at it last time)

 

 

I'm starting to appreciate the film for what it is and not how much it lived up to my expectations.

 

I just hope that next time (if there is one) they first look for a story that has a 'wow' effect. i.e. wow, we really need to film *****... and not, we really need a film about 40K... what should it be? And then have the story take a back seat to everything else.

[Seahawk]

So I just got back from watching it on the big screen. Having not seen it previously, I went in with zero expectations. Here's what I thought...

 

Story/Scenes:

Interesting, but doesn't really fit in to the universe so much as it does hollywood. This is definitely a "movie marines" move, made in the way of big films. There are some comical one-liners, such as

 

Marine: "The Emperor protects!"

Apothecary: "And a loaded boltgun isn't bad either."

 

But again, made mostly like a hollywood film instead of a 40k film. Not that that's a bad thing as it was enjoyable to watch still. The "long walk" for the first half was pretty boring, but when they had to come up with creative solutions to a downed bridge was pretty neat, in addition to other things. As a good ol' fluff nut, a decent amount was off, but then I didn't go in expecting it to be perfect. There were some notable incosistencies, but these were to enhance the plot and mood.

 

The action scenes were pretty fun to watch. Killing, blowing stuff up, etc. Good times!

 

Oh, and to clear things up, Captain Severus was not possessed; his corpse was. The daemon can move from host to host, and it took over Severus as he died. He played the part right up until he was exposed. Again, this was more hollywood style than 40k, but whatever.

 

Graphics/Animations:

Could have been a bit better, but as it was pretty good for the heroes. Helmets were blah but we all know that. My fiancee and I would have liked to see more of the daemonic, as the bits with the daemon prince were hot, but oh well.

 

Animations were a bit off, but for a first try I can't complain too much. More explained below.

 

Sounds:

This movie was definitely made for a theater sound system. I think everything sounded exactly as they should, with bolter fire being heavy thuds, impacts, etc. The music fit quite well, and if I could buy the soundtrack I would.

 

Extraneous stuff explained!

So it was pretty awesome that the producer (who looked like he was 20 but I couldn't tell) and a couple other people were there afterwards. We (about 40-50 people?) got to ask them questions for which we got great answers. Here's what we got (all answers are paraphrased/in my own words/so don't quote them unless I have real numbers):

 

Why did you choose the Ultramarines over other chapters?

- The Ultramarines are easiest to get attached to. Nearly every single player has heard of them or been exposed to them from when they started, so it's easy enough to include them without having to explain much.

 

How long did it take to produce this movie? Why did you choose Abnett?

- Well, it took five years to scrape up enough funding, and it took 56 weeks to make it. With the story, it took 9 weeks of working things out to get it right. We had many 40k writers and other script writers that had nothing to do with 40k as well, but Abnett's story came out the best so we went with him.

 

Why did you choose to animate the marines and have them interact with the environment as you did?

- Here's the thing. We had to choose how to have them shown as heavy, clunking marines in armor, and showing what the armor can do which is take the world's greatest atheletes and multiply/enhance their abilities by double. We couldn't do both, so went with the more agile marines as that's how they are shown in books.

 

How much say did GW have in its creation?

- Basically, they would look at what we had done and either say "YES" or "NO" to whether it would be included in the final cut or not. Luckily there was more of the latter than former. Otherwise we were treated as any other sharer of their IP (Relic, THQ, etc). One of the hardest things to do was get the markings on the armor right. We had a lot of feedback in getting that just right.

 

Would you have liked to include more to make it longer?

- Oh gosh yes. There were many more scenes we would've liked to include but couldn't due to budget constraints.

 

Are there plans to make more?

- It depends on how many dvds we sell, and I certainly hope so!

 

Will there be any merchandizing, like action figures, special models, etc?

- We can't do any action figures, and it'd be up to GW if they want to make models so we don't know.

 

Are there plans to make a TV series?

- No.

 

Why wasn't it released like a general movie?

- GW doesn't really want it that way. That's not how they want this train of entertainment to go; they'd rather give it straight to their fans.

 

What was your favorite scene?

- Well actually I had two: the scene of Severus' return, it was so fast-paced and badass, and the one where they're heading back to the ship in the thunderhawk. I wasn't sure if the suspicious looks the Ultramarines shared between each other would come off right, but I think it worked perfectly.

 

 

 

All in all, despite its faults I thought it was entertaining. A free showing of it in a movie theater? Definitely. That's a movie definitely to be played loud. They had their bolt pistol that I posted up the link to a building tutorial a while ago and people were taking pictures with it (not me, I have my own! :P). We got free Ultramarines buttons (I grabbed a bunch!) and a $8 discount for buying it online. Not bad I think!

 

The thing is, you have to watch it and not expect anything other than it's your little blue dudes animated. Anybody that did otherwise is just plain foolish, I think, as it will never be up to par with what's in our minds. That's how it is with all movies about anything: if you expect anything you'll be disappointed, but if you go just to be entertained you'll have a good time (well, except for that long walk at the beginning!).

[greatcrusade08]

btw that comic strip is inaccurate i posted the following in amicus.

 

http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/comics/2011-01-24-ultramarines-2.gif

 

what i liked about this comic (i did find it amusing) was that whoever wrote it was trying to highlight the mistakes in the background material.. however they themselves got it equally as wrong..

comedy it seems is not without a sense of irony.

 

Or the times you went into combat as ultramarines second company devestator squads and ultramarines second company assault squads

This doesnt happen

 

progression of a scout goes

scout (10th) --> reserve dev (9th) --> reserve assault (8th) --> reserve tactical (6/7th) --> battle company as tac marine (2nd-5th)

 

however that being said, this new background has only been around since 5th ed (just over 2 years), the last decade has been that scouts get promoted straight to tactical marines.. so one cannot blame dan abnett for keeping the classical feel to it

[MRCHAOS]

Well I loved it even though there was some randomness.

 

I quite like that cartoon a cuple of posts above and my main dislikes have already been said enough times on here. In general though I enjoyed watching it.

 

I even knocked this up afterwards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCS6UtOS4g8

[Walter Payton]

Do people in the UK really talk like this? If you are going to try and make the movie fluffy, then everything has to be fluffy.

 

Yes we do. Trust me, we find deep Southern US accents weird.

 

Have you not played any computer game or watched any Holywood film? Of course we do. We're always the baddies. Personally, I envisioned Marines talking like the Helghast in Killzone, only with a metallic filter.

 

 

While the Ultramarines were talking, who was talking? Also they sounded b o r i n g and D U L L .

 

I liked the voice acting. Better than the robot voices from DoW.

 

Also I keep reading that Dan Abnett is suppose to be a great writer. I don't see it at all.

 

Agreed. Compared to some of the new talent in BL, he is overrated. Eisenhorn was good, but he relies too much on archetypes.

 

Then again I thought Star Wars Episode I was a good movie.

 

I didn't. But then George Lucas only laughed, whilst rolling in money.

[Captain Idaho]

I've got a standard English accent, but apparently with a hint of a farmer's accent due to living in a country town. English have even more varied accents than the US, which is strange considering the density and size of our population!