Ultramarine Movie Reviews

[Walter Payton]

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!

 

I have the whole Lowland Scottish one.

[Ubermensch Commander]

Watched the movie some weeks ago: Thought it was highly enjoyable.

One thing I did note: The prequel comic helped, alot. It explained the rather rough nature of the squad members: Scouts raised to higher rank (which except for the 5th edition codex, going straight to Tactical Marine was not out of the ordinary, so I can let Abnett slide on that one) on a mission of utmost honor.

It demonstrated an important aspect of the Ultramarines (and Space Marines/The Imperium) in general-the importance of oaths. They went because they were honor bound to go but they could not leave their current war unfinished and abandon their allies...unlike certain dress wearing half loyal chapters I could mention ;). Conflicting duties and working around them. Plus you used a bunch of unruly scouts, thereby keeping dissension from the ranks or them doing something stupid in a bid to find glory...like abandoning their position watching the vulnerable rearguard and flanks to dive into combat. Unlikely, but possible.

 

I also understood the reason they did not bring the hammer down to the planet: they had no idea what they were going to be facing and did not want to risk losing such an important artifact. Had someone said "Yo, Daemon Prince over here!" I am sure they would have brought the hammer down. *rimshot* So no issue there.

 

Absolutely loved the scene of two marines hopping from slab to slab. Demonstrated the "power armor as second skin" that marines are supposed to have...while still weighing as much or more as a large car...an angry car...an angry car that has lots of ways to end you.

 

The walking scene worked great for setting tension. Low visibility, strange voices on the wind, unknown foes...made for a tense scene and did not give away who had attacked the planet. Great way of building suspense, IMO, particularly given the limited budget.

 

As for the Black Legion dying in droves..that was the point. The Bl main force had moved on. They likely only left the less experienced or perhaps disgraced troops behind. Fool the Ultras into thinking they were getting away. Flamer explosion and Crozius Shockwave are the two things that irked me in those scense though. That and the sniped Landspeeder pilots. What weapon did he hit them with to leave such a small hole yet get through the armor?

The boltgun shell casings have been an artistic license of GW for a long long time. Letting that go. But not their lack of explosion! When you shoot a someone with a boltgun, lets have the boom, if you please.

 

All in all a solid movie, with the understanding of limited budget and some backstory being filled with the comic. Would not have been as enjoyable without reading that first. Can't say I would necessarily recommend it for non-Warhammer 40K fans, though.

[Legatus]

One thing I did note: The prequel comic helped, alot. It explained the rather rough nature of the squad members (...)

 

Plus you used a bunch of unruly scouts, thereby keeping dissension from the ranks or them doing something stupid in a bid to find glory...like abandoning their position watching the vulnerable rearguard and flanks to dive into combat. Unlikely, but possible.

But then you remember that Ultramarine aspirants in particular have already undergone 6-8 years of military drill before even being considered for the Ultramarines, and the Scouts would have received a further 6+ years of Training and drill during their initiation process. There is really no reason for them to display anything but utter discipline even at such an early stage of their life as Marines.

 

I do not understand complains that they did not take the hammer, though. The Captain had a power sword, which is a fast, versatile and deadly weapon. Why take a heavy, situational, and relic of a weapon instead? It's not like he was missing out on "double the strength and an added stunning effect" or anything like that. If I had to chose between a energized hammer and a power sword, I would use the sword 99% of the time.

[Ubermensch Commander]

One thing I did note: The prequel comic helped, alot. It explained the rather rough nature of the squad members (...)

 

Plus you used a bunch of unruly scouts, thereby keeping dissension from the ranks or them doing something stupid in a bid to find glory...like abandoning their position watching the vulnerable rearguard and flanks to dive into combat. Unlikely, but possible.

But then you remember that Ultramarine aspirants in particular have already undergone 6-8 years of military drill before even being considered for the Ultramarines, and the Scouts would have received a further 6+ years of Training and drill during their initiation process. There is really no reason for them to display anything but utter discipline even at such an early stage of their life as Marines.

 

Good point, but consider it from this angle: They train to be the star warriors of the Emperor, to go forth and slay his enemies in terrible visceral ways, they finally pass the test to become aspirants, have gotten acquainted with what their enhanced bodies can do...and suddenly they are on rearguard duty with all their newfound power.

I agree completetly that their attitude is not Ultramarine quality and is a bit strange, actually more akin to what I would expect from a Space Wolf or Black Templar or some less discipline chapter (call them more zealous if ya like), but I could allow for it in the movie. They were playing up the "new recruit" archetype. *shrug*

[Olis]

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!

 

You should hear me, sometimes I'm very broad and oo-arrr zummerzet ("this'n", "a'roight moi bab" and "'ow be yon" spring readily to mind) and other times I'm suddenly VERY Estuary like I'm reading the damned news or something. ;)

 

Back when mining coal was a big thing still (pre-1980's basically) you could tell (so I've been told) which particular village and sometimes which particular mine someone came from by the nuances of their accent. So, we Brits have accents coming out of our ears, really. ;)

[facmanpob]

Well there are 7 noticeably different accents within about a 40 mile radius of where I grew up in north west England:

 

Liverpool; Manchester; Wigan; Widnes; Wirral; North Wales; Lancashire :)

[Walter Payton]

Well there are 7 noticeably different accents within about a 40 mile radius of where I grew up in north west England:

 

Liverpool; Manchester; Wigan; Widnes; Wirral; North Wales; Lancashire ;)

 

40k. Needs. A. Scouse. Marine.

 

Personally, I've always imagined unhelmed Ultramarines talking like

[facmanpob]

Well there are 7 noticeably different accents within about a 40 mile radius of where I grew up in north west England:

 

Liverpool; Manchester; Wigan; Widnes; Wirral; North Wales; Lancashire ^_^

 

40k. Needs. A. Scouse. Marine.

Calm Down...Calm Down...eh..eh..

 

I wonder if you could model power armour shellsuits? :D

[Lord Melvin]

I'm going to go ahead and agree with everything everyone has said up until this point, but as everybody loves beating a dead horse, here's my (more than) two cents:

 

I thought Cato Sicarius was captain of the Second Company? Making captain what's-his-face a commander would have made more sense.

 

The duel scene at the very beginning was pretty good. If one were to copy paste that over the other fights in the movie it would probably be an improvement.

 

Last I checked, power armor was proof against most small arms. So a combat blade shouldn't be able to chop through ceramite like paper (see the part where captain thingamabob comes back from the dead...)

 

Lastly, lack of tactics aside, the multiple occasions of staying in the open whilst under fire irritated me the most, as I always saw Space Marines as the kind of warrior to counter-charge anyone foolish enough to attack then, or at least smart enough to dive behind a rock when suppressed. Then again, in a barren wasteland, it can be tough to find cover.

 

Final thoughts: An all around okay movie. As the first ever CGI 40k movie produced, it could have bee significantly worse. I enjoyed it when I shut down the fluffy parts of my brain. Hopefully, any other 40k movies will learn from this and improve upon it.

 

/end fanboy rant

[petewyse]

Just watched it again but this time with my friend who used to be a GW employee and knew nothing of this film. So didn't know what to expect.

 

What confused him and me most was the fluff parts of the film. Mainly the Captains inexperience, one at being told by the Apothecary that the the weather wasn't natural and two about being stalked. Third, being advised to leave and warn the chapter, but dismissing it. He then mentioned that he lost interest when the cases from the heavy bolter landed on the bridge. Bolters are ceaseless, the only reason the ejection port is on the gun is to eject gas so the damn thing doesn't explode. Neither of us cared if it looks cool, we want to see fluff accuracy ;)

 

The Black Legion. Though splintered now, they are incredibly organised and would have gunned those ultras down with autocannons and heavy bolters. Why they were all zerkers was beyond either of our understanding. You don't even need to see the enemy with those guns, just hold down the trigger and point it at the horizon. The Chaplains lack of zealous encouragement to his brothers in the face of chaos was also confusing. Expected to see John Hurt bashing out some pimp lines but got nothing. What.

 

I do wish everyone would stop claiming bolters have caseless ammo. Made worse by your friend who works at GW. I used to work for GW and we were all told bolter shells have cases. Several pieces of artwork clearly show cases either on the ground or flying out of the ejection port, which you claim is for gas? Why would it be bolter shell sized, surely a vent would make more sense. Oh and let's not forget, for all this movie wasn't that great, GW had full control over it, Dan Abnett wrote it and every memeber of GW staff has now seen it... do you think GW heads or Dan himself would make such a mistake?

 

Also the whole "jamming" piece, which occurs in a number of books... what's to jam if there's no case?

 

This is one of those rumours that people assume is lore, when it clearly isn't true.

[petewyse]

Well there are 7 noticeably different accents within about a 40 mile radius of where I grew up in north west England:

 

Liverpool; Manchester; Wigan; Widnes; Wirral; North Wales; Lancashire ;)

 

actually if you want to be anal about it, all space marines and guard speak Gothic, which is closest to German than any other language.

[Cptn. Palladorus]

From a purely hypothetical standpoint...

ejection port...Why would it be bolter shell sized

*snip*

Also the whole "jamming" piece, which occurs in a number of books... what's to jam if there's no case?

Failure to fire.

 

But that's nonsense of course. Boltgun rounds are caseless, and to my knowledge as far back as 2nd edition never have been.

[Iron Lord]

Are you sure people aren't confusing bolters with autoguns? I clearly remember autoguns being caseless in 2nd ed, but I'm not as sure about bolters.

[petewyse]

Are you sure people aren't confusing bolters with autoguns? I clearly remember autoguns being caseless in 2nd ed, but I'm not as sure about bolters.

 

yup... to quote the big yellow wargear book (2nd edition)

 

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/266/4/a/autogun_by_petewyse-d4anvev.png

 

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/266/b/e/boltgun_by_petewyse-d4anvh4.png

[Seahawk]

Bolters have always used cased ammo since 2nd edition, as far as I can remember.

 

[edit] Dang, I really want that wargear book, petewyse! I haven't seen it for many a year and miss it so...

 

[edit 2] Just purchased one for super cheap from ebay. Excellent...

[Marshal Wilhelm]

actually if you want to be anal about it, all space marines and guard speak Gothic, which is closest to German than any other language.

 

I think Gothic in 40K is not gothic from real life....

I don't know what it really is supposed to be though :devil:

[Cptn. Palladorus]

High and Low Gothic in 40k have no relation to real-world Gothic. They're fictional languages which are essentially the trade languages of the 41st millennium which have developed from our own modern-day languages after 38,000 years of mutation. They're represented by English (or the local language of printing) for Low Gothic and dog Latin for High Gothic.

[petewyse]

Bolters have always used cased ammo since 2nd edition, as far as I can remember.

 

[edit] Dang, I really want that wargear book, petewyse! I haven't seen it for many a year and miss it so...

 

[edit 2] Just purchased one for super cheap from ebay. Excellent...

 

 

old school geek so i have everything from rogue trader to present, good work on getting the original off ebay, now you just need the other three books to accompany it :)

 

 

 

High and Low Gothic in 40k have no relation to real-world Gothic. They're fictional languages which are essentially the trade languages of the 41st millennium which have developed from our own modern-day languages after 38,000 years of mutation. They're represented by English (or the local language of printing) for Low Gothic and dog Latin for High Gothic.

 

can't remember who it was, but i remember when working for GW that one of the devs said gothic was basically german, at the time they were talking about a german film maker who was doing an inquisitor movie (this was about 8 years ago) and they said it really fits that he's decided not to dub it