Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2010)

It serves well as an introductory package, or an illustrative device for educational purposes. It contains the essentials of Warhammer, and all or most of the essential political/religious iconography and language. This alone makes it a masterpiece among films of this millennium. As a Warhammer film, its scale is too small, but then, that's what makes it a great introductory package. If the scale was larger, it would overwhelm the unfamiliar viewer. In fact, even as it is it might overwhelm the easily bewildered or the narrow-minded. I place my seal of approval upon this film, along with my blessing and prayer that many more like it may be made.

Good things: Music, voice acting, general lore stuff, all good and great. The bolter sound is fantastic.The beginning of the story itself I think would've been better with Imperial Guards and heretics, the whole soldiers being frightened and such, doesn't fit very well with the super soldier "we shall know no fear" of space marines. It didn't feel very much like super soldiers, the two pilots in the landspeeder getting sniped without a sound by Chaos Marines felt very out of tune. Both for the durability of marines, and the combat tactics of Chaos Marines.The graphics are better than earlier attempts, but still not that great. It's destracting I think, making the combat scenes, which are a lot of the focus, seem a bit clunky.I think it would've been better to show the marines coming to help imperial guards, show them in context of "mere mortals". Show how they can sprint 40- 50mph, and tank boltgun shots that makes flak- armoured soldiers explode. THEN let the chaos marines and daemons flip it back into an underdog situation for the loyalist marines.

This is a good film, considering it's the first one about the Warhammer 40k universe done by Games Workshop. Overall, the plot is not so great and I expected more from Dan Abnett, the animation seems kind of rushed and stubby in most parts of the film, where in some it's relatively good, the acting is good, but the characters are not convincing enough as actual Space Marines.Analytically: 1) The plot has a good line, but it lacks in a lot of its background. For example, what is a single squad of Space Marines doing in a planet that had a massive fortress build and guarded by Imperial Fists nonetheless (who are expert in defence) and was overrun by a surely huge army? By 40K standards, there should have been a whole company there, or at least a veteran squad with an Imperial Guard regiment on their backs. The only chapter known to send single squads to deal with problems anywhere is the Grey Knights chapter, as it's spread out throughout every galaxy sector and rarely acts as a single chapter. 2) The animation was both good and bad. It was cool that they decided to go with CGI and motion capture technology but they did a poor job at delivering something that was supposed to considered an 90-minute animated film. It felt more like a cut-scene of a game. Movement was stubby and very few models were at the screen at any given time. It was excellent artwork but it lacked on detail and depth. An Imperial vessel is meant to be an immense structure, kilometres long and supposed to have at least a million in personnel inside it. The one portrayed had hardly 10 marines and 2-3 servitors. The landing bays were empty and they are supposed to be bristling with activity as are other areas of the ship. The battles on the planet surface were very poor in numbers. We had 2-3 Chaos marines coming up at the heroes at each moment, while the rest waited patiently their turn to die at the Ultramarine chainswords, which showed how little work and how many limitations the animating crew did and had. 3) Space marines, even young ones see battle for at least 5 years before becoming space marines. They serve as scouts and have to prove themselves in the battlefield before being granted rights of wearing a power armour. The apothecary is revered by all marines (even the captain and chapter master) since his function is extremely important and not talked back to by a neophyte. The acting was good but because of the background given to the characters they weren't that convincing 4) No prior history is given about what 40k is about. People who don't know anything about the universe will just find the movie dull. 5) The music was amazing and was one of the few positive things in the film.Although I liked it very much and have seen it multiple times, I was dismayed by the plethora of errors in it and would like something more from GW next time. It cried of limited budget and poor work put in it. The actors themselves said that they went in for the motion capture and voice acting maximum one-two hours each (poor direction?). I think GW invested more in getting high-paid actors and hyping up the movie than in actually putting it together. I'd propose that next time they use cheaper actors if they have money problems and invest more in animation and direction. They could have had a much better result if they used 2D animation instead of 3D (much like Dead Space: Downfall or Heavy Metal 2000 was done).Overall I give it a 6/10 because a) it's a not bad first attempt, b) I wouldn't want to discourage GW from making another, hopefully improved, one.

Although this film had a miniscule budget, the creators did an excellent job with what they had and with the source material. The film explains the Warhammer 40K Universe for people who are uninitiated with it. For Warhammer 40K fans, this movie is a real treat. While the story and dialogue could have been better, they do not drag this movie down. This CGI is slightly stylized, but when the action starts, the CGI is fluid and looks good. Another plus is that the Space Marines featured in this movie are the Ultramarines, generally the first Chapter of Space Marines that player of Warhammer 40K become associated with. Judge this movie on its own merits, as a great fan film created by people who love Warhammer 40K.