lvogtn 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.

Mike Passion Not sure what so many reviewers are harping about,seems like people complain just to complain.This film is not on the same quality level as Beowulf but hey,Games Workshop does not have the kind of Hollywood money needed to get superior animation.Sure,I was a little disappointed but when you have waited so long to see a Warhammer movie,you take what you can get.The voice acting was excellent,but that is to be expected when you have the likes of Stamp,Pertwee,and Hurt,etc...on board.Some may find the dialog bizarre,or maybe even stunted.But who would think that Space Marines are great orators?? They are all clones who are so entranced with the sacred dogma of Emperor Worship that to them great conversation consists of quoting Imperial scripture.My main beef with the film was it seemed too short,at the end of one hour and sixteen I was hungry for more but was left with the scraps called credits.That and I am no fan of the Ultramarines,would have much rather seen the Imperial Fists or even a Chaos chapter,like the Death Guard be the center of the story.Oh well,maybe next time.Last thing,don't pick apart it's faults but just savor it as a fun,albeit short WH40K flick.

rooksbailey8 I can tell you that this is a solid first step for the Emperor....Ultramarines deals with - yes - a squad of Ultramarines who are sent to investigate a distress beacon on the planet of Mithron, home to an important imperial shrine. Without giving too much away, this hardy bunch of the Emperor's finest soon discover that the sinister forces of Chaos are at work. From there, the movie proceeds according to standard Space Marine codex operating procedures, i.e., burn the heretic! Ha! This straightforward plot is largely executed by the numbers, something that, unfortunately, leaves little room for surprises or plot twists. As a result, the plot is ultimately little more than a pretext for the Space Marines to do their stuff.However, having said that, Ultramarines deserves high praise for faithfully - and important term when it comes to 40K - delivering a movie that truly does capture the essence of 40K. This is no small feat seeing how so many other studios could have - nay, would have - over-simplified and butchered the complex lore of this setting (and believe me, 40K, being a 20+ year old franchise, has lore deeper and more complex than Tolkien's Middle Earth!). It is all in here: the Cult of the Emperor, the daemonic forces of Chaos, bolters, chainswords, seals of purity...all that good stuff that makes 40K...well, 40K.The CGI is quite impressive at times and is loaded with all sorts of wonderful detail, even down to the texture of the Space Marine armor. In addition to the often lavish detail, the art direction of the CGI, one that combines a detailed realism with a bit of a graphic novel shaded cell technique, gave this movie a very distinctive look, one that is well suited to the nature of 40K's oft epic artwork. Even the combat scenes were deftly handled, and not without a bit of gore (parents might want to keep this in mind). Not everything is perfect, though, as I found the facial animations to be emotionally flat and devoid of life, with the Space Marines having a walking/gliding gait that seems thoroughly rigid and unrealistic at times.The voice acting was quite good, too. I guess this is no surprise considering the talented cast of voice actors, including Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Sean Pertwee. Likewise, the music was first rate and filled with medieval sounding chants that are so suited to the warrior monks who are Space Marines.All things considered, I consider Ultramarines to be a success. Sure, 40K purists might find a few things to grumble about (such as the chapter strike cruiser being seemingly staffed by about a crew of twelve - in the novels, these things have thousands of souls upon them), but despite a handful of flaws, the movie delivers the goods and is most definitely a 40K film that remains faithful to the setting we all love.In short: if you are a fan of Warhammer 40K, do yourself a favor and rent/buy see this movie. It is not perfect, but it is a good first step. And remember: "Blessed is the mind too small for doubt."

Richard Pilbeam I've always been ambivalent about the idea of there being a Warhammer 40,000 movie. It sounds like a wonderful idea, yes, but the setting that's been built up over the decades is so detailed and varied that I can't help but feel it couldn't be done justice in a single feature length narrative. The universe is also so harsh, alienating, sombre and overflowing with religious mania and entropic hopelessness that trying to appeal to a mainstream SF audience would probably gut it of the things that made it unique.So, when Games Workshop said they were creating a Warhammer 40,000 movie as a direct-to-DVD film available through mail order... I wouldn't say I was looking forward to it per se, but it did pique my interest. They're selling it directly to a limited audience of fans who already like it, ergo they can cut loose and deliver something that's true to the universe without worrying about demographics. And Dan Abnett's writing it! So, even if it does reduce the entire universe to a couple of pitched battles and a squad of not-very-interesting space marines, it'll at least be true to the material. A fanservice-y animated companion to the game, like the art books and source books they release, only in movie form.Even on these terms, I was disappointed. Aside from the superficial details, the story takes no advantage of the setting - a squad of soldiers go to a featureless desert planet to investigate a mysterious signal, wander around, have a firefight, rescue some guys, have another firefight, escape and then have a pointless non-fire fight after the predictable last-act "twist". Yeah, the spaceship has stained-glass windows and they detect the monsters using an enchanted banner rather than a bio-scanner, but so what?Why not give us something we can't get in Every Direct To DVD SF Movie Ever? We could be seeing the feudal system that creates the Ultramarines. See the role they play on their home world, as defenders and as aristocrats. See how they're selected, what happens to them, what drives them, whether they ever question their belief system, how well they get on with factions who interpret scripture differently - in other words, it could have been ABOUT them while maintaining a strong action / suspense narrative. The setting calls for something along the lines of Kingdom of Heaven, or The Seventh Seal, or even Alien 3. Instead, it's about a squad of identical blue dudes shooting a squad of identical black dudes.But that's not the big problem with Ultramarines. The big problem with Ultramarines is that it's incredibly boring. The first half an hour - of a seventy-six minute film! - consists almost entirely of the characters wandering around a featureless desert without finding anything. There's no mounting tension, or sense of discovery, or even character interaction; it's like watching someone get lost in a video game and not know where to go next. I'm not joking when I say that the big turning point at the end of act one is the discovery that some people were killed during a war.Ooo.Show the audience a pile of bodies in a setting where there normally wouldn't be a pile of bodies and you've got their attention. Show them a pile of bodies in a war zone and... well, that's business as usual, isn't it? There's a hint of something potentially interesting and disturbing in these scenes, because the bodies have been mutilated and arranged in what appears to be a demonic symbol, but it's never really dwelt on, it just exists on the edge of the frame in a couple of shots. There could have been some real suspense built up here, but it comes across as just another day in the Ultramarines. If the characters aren't affected by what's happening, then why should we be?Oh God, the characters.Almost every character in this movie wears identical blue armour, including a helmet which covers their face. Because they all lead lives of fanatical, monastic devotion to the Emperor of Mankind, there are no differing views beyond "Let's rescue the captain" "No, it's too dangerous", which means no conflict, which means no drama. We can't tell who's who and we don't know what they're feeling, so how are we supposed to care about what's going on?When the "hero" character defeats the demon at the end, it's meant to be a moment of apotheosis for him, except I honestly couldn't remember what he'd done prior to this point or why his heroism was more notable than anyone else's - even with their helmets off, they're all lantern-jawed white men with shaven heads and British accents.Now, there's a (hugely predictable, mostly because the plot's finished fifteen minutes before the movie has) "twist" finale in which one of the marines is revealed to have been possessed by a demon. Fine, "daemon". This strand of the plot exists solely to pad out the story to feature length, but had some more attention been paid to it then we might, MIGHT have had a decent story going. Show how someone raised for a life of pious devotion can fall and become the thing he's been fighting. Does he doubt his faith? Has a life of poverty and chastity left him unfulfilled? Was his zealotry really just an outlet for the uncontrollable rage of a psychotic monster? Is he fighting against it, or does he enjoy the power? Not a clue, he just got possessed.The animation isn't great. It's not the overall quality that's the issue, it's that nothing moves seems to have any weight or physical presence. These guys are in what amounts to plate mail armour, but they're jumping around like they're on the moon. This totally destroys any threat generated by their presence - they seem hollow, not imposing.Even at 76 minutes, it's still too long.