The Lord Inquisitor - Prologue

[MatParker116]

Going back to the costs and scale let's take the end of Horus heresy, the battle of Terra. That is at least a $350 million dollar production as the CGI and other effects would be insane. To tell the tale of whole thing would take at least six films and budgets in the billions, it's impossible to make a film out of the property outside of an original story and even then the costs involved are insane.

 

[Neverhoodian]

By the Emperor, that was magnificent! A little rough around the edges with regards to character animation, but the scenery and score more than make up for that. Funny how a fan creation can put GW's best attempts at a WH40k movie to shame.

I was impressed right up until the fucking dialogue happened.

Yeesh.

Yeeeeeah. That was my reaction too. The voice acting and dialogue were really cringe worthy. Combined with the off lip syncing and it really took me out of it. The visuals were awesome but that was about it. I wouldn't watch the entire thing except to skip around to action scenes because I don't think I could take much more of that Inquisitor.

Apparently the dialogue was dubbed over in English (the creator is German), which resulted in the off-kilter lip syncing. I've watched my share of foreign films with English dubs, so it didn't take me too long to adjust. From a lore perspective, you could imagine they were speaking Gothic.

I thought the dialogue itself was fine. It sounded like something you'd read in a Black Library novel and did a decent job accentuating the setting and tone. It could have been worse...MUCH worse...

I haven't read a lot of WH40K but I don't think it, especially as hope is a pretty major theme and is usually present, things can get worse but can also get better and all those qualities are present in Gaunt's Ghosts. The galaxy in WH40K is brutal but not hopeless.

I would argue there isn't a lot of hope in 40k. Or at least not in the way you and I would interpret it. There's no real personal hope of survival. No one really thinks tomorrow is going to be better. Its more a vengeful, hateful hope that yeah, we all died terribly, but we killed more of the enemy than they killed of us. Or a 'We will all die, but the Imperium will continue on in blind disregard' hope. I mean one of the stories, the Stromark Massacre, ends with 12 billion people dying because of the Flesh Tearers, and the Imperium writes it off as a minor inconvenience.

To be fair, the Flesh Tearers are a pretty psychotic bunch even by Space Marine standards; their practices and battle tactics (or lack thereof) make them practically a Khornate cult. Frankly, it's a wonder they haven't been declared Excommunicate traitorus yet, especially since other Chapters have been expelled for MUCH less (*cough*Soul Drinkers*cough*).

The way I see it, WH40k is a bit of both; hope can prevail on individual bases, but the galaxy is irredeemably fucked as a whole. After all, that famous passage at the beginning of every novel states, "in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. There is no peace among the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter..." Sometimes the Imperium wins, sometimes it loses, but in the end the status quo remains the same; eternal, bloody stalemate.

 

[Frankster]

And I like the Assasin, although I don't know if she is form teh Callidus Temple or the Eversor Temple just form the looks.

She looked more like a Death cult assassin to me.

Regarding the hope debate in 40k. Put me on the side of "there's hope, despite everything". The setting is one of the bleakest there is but hope shines in the oddest of places and it gives rises to triumphs and unlikely victories.
The grimdark stories outnumber the grimlight by far (especially in recent cannon), but there are specks of light in between the oceans of dark.

It's worth pointing out that the Warhammer fantasy setting was one with a lot more hope and the forces of "good" (relatively speaking, but far more good then any 40k faction that's for sure) were far more unified, yet in the end, the baddies won (well unless you're like me and like to pretend Age of Sigmar isn't cannon, and would rather follow the lore of total warhammer or even warhammer online reckoning over AoS).
Perhaps 40k could be the opposite, where despite everything, hope might actually prevail and something might happen, Inu-kun has given several examples, some of which would work out lore wise.
Maybe should GW ever advance the plot far enough, 40k can end up being a "it's darkest before the dawn" story.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

It might be because I usually read Dan Abnett who has a more hopeful tone then everyone else. I think the setting can have a good conclusion (especially after the horrible ending to Sigmar). The emperor can revive to make actual order in the universe or the Primarchs return, the Tyrranid and Necrons might kill each other or the Necron make some kind of truce with humanity since both hate chaos with a passion, the Eldars might defeat Slannesh for good, maybe the space-commies will make the galaxy great again.

I feel like that's hopeful beyond the confines of 40k. Its too out-of-character for all the races.

The Necrons literally hate life. All of it, from the tiniest single microbe to the largest void whales. Their entire existence revolves around eradicating everything that lives, in the entire Galaxy. And the truce they had with the Blood Angels that one time is widely mocked for being absurdly silly and 'noble-bright' and truly not in keeping with the 40k genre.

Likewise the Eldar can't defeat Slaanesh, because She already beat them. All Eldar souls are 1000% doomed to be devoured by Slaanesh, and its only their soul stones that keep them from it. They literally trap their own souls to keep them from passing on, because by definition of their race, passing on means getting devoured. Even children, born yesterday, on the Eldar Craftworld of SuperNice Smiles are already doomed. Its a full on race-based sin that is unavoidable.

The Emperor will never come back, because the High Lords don't want to give up their power. Likewise most of the Primarchs are dead.

And the Tyranids aren't about to be exterminated any time soon. Not even the combined might of all the races would be enough to fully wipe the 'Nids from the stars. Especially considering the vast majority of the Tyranid race has yet to even arrive in galaxy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for happy endings, but 40k has been written into such a corner that pulling one off now is insanely disrespectful to the source material. It'd be like DC saying "Oh, Batman's parents have been alive the whole time and he's a well-adjusted happy successful man." It defeats the entire purpose.

 

[The Madman]

Visually spectacular, that's for sure. The camera shots of the city plus that parade were absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Well, at least I didn't get my hopes up for this one.

True, it's not the insult that Ultramarines was...how COULD it be...but this is still not the 40k film we deserve.

The thickness of the source material and the cost involved are the main reasons no hollywood studio wants to do it, hell even a HBO show is impossible because of the sheer scale. Something like Eisenhorn would probably cost upwards of a billion dollars because of the huge amount of VFX involved.

*shrug* So don't DO Eisenhorn. My idea, if I were given the magical power to pitch and write a 40k movie, would be an Imperial Guard squad trying to fight their way out of a Chaos cult uprising. The Warriors/Assault on Precinct 13 with lasguns and bolters. Nothing big, but properly grim, violent, and over the top.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

I feel, like that awful Dan Abnett, that its a waste of the entire 40k IP. I mean here we have an IP with bio-engineered super soldiers that include Viking-Werewolves [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Wolves], Cannibals [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mortifactors], Vampires [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Blood_Angels], Neo-Romans [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ultramarines], Neo-Greeks [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Minotaurs], Crusaders [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Black_Templars], Fire Dragons [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Salamanders], Neo-Mongols [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Scars], and fucking Neo-Egyptians [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thousand_Sons], all of who fight green skinned fungal aliens, giant alien bugs, space Elves, and a literal endless horde of deaemons imbodying all of the 7 deadly sins with giant axes and hammers, and the best we can do it John and Frank pull a Great Escape on the Silent Hill gang?!

Come on! 40k is better than that!

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

SNIP

I feel, like that awful Dan Abnett, that its a waste of the entire 40k IP. I mean here we have an IP with bio-engineered super soldiers that include Viking-Werewolves [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Wolves], Cannibals [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mortifactors], Vampires [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Blood_Angels], Neo-Romans [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ultramarines], Neo-Greeks [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Minotaurs], Crusaders [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Black_Templars], Fire Dragons [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Salamanders], Neo-Mongols [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Scars], and fucking Neo-Egyptians [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thousand_Sons], all of who fight green skinned fungal aliens, giant alien bugs, space Elves, and a literal endless horde of deaemons imbodying all of the 7 deadly sins with giant axes and hammers, and the best we can do it John and Frank pull a Great Escape on the Silent Hill gang?!

Come on! 40k is better than that!

Wait, MY idea you're slagging there?

I'm sorry, but the best fiction material I've seen from 40k was the Necromunda and Clovis the Redeemer comics, and that was a small scale as it gets.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Visually spectacular, that's for sure. The camera shots of the city plus that parade were absolutely gorgeous.

I think the most impressive thing about it is that they can apparently render CGI of that quality in real-time using Crytek's Cinebox. Pretty impressive piece of tech, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised in a time where games can have visual fidelity that was once the sole purview of CGI.

Fun fact: the artists/animators working on this project are all (former) Crytek people. I guess that goes a long way to explaining how they made this. They can get the ins and outs straight from the source.