Ultramarines: The movie

[LupusDei]

Is it just me or do the space marines in the movie look...old? I know they arent always young like the main character from the DoW 2 game but geeze they look like old men in giant suits of armor. And I know this may seem a little nit-picky but where are the service studs?

... The frak are you talking about? They had service studs! Captain Severus had one, Apothecary Pythol had two, and Chaplain Carnak even had three! How could you possibly have missed them?!
And most of Ultima Squad was young; only the 'leaders' and the Imperial Fists were older warriors, and it makes sense for them to look older, because despite their semi-immortality as Astartes, they are still subject to the process of aging, which is described in almost every novel you'll find out there.

One thing Im sure most will notice straightaway is the fact that though the sound effects in terms of impact and quality may be nice, the graphical detail and animations themselves are most definately not.
The entire film from this point on will be subject to less enjoyment because of the budget, which is a little dissapointing considering the size of the Warhammer franchise. Armour looks cheap and plastic and about as defensive as a packet of paper tissues, faces are blank showing no signs of intelligent life or expression and movements also look somewhat robotic and easy considering they are carrying roughly an adult elephant's weight of equipment on their backs.

Yeah, the facial animation at least is painful to look at in some places, but what did you expect them to look like with the kind of budget Codex Pixtures had to work with? Despite the humongous size of the W40k franchise, these guys had to scrape the money together from a lot of private donors etc, simply because GW didn't give them so much as a nickel; they just looked at the proposal, deliberated over it a bit and then gave CP the green light on the project, but NO funding.
As for the armor: It's all in accordance with the fluff. It's not supposed to look all shiny and metallic because it's not metal, it's ceramite, and the fact that ceramics are a component in this material explains the matte/dull appearance. And yes, Marines really are that limber in their armor, because despite its massive weight it doesn't actually slow them down while it's powered by a fusion cell (in the backpack module), but augment their physical prowess; the armor is stuffed with a fuckton of servos to enhance strength, speed and agility.

Oh yeah, and you mentioned Ultrasmurfs being bland. I agree, actually; unfortunately, seeing how this is the first movie in the franchise, they had to go with vanilla, and Smurfs are about as vanilla as it gets for Space Marines. No sense in trying to cram complicated chapter lore down the throats of an audience that's potentially new to W40k in general; they had to stick to the basics on this one.

I watched the Ultramarines Movie just the other day actually.
I found the graphics quite lacking, to be honest. I mean, seriously: In this day and age, it looks like that?
The CUTSCENES from Dawn of War II had better graphics. =="
Ither than that, the storyline to it didn't really have much depth, as far as a second part is concerned.

Yes, the graphics are not up-to-date. You know why? Because they didn't have the money for it. You're comparing this movie to the DoW intro cinematics? Those were made by a specialized company and cost about 8 million dollars a piece to produce. I can't stress this enough: with more funding, the movie would have looked better, but they simply didn't have it.
As for the story: It's 'by the book', yes. That's unfortunately a necessity for the first movie of a franchise - despite it being aimed at a core audience, a movie is always designed to appeal to a broader spectrum of viewers, and as such they needed to keep it simple, because even basic stuff such as power armor and Chaos taint are completely new
ground for parts of the audience.

Awesome post. Informed me on a few things I did not yet know about space marine and their technology. Being an ork fan and knowing that we can just loot something and slap armour plates on the side, willing it to work does the job along with a red coat of paint n sum spikeh bitz. I think its a crying shame that they DIDN'T get more funding as this would of improved the entire project massively.

Thanks for taking the time to post, and highlighting some excellent points.

Im going to live in hope that if they do another space marine movie, It'll be about the space wolves. I want to see some shiny power claws!

(Overall what did you think of the review? I started it at 1 AM so I know I could do much, much better. I also still don't know how to add pictures or edit text, no one has said.)

 

[Sonicron]

Awesome post. Informed me on a few things I did not yet know about space marine and their technology. Being an ork fan and knowing that we can just loot something and slap armour plates on the side, willing it to work does the job along with a red coat of paint n sum spikeh bitz. I think its a crying shame that they DIDN'T get more funding as this would of improved the entire project massively.

Thanks for taking the time to post, and highlighting some excellent points.

Im going to live in hope that if they do another space marine movie, It'll be about the space wolves. I want to see some shiny power claws!

(Overall what did you think of the review? I started it at 1 AM so I know I could do much, much better. I also still don't know how to add pictures or edit text, no one has said.)

Yeah, it really is a shame they didn't have more money to work with. Hopefully the movie will sell well once it gets its worldwide commercial release in March; if nothing else, it shows what kind of potential lies in this franchise, and maybe some bigshot companies are gonna pick up on that.
As for a second movie... I suppose movies need something big to bait the audience, so a really obscure chapter probably wouldn't fly. Space Wolves, Blood Angels or Dark Angels all have great potential for fun, though personally I'd like to see Salamanders, White Scars or Iron Hands.
That's the problem - there are so many awesome stories to tell in this universe. Instead of another movie that's sort of crippled by monetary issues, why not make a cartoon TV show instead? Something in the vein of the Clone Wars show, but atmospherically and visually more in tune with stuff like Spawn. With a show like that they could even tackle something as huge as the Horus Heresy.

Overall a decent review, but the wall-of-text thing really doesn't look good. Use ["img"]image URL[/"img"] (without the "s) to embed pics, it'll do wonders for your future reviews.

 

[LupusDei]

Awesome post. Informed me on a few things I did not yet know about space marine and their technology. Being an ork fan and knowing that we can just loot something and slap armour plates on the side, willing it to work does the job along with a red coat of paint n sum spikeh bitz. I think its a crying shame that they DIDN'T get more funding as this would of improved the entire project massively.

Thanks for taking the time to post, and highlighting some excellent points.

Im going to live in hope that if they do another space marine movie, It'll be about the space wolves. I want to see some shiny power claws!

(Overall what did you think of the review? I started it at 1 AM so I know I could do much, much better. I also still don't know how to add pictures or edit text, no one has said.)

Yeah, it really is a shame they didn't have more money to work with. Hopefully the movie will sell well once it gets its worldwide commercial release in March; if nothing else, it shows what kind of potential lies in this franchise, and maybe some bigshot companies are gonna pick up on that.
As for a second movie... I suppose movies need something big to bait the audience, so a really obscure chapter probably wouldn't fly. Space Wolves, Blood Angels or Dark Angels all have great potential for fun, though personally I'd like to see Salamanders, White Scars or Iron Hands.
That's the problem - there are so many awesome stories to tell in this universe. Instead of another movie that's sort of crippled by monetary issues, why not make a cartoon TV show instead? Something in the vein of the Clone Wars show, but atmospherically and visually more in tune with stuff like Spawn. With a show like that they could even tackle something as huge as the Horus Heresy.

Overall a decent review, but the wall-of-text thing really doesn't look good. Use ["img"]image URL[/"img"] (without the "s) to embed pics, it'll do wonders for your future reviews.

Thank you very much! I Was looking for that little bit of code. I've probaly been an idiot and missed a sticky someplace that highlights all this. Yeah the wall of text even hurts my eyes.

 

[Sonicron]

Thank you very much! I Was looking for that little bit of code. I've probaly been an idiot and missed a sticky someplace that highlights all this. Yeah the wall of text even hurts my eyes.

No problem. And lookie that - looks better already!

One more thing that just came back to me: The graphics are not uniformally sub-standard; the facial animation... yes, but the rest, no. Watch the movie again and pay attention to the smaller details...
- Armor's squeaky clean at the start of the movie; the more time passes, the dirtier the Marines' armor and the more sustained damage it displays.
- Any and all weather/smoke/dust/fire/bloodspatter effects in this movie are sublime.

 

[LupusDei]

Thank you very much! I Was looking for that little bit of code. I've probaly been an idiot and missed a sticky someplace that highlights all this. Yeah the wall of text even hurts my eyes.

No problem. And lookie that - looks better already!

One more thing that just came back to me: The graphics are not uniformally sub-standard; the facial animation... yes, but the rest, no. Watch the movie again and pay attention to the smaller details...
- Armor's squeaky clean at the start of the movie; the more time passes, the dirtier the Marines' armor and the more sustained damage it displays.
- Any and all weather/smoke/dust/fire/bloodspatter effects in this movie are sublime.

Usally with a review I would spend several times watching/playing whatever Im reviewing in question. However this one was a little rushed as I said, I will now be determined to make my next review much better and hope I get as much awesome feedback as you have given me today!

Thanks a bunch o/ *Salute*

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Thank you very much! I Was looking for that little bit of code. I've probaly been an idiot and missed a sticky someplace that highlights all this. Yeah the wall of text even hurts my eyes.

You're entirely correct by the way - here's the thread you want that delves into most of the possible range of options available through BBCode formatting [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.120165-Your-Review-And-You-Welcome-to-the-Review-Section#2350144]. At this point though I'd say you don't really have any formatting problems lingering about that necessarily need cleared up, but there are grammatical issues in places that could do with revising.

As for the film itself, I found it rather surprising: I honestly didn't expect that level of restraint from a film set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe - the focus on a slow, atmospheric build-up over bombastic hyper-violence straight out of the gate was actually rather refreshing. The quality of the animation could certainly have been improved, but there are so many moments where the visual design team absolutely nailed the 40K aesthetic that I'm inclined to be charitable.

 

[coalheartly]

... The frak are you talking about? They had service studs! Captain Severus had one, Apothecary Pythol had two, and Chaplain Carnak even had three! How could you possibly have missed them?!
And most of Ultima Squad was young; only the 'leaders' and the Imperial Fists were older warriors, and it makes sense for them to look older, because despite their semi-immortality as Astartes, they are still subject to the process of aging, which is described in almost every novel you'll find out there.




Yeah, the facial animation at least is painful to look at in some places, but what did you expect them to look like with the kind of budget Codex Pixtures had to work with? Despite the humongous size of the W40k franchise, these guys had to scrape the money together from a lot of private donors etc, simply because GW didn't give them so much as a nickel; they just looked at the proposal, deliberated over it a bit and then gave CP the green light on the project, but NO funding.

I think the problem was they looked like frail old men in huge armor. the Force Commander in DoW2 has a service stud,and looks nowhere near as old as Severus. also, isnt the aging process slowed for the space marines because of the implants?


As for GW not giving a nickel....Many people do not realize how little profit GW actually makes. they barely break even, so they really could not give Codex Pictures a ton of money.

 

[Sonicron]

I think the problem was they looked like frail old men in huge armor. the Force Commander in DoW2 has a service stud,and looks nowhere near as old as Severus. also, isnt the aging process slowed for the space marines because of the implants?

As for GW not giving a nickel....Many people do not realize how little profit GW actually makes. they barely break even, so they really could not give Codex Pictures a ton of money.

Not what I heard and/or read about GW, but then again I'm not 100% sure about the facts I've previously presented with.

The lore is sketchy about the age appearance of older Space Marines; some of them still look young, while others (kind of) look their age. You cited DoW2 - if I remember correctly, Tarkus only has one more service stud than the Force Commander, and he definitely looks like he's 200+. In theory, the implants reduce the 'aging effect' significantly - I mean, there are records of Space Marines surviving without internment into a dreadnought for about 10,000 years - but oftentimes their looks are not really specified. Maybe the ones who still look like they're in their thirties after centuries of service just get rejuvenat treatments every 80 years or so? And if one were to look at it from the other side of the fence, we never see the characters in Ultramarines without their armor... the older ones' faces may look weathered, but for all we know their bodies inside that power armor would put professional wrestlers to shame.
Makes me wonder what Logan Grimnar's face looks like. He has been running the Space Wolves chapter for about 700 years now... >.>

 

[coalheartly]

I think the problem was they looked like frail old men in huge armor. the Force Commander in DoW2 has a service stud,and looks nowhere near as old as Severus. also, isnt the aging process slowed for the space marines because of the implants?

As for GW not giving a nickel....Many people do not realize how little profit GW actually makes. they barely break even, so they really could not give Codex Pictures a ton of money.

Not what I heard and/or read about GW, but then again I'm not 100% sure about the facts I've previously presented with.

The lore is sketchy about the age appearance of older Space Marines; some of them still look young, while others (kind of) look their age. You cited DoW2 - if I remember correctly, Tarkus only has one more service stud than the Force Commander, and he definitely looks like he's 200+. In theory, the implants reduce the 'aging effect' significantly - I mean, there are records of Space Marines surviving without internment into a dreadnought for about 10,000 years - but oftentimes their looks are not really specified. Maybe the ones who still look like they're in their thirties after centuries of service just get rejuvenat treatments every 80 years or so? And if one were to look at it from the other side of the fence, we never see the characters in Ultramarines without their armor... the older ones' faces may look weathered, but for all we know their bodies inside that power armor would put professional wrestlers to shame.
Makes me wonder what Logan Grimnar's face looks like. He has been running the Space Wolves chapter for about 700 years now... >.>

about GW: they acquire a lot of money, but almost all of it goes back into paying for all of the costs. Their hobby stores cost them quite a bit, and their consumer base has kind of plateaued and don't buy a ton of models on a regular basis.


about the space marines: lol gotta love the 20 different pieces of fluff that may or may not be, canon. To me, the Ultramarine characters just seemed way to frail. Tarkus does look old, but he still looks like a badass, Severus looked like he was gonna keel over if the suit was providing support, but overall, its because of the low budget they had to work with. We can only hope that the next 40k movie will be better funded.

 

[GonzoGamer]

When I saw this at comicon I was wondering how they would screw it up.
Budget huh? That's too bad. The setting would make a great action/battle-pron type movie.

 

[Wondermint13]

Anything that brings the 40k world alive is a must see for me. Even my imagination needs a little push from time to time and watching a real gunfight with Ultramarines in it can't go wrong. Unless the budget for such a film was... Terrible.