Ultramarines Movie - My review

[StraightSilver]

Hi everybody,

Well I was lucky enough to be invited to the UK premier of the new Ultramarines Movie and wanted to let everybody know what I thought of it.

I have to say I had a great day, and full credit to Codex pictures for organising it as I hope that the feedback from all of us there will put a few people's minds at rest regarding the movie.

We were all asked to come to a "secret" location in London's Soho to see the movie and chat to some of the producers.

I have to admit that there was a lot of free beer at the event which is why I didn't get around to posting my review last night, and if you check out the Beasts of War video coverage you might see me giving a pretty bleary eyed interview!

Anyway I digress.

Before we got to see the movie one of the producers of Codex pictures gave a short introduction which was very informative.

To set matters straight with a lot of people this is NOT a Games Workshop product. GW are approached on a daily basis with offers to make a 40k movie, including offers from Hollywood, and they up until now have always turned them down.

This is mainly because GW aren't really a company that is interested in entering the film business, and more importantly want to protect their intellectual property fiercely which is often an issue when converting it to film.

The Hollywood producers always ask how they can get a love interest in there and of course that isn't something we necessarily want to see (well not most if us anyway!).

However Codex pictures approached them and they were the first film company who appeared to want to stay true to the look and feel of the Universe, but more importantly wanted to make a film for the 40K core fanbase. They weren't interested in watering down the content to make the film accessible to a wider audience and this was one of the deciding factors that led to the film being approved.

GW approved the film, but that is pretty much where their involvement ends. Codex pictures are a small independent UK film company. They had to raise all of the funds for this movie themselves. GW have not given them a penny and I think this needs to be cleared up as a lot of people are expecting a Hollywood style blockbuster which just wasn't ever going to happpen.

Animation is very expensive to produce. The cut scenes in Dawn of War for example cost around £3 million but only have a running time of a few minutes. This is a 75 minute movie which is self funded and so was never going to be of that quality.

However Codex Pictures also said that they wanted to go in a different direction to the Dawn of War animations, and make something stylistically different which captured the atmosphere of the 40K Universe, and I definitely think they have achieved this.

The movie is being released as a limited edition DVD on 29th November and this includes a graphic novel and a second disk of extras which apparently have lots of cool material on, like a history of the Space marines, interviews with the cast, cut scenes etc.

A lot of people have said the DVD is expensive, but this again is because Codex pictures have had to fund the release for this themselves as well, and wanted to produce a proper 40K style product. There will be a Worldwide DVD release which will be cheaper, but won't have all the extras. This is expected at around March next year.

There are also plans to produce other merchandise, like a making of book, soundtrack (which is cool) and art prints etc from the movie.

Ok so enough of my babbling here's what I thought of the movie.

I have been asked to not give away too much of the plot, so please don't ask me how it ends or who the baddies are etc. You'll have to wait for the movie.

The movie itself centers around Ultima Squad - 5th Tactical Squad Second Company Ultramarines.

The squad is made up of new initiates, Space marines who have made it through Scout training and are now fully fledged Marines. The squad has yet to taste full combat. There is a mention of a mission they are returning from, but little information is given about this, however the graphic novel in the limited edition release explains this. They however don't feel it was a real mission and are hungering for some proper action.

They are being led by Captain Severus and an Apothocary named Python and are on their way back to Macragge when they receive a distress call from a nearby system.

They decide to investigate as the distress call comes from an Imperial Fists Shrine World, and although they are only one squad they need to see if there are any survivors and report back to Macragge.

The Shrine World was defended by a full company of Imperial Fists. The fifth Company. But there has been no response from them, and Captain Severus needs to find out if the distress beacon is on auto cycle or if there are survivors.

I won't give any more than that away, anyone who has watched the trailer will know who the enemy are, but I don't want to give away any more details in case I spoil it for anybody.

I just want to say that the trailer does not do this film any justice.

I think whenever you see a few seconds of CGI on a small computer monitor it is never going to be that great.

However the film is paced beautifully and the script is very good. Okay there are some cheesey one liners and the story is classic 40K which can sometimes be predictable but that didn't bother me.

What I liked about the movie was the tension. Ultima Sqaud are constantly being watched, and only Brother Proteus seems aware of this, and you really get the sense of tension that he is feeling.

The movie also builds up to the action. I was worried that at only 75 minutes the build up would be slow and we wouldn't see any action until the last few minutes, but that wasn't the case, there is a lot of action, or as my mate said "Space Marines blowing amphetamine parrot up!".

The animation is by no means perfect. The walk cycles are a little off and I wasn't keen on some of the facial animation, but it really doesn't matter because when you combine the script, the fantastic voice acting and the graet sound effects you won't really notice.

What I liked were the little nods to the table top game. The Imperial Fists Bastion looks like it is made up Shrine of the Aquilla and bastion / Aegis Defence Line kits in places. And there is even a Giant Space Marine statue that the marines have to use as a makeshift bridge! And the Stained Glass window in the Strike Cruiser's chapel is the art from the boxed game.

The Land Speeder also looks really cool, exactly how I imagined it to look. I just wish we got to see it fire it's Multi Melta!

Anyway, I came out with a big grin on my face and talked about the movie for hours after so I think that's a good sign. I really enjoyed it and would encourage anybody who hasn't done so yet to order their copy, as they won't be disappointed.

It isn't perfect, but I honestly think it is close as we will ever get to a 40K movie that adheres to the look, feel and history of the hobby. If there had been more money then yes the animation may heve been better, but they couldn't have improved the voice acting, direction and style of the movie.

Codex pictures are looking at doing a limited Cinema release of the movie next year, and the standard DVD and Blu Ray editions will be out next spring.

I would also ask people to get behind this movie, as they really want to make more but won't be able to if this one is not a commercial success.

I applaud Codex Pictures for doing this, they really have done it all on their own and I would love them to be successful. Not just because I want to see more, but because I really appreciate what they have done for 40K fans.

[MarneusCalgar]

Good review...

Thanks!!

Hope to receive mine at the end of this month at home

[Aldramelech]

Im awaiting mine eagerly. I would be very interested to know how many pre orders have been recieved.

[Duke]

Very cool review! The part I liked most about it is showing how they did the best the could with what they have...it seems everyone is so wick to dismiss this movie because the graphics aren't the best, but if I have to deal with sub-par graphics to avoid brad Pitt playing captain sicarius and falling in love with scarlet johansen as a sister of battle then so be it.

I would encourage everyone to support this film, as they get more profitable they can invest in better tech and make better movies. Don't be the guy who talks about who cool a movie would be and then give the death blow to future movies because you want it to be transformers quality.

Duke

[Tynskel]

Hurray for Low Budget Films!

A lot of people don't realize how complicated it can be to make a film. It sounds like Codex Pictures pictures produced the best they could with the funding they had. Acquiring more funding would have resulted in compromising the goals of the movie, ie. producers would have had intellectual control of the movie, rather than the director and artists.

Check out the recent movie 'Alice in Wonderland': The scene that looks outta place with the 'dancing' was Burton's way of saying 'here ya go, producers, your dance scene!'. Look at movies by David Lynch-- they often headbutt with producers. Check out 300, The Spirit, and Sin City, and do some research about Frank Miller. You'll often see conflict where the budget reaches a certain 'threshold'.

[Tynskel]

Captain Severus of 2nd Company, eh? Must be before Captain Sicarius takes command of 2nd Company.

[Bigred]

I think we should have a competition to come up with stats and rules for the squad and ICs involved. We have one of the few hobbies that allows us to replay movies on the tabletop.

[Melissia]

Did the beer color your review?

Do I need to be drunk to enjoy this?

[Crotch Lictor]

Hell, beer colors just about everything I do with this Hobby. Why should the movie be any different.

[Melissia]

Because I'm a teetotaler.