Ultramarines: Warhammer

Not For 40K Fans
This review is bound to inflame other Warhammer 40,000 fans but I feel like I would betraying the franchise not to express my opinion. The Ultramarines movie was a big step for the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and it generated a lot of excitement. When I found out about the movie I was ecstatic. At one point in time I even had the special edition box set pre-ordered from the official website. Fortunately for me funds ran low and I wasn't able to make the purchase. A month later I watched the movie with a friend who had gotten the movie and I couldn't have been more disappointed.

A lot of the excitement around the Ultramarines Movie project came from the announcement that mega author Dan Abnett would be writing the screenplay. First let me say that I have nothing but respect for Dan Abnett. I cannot name a single Warhammer 40,000 book he has written that I have not enjoyed completely. And I've read them all. Dan Abnett is by far the best author in the ranks of the Black...

A Good First Step for 40K Cinema
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 - an 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...

Releasing a bad movie on Blu-ray does not make it better.
I have been playing / collecting WH40k for 23 years and I have read all the books....I really find it hard to believe Dan Abenet wrote the script I think he just wrote the name of the movie on a piece of paper and some one else wrote it. Dan is a GREAT Author and his name on it is what sold the movie. The animation was really bad and jerky the Dawn of War trailers were 1000% better than this movie. I went to the New York City showing of this movie on the big screen and it was even more horrible to watch. During the Q&A after the movie the producer admitted to not knowing anything about 40K saying "well I may have painted 1 or 2 figurines for my brother when I was younger but I never played the game and I have not read any of the novels." OOOOO KAY buddy no wonder this movie is horrible because the guy had no love nor passion for the game and its history he was just out to make a quick buck.

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