Clipped from Ain't It Cool News:

Massawyrm enjoys the hell out of the Warhammer 40,000 CG feature film ULTRAMARINES

"Hola all. Massawyrm here.

"The first thing you need to know going into this is that ULTRAMARINES was not made for anyone but established fans, so if you were hoping for this to be some kind of primer ushering you into the universe, you will be sorely disappointed – and more than a little lost. Made on a shoestring budget and written by veteran Warhammer 40,000 novelist Dan Abnett, this thing is not exactly what one would call accessible. But for those of you 40k nuts jonesing to see some Space Marine action, this thing will do the trick nicely. In fact, it’s pretty kick ass.

"The entirely CG film is a lean 75 minutes that pretty much fly by, following a tactical squad of first time marines sent on a recon mission - with a Captain and an Apothecary in tow – in order to investigate a distress beacon pinging from an Imperial monastery. Their slow crawl through hostile terrain and eventual clash with the forces of Chaos are pretty much the bulk of the film; there are no sweeping battle sequences between hundreds of individuals or grandiose vistas. It is a straight forward man on a mission movie set on a single planet with additional scenes on the Ultramarines ship. For those unfamiliar with the history of the Imperium or the Space Marines, this will seem like a senseless trudge with almost no exposition whatsoever and very little development of the threat. But for longtime fans, it is a fairly tense mission into the unknown, riddled with clues and foreshadowing, pitting our heroes against one of the Imperium’s most iconic foes: the Black Legion.

"The film is chock full of great visuals and exactly the kind of detail fans are looking for. Every piece of stained glass in the background tells a story, the equipment is everything you want to see in action and when the violence ramps up, it is bloody and brutal in all the ways you expect 40K to deliver. There are a few bits of character design that are pretty much jaw dropping, with two characters in particular stealing the show (though mentioning them would take us into spoiler territory). When the film is at its best, it is everything you’ve been hoping to see in a 40K film.

"But it’s not perfect. Sadly, the film’s biggest problems all stem from the budget constraints on Codex pictures; this wasn’t a big budget production, and it shows. There are a handful of shots that look like they needed a few more passes through the computer, and one tracking shot that looks exactly like a gameplay cut scene from a Space Marine video game. And while these are admittedly very short, and I was watching the film on an HD projector and 8’ screen, it is still something folks are going to notice. Fortunately, not only are these sequences few and far between, they are also each placed near absolutely gorgeous - and occasionally brutally disturbing – patches of ornately designed, perfectly rendered CG. Though the lack of budget certainly also contributes to the small amount of characters and locations available for the film. If there is one oft repeated complaint, it will be that fans want more – and hopefully now that they’ve got these designs and locations on file, they can move on to expanding into some of the Ultramarines other toys – like terminator armor, Dreadnoughts and maybe some time with everyone’s favorite chapter master, Marneus Calgar.

"This is a fanservice movie – nothing more, nothing less. It will do little to nothing for anyone who hasn’t played either the tabletop wargame or several of the videogames. If you have, however, ULTRAMARINES is a lot of fun, a good old fashioned R-Rated, sufficiently badass, bloody fight against the forces of darkness, with plenty of references to the canon you hold quite dear. It should be played loud, watched with friends and followed up by a night of gaming – possibly Killteam if you can swing it. Definitely worth checking out. ULTRAMARINES is available on a limited edition DVD November 29th here."

Thanks for the update, i will wait for it to hit the IMDB though, for more diverse viewer group reviews. I am very sceptical as of now, though i would love it to be successfull if it is good enough. Movies catering solely to the fan audience are usually mediocre at best.

The Apothecary is a badass and played by Doctor Who's own Commander Ridgeway!? I'm buying two copies.

"Massawyrm" and I tend to agree on movies more often than not, and I know that he's an enthusiastic 40K player, so I'm willing to believe the movie could be better than I fear.

I didn't exactly have high hopes when i first heard about this movie through the rumor mill and this reviewer showed me I was pretty close to the mark, that this would be a mindless shoot em up movie. Still might rent it though.

Well i am waiting for my copy in the post. Even tho the company didn't have that much money to make it with i think they did the best they could.

What you have to think of is if this does well then then the nest one should get more money and be better.

Maybe it will. Thing is, after reading this review, it probably isn't as simple as showing that 40k can make a profit:

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!).

The problem is going to be finding a studio that has enough money and agrees to GWs terms regarding the IP and doesn't want to ignore parts of canon to make it more marketable.

Not too mention, the studio would probably want GW to have the same canon when filming begins and when it wraps two years latter.

That love interest thing is typical Hollywood - but at the same time, GW's IP is not totally incompatible with the concept. The reason Hollywood always tries to shoehorn a love story into every movie is because it has the potential to make a movie more profitable.

This is because more of the population will relate to a love story in an interesting settng than they will relate to a story about 7 foot tall killing machines killing things.

Protecting IP is not an unreasonable objective, but for that IP to have broader appeal (and by extension to make more money for shareholders) concessions to traditional storytelling tropes are going to have to be made.

A truly great 40k movie is a possibility - but Marines will only ever be part of the supporting cast, in my view. A better option is an Inquisitor-driven investigative story, like the Ravenor novels.

Anyway, I'm waiting for the NON-collector's edition to be released. Anyone know when this is coming out on plain vanilla DVD?

To me that statement from GW just shows what a blinkered and limited company they are (have become?).

I mean really, just how short sighted do you have to be to turn down Hollywood studios for such ridiculous reasons. 'GW isn't interested in entering the movie business'? Well they wouldn't have to, the studio would make the movie GW would just sit back and collect it's pay-off and the enormous potential knock-on a movie would represent in potential good advertising.

A love interest is entirely, 100%, incompatible with any story told in the 40K setting? What rot. Hands up how many people have romantic relationships feature to one degree or another in their 40K rpg campaigns. I ALWAYS do. Just because it's a dark-toned setting doesn't mean people don't bump uglies (as the Yanks say), or fall in love. Heck, even in some of their flag-ship novel series there are 'love interests' (Gaunt's Ghosts features some pretty nicely handled relationships for example).

GW baffles me sometimes. This one's up there with not stocking 40K rpg products in their stores for me.

I think you put it more strongly than I would, Adam, but I agree with you in principle on this one. It's understandable that Hollywood would want to make the 40k setting more approachable, and it seems a bit confusing that solid offers of a decent movie are being turned away on the stated basis.

That said, I'm sure there's a bit more to it than that.

Probably the studios that have approached GW so far are fairly small fry, and are advancing stupid ideas as to how to portray the setting, with no respect for the backstory. GW is probably holding out for a decent offer, and using this (fairly thin) "stupid Hollywood wants to have a love story, ha!" excuse as a catch all for the lack of decent offers to date.

Lightbringer said:

Perhaps. I kinda hope you're right, as if they genuinely are turning down 'Hollywood' offers for those reasons stated then ... well ... words would fail to sum up their stupidity.

Maybe they're actually just playing hard to get and hoping that a decent studio will come along? It's arguably a better strategy than getting star struck and ending up with a second rate production made by the first studio that comes along... I don't know this of course, just randomly speculating! But Hollywood is a bit of a shark pit, and it's wise to be a little cautious...

Adam France said:

From another interview I heard with the producers there was a simple reason why game workshop has turned down hollywood producers:

Because they are hollywood producers, complete hacks, with no respect for your original background.

'Judge Dread', need I say any more.

Face Eater said:

Yeah, but there are examples of IP being treated respectfully, just turning stuff down without first giving it a good try (as seems to be the implication in the statement above) is madness.

They don't say; 'yeah we had extensive meetings and creative discussions, before finally finding we couldn't reach an acceptable middle ground', they say 'oh they keep wanting a love interest' ... as if that alone is reason enough to turn their backs on perhaps the biggest advertisement for their games they could ever dream of.

You may be right, but if you are ... I think GW should consider it's PR statements and interviews a bit more, as they don't really seem to be getting a good or clear message across with this one.

Adam France said:

If the story is true, GW has re-earned some of the respect they have lost over their pricing scheme. Only a small fraction of it but at least.

To remind you of the tagline: "In the grimdark of the future there is only war." Sure love could be squeezed in to broaden appeal. To much of the gaming community, including myself, this would only seem to be more of a sell-out.

Refusing to cave in to this is ensuring that the setting doesn't move more towards the generic. And this isn't about whether love can happen in 40K (it can) but whether you want it to play any significant role in a movie that would introduce 40k to a wider audience.

Alex

Lightbringer said:

I heard from a reliable source that Peter Jackson proposed making a space marines movie and they turned him down. Can you imagine a 40k movie with Peter Jackson behind it? Drooooool. I can understand GW 'not wanting to get into the movies' though. If a big budget, fully marketed 40k, or fantasy for that matter, film was produced they would have pressure form all over the place to market the film at fast food restaurants, to create action figure toys, puzzles, coloring books, lego, etc etc. It would definitely put a strain on IP control considering the relative size of GW... they would have to double or triple their PR/Marketing department just to keep everything under control. That said, I do think that GW is a bit too tight assed with their IP.

ak-73 said:

I personally have no trouble with the addition of elements and emotions to the setting that only make it more plausible. The inclusion of romance ... or - women (!) - to the setting is really not a problem for me.

Taking the tabletop spiel about 'only being war' as a literal truth is dodgy imo, it's deeply implausible to expect humans not to experience a wider experience than that in the galaxy spanning Imperium with all it's diversity.

I'm not talking about Mills and Boon or anything, but relationships between characters is absolutely fine imo, indeed were such attachments to not exist would strain my suspension of disbelief.

Adam France said:

You didn't respond to this point of mine though:

"And this isn't about whether love can happen in 40K (it can) but whether you want it to play any significant role in a movie that would introduce 40k to a wider audience."

If I was to write a script for a 40k movie and the producers would want some love interest in there I would run it as a side-plot to the marines. The marines are trying to accomplish sth on a battlefield world and try to save a few humans along the way. These would be the characters some of the uninitiated viewers could loosely relate to (against the more inhuman SM protagonists) and if done properly empathize with to the point where the grand plot doesn't interest them as much as seeing those two lovers (and the others saved).

And a grand, epic marine plot for the die-hard 40K audience as the main story.

But a classic Hollywood love interest thingie? Get outta here, I'd rather have no 40K movie than that. There's many more things that I consider interesting in the 40K setting (such as the questionable, off-beat morality while maintaing a sense of catholic sacredness about the most trivial of things, etc).

Alex

ak-73 said:

It depends doesn't it. Basically in answer to that point, I'd happily accept a well handled and setting appropriate love interest theme (heck, I might even want such anyway, even if the studio didn't ask for it).

A love interest wouldn't necessarily preclude any of the other interesting things you'd like included.

A good 40K love story from Gaunt's Ghosts is Caff and Tona - that relationship made both of them more interesting and rounded characters, and when one of them was killed it provided very real and powerful emotion to the story and what followed.

Or there's Eisenhorn's hopeless love for his blunt.

Abnett's no fool, he knows love is part of human life and to arbitrarily ignore it because 'it's not grim dark' is just plain silly and makes for a weaker setting and weaker, less emotionally involving stories.

EDIT - Y'know, I wouldn't necessarily even rule out some form of love interest storyline connected to a SM. I actually found the start bits of the novel Brothers of the Snake, where there seemed to be a kind odd muted and unspoken attraction between the central marine hero and the female official, the most interesting bit of the book. Immediately it was made clear the marine couldn't care less about the woman and was in no way attracted to her, the book skidded straight into endless combat scenes so dull and stodgy reading them felt like I was wading through wet rockcrete.

Adam France said:

I don't consider Aliens weak and emotionally less involving. In fact this movie can be considered a model. It worked back then, no love interest was involved, it was brilliant as it was.

All this peddling to audiences just shows weakness in spirit (by Hollywood producers), not having the courage to create a movie that one likes and then hand it out to the public saying "Here, that's what we like and if you don't - to hell with you."

I'm exaggerating of course but because this spirit has been lost a bit and people pay too much importance on market analysis (which is only good for risk minimization anyway), I haven't been moved by any movie in years. Many, many years.

Alex

I wonder if they have an implant that enhances their manhood. I guess if the woman won't give them love they could always force it, which would be true to the grim future concept and add some sex to it sounds like a compremise.

ak-73 said:

Well, sounds like an extreme position to rule it out no matter what. There are ways of doing it that would work in the setting, is all I'm saying, and to turn down offers for the reasons given is barking mad if you ask me.

However GW rarely strike me as rational in their decisions, so I'll tag this one as snafu.

Adam France said:

There's no accounting for taste and in this case we have to beg to differ.

Alex

I am looking forward to the movie, however I'd like to see some important events as movies too (Horus heresy, Battle for Macragge, etc.).