Ultramarines

Warhammer 40k. Space Marines. Ultramarines in particular. Dan Abnett as screenplay writer. What could possibly go wrong? ... right? I think you know how things did actually go. In short, the movie sucked bigtime.

First let's talk about the quality. Visual quality. I am generally willing to overlook poor quality image post processing (even though that's not expected anymore nowadays), but there were too many problems with the visual quality. The composition (and camera work) was atrocious, with fog covering up what little detail there was in the predominantly featureless landscapes, and perspectives that keep the viewer from appreciating the grandeur of the architecture or hazardous landscape. For example, the characters are fond of kicking bodies off precipices, only to have them fall through a fog down a bottomless pit. At the very least they could've had the bodies bounce off the sides. The animations of the Space Marines leave much to be desired. To top it all off, the pacing was terrible, with oodles of travel time and battles that felt more like skirmishes than anything else. As any WH40K fan would know, skirmishes will not suffice in a universe of epic fights.

Then comes the narrative. It's weak at best, and I have a hard time believing that Dan Abnett was behind it. I really do wonder what was going on. Sure, there was a deployment to a planet, some Chaos scum was there...eliminated. Typically, you'd expect them to be doing more than sitting there waiting to ambush some Space Marines. Like...doing some sort of Chaos ritual, for example.

I guess the sole saving grace of the movie would be that the visual quality and action improved quite a bit towards the end, making me think that the crew was learning on the job in addition to having a rather low budget. I have little else to say in favor of this lousy flick. 2/10