MovieChat Forums > Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2010) Discussion > Mediocre trailer, medicore film? This c...

Mediocre trailer, medicore film? This could be embarassing for GW.

posted 14 years ago by orlanthrex
10 replies | jump to latest

The trailer certainly looked lacklustre, poor pacing, poor focus. it doesnt bode well. While the first trailer will be there just to show Space Marines even that could have been done better. Some game footage looks better.

However what tickles me is that trailer to trailer this production doesn't match up to Damnatus, and while trailer quality is no guaranteed indication of film quality a film rarely exheeds its trailer. It either keep up to expectations, or is worse to some degree.

Some will not understand comparisons to Damnatus on the grounds that Ultramarines has a professional production budget, however on release comparisons are all but inevitable. A quality production will lay the ghost to rest first raised when Games Workshop applied a dogmatic protectionist ideology to their intellectual property. However I think I will enjoy Ultramarines all the more if it fails. If it doesnt eclipse Damnatus, or heaven forbid doesnt match up to it Games Workshop will lose a lot of face, and that will be worth watching. If Ultramarines is the plotless mind candy it appears to be, the larger budget may well not translate into a superior film.

[–] Ariston72 13 years ago

I just saw the trailer on YouTube and came here to see if this was a real movie, because I honestly wasn't sure if it was a fan-made trailer made from spliced-together game cutscenes.

--Ariston
I'm never wrong--sometimes reality just disagrees with me.

[–] familyofjokers 13 years ago

I was expecting this film to be just "plotless mind candy", but a friend of mine says he knows someone who had to watch it twice, because the first time he saw it, all he could think of was "Wow - Space Marines, explosions, fighting, CGI action..." On the second time around, he could pay more attention to the actual story.

The script is written by Dan Abnett, which is good news. I understand why they had to use Space Marines, but they could have chosen a chapter with a more interesting personality than the Ultramarines. The Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Dark Angels have all got odd quirks and dark secrets that make them more intriguing than the average genetically-modified superhuman.

[–] deus-1-01 13 years ago

Look, i have no love for the IP crap that goes around and the consequences of it(the king quest fan game is a good example).

But in this case Germany's IP laws would actually made an impact into GW's right the the property in Germany.
It sucks, but hell the movie is leaked now, so go torrent it.

[–] familyofjokers 13 years ago

I have often noticed people online talking about this "torrent" thing. I don't have a clear idea of exactly what a torrent is, but if the Ultramarines film is freely available for anyone to watch online, someone will put it onto YouTube sooner or later.

[–] ChefC 13 years ago

Not the case. If it was put on youtube it would just be removed for legal reasons.

Torrenting is a way people get around copyright laws, sites have links to torrents that you can use to download anything from films to music to games. The sites are set up to let people share things and don't take responsibility for what people choose to share, which is how they get around the legal implications.

Although Governments are doing all they can to start shutting such things down because, well, it's illegal.

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Who would have guessed it, we all have different opinions about subjective things!

[–] el01073 13 years ago

The suckage auspex indicator on this one is probably worse than the trailers. It looks better, but it fails to impress or inspire.

[–] excalibur1814 13 years ago

...Just seen the film and although I've had ZERO dealings with this universe, I actually liked the film and hope that they create more.

Maybe wait until a film comes out before having positive or negative thoughts.

[–] ingemar-4 13 years ago

The comments here are not very encouraging. My son wants to buy the movie, but I think $40/£30 is steep for a movie that, as far as I can tell from what I read here, is rather poor.

Also, some of the reviews seem less than helpful. One reviewer rates the movie 10/10, but also says that it is "far from perfect", so the review contradicts the rating.

So what is this, really? What kind of movie does it compare with? Star Wars 2 1/2?

[–] Mortagon 13 years ago

The movie is really made for the fans as the 40k universe where the movie takes place has a deep and rich history spanning from its wargame origins to dozens of novels and books. Some references in the movies might seem confusing and strange to someone unfamiliar with the setting.

That said the movie really stands well on its own feet. It has an interesting story about the warrior-monk like supersoldiers called the space marines against supernatural forces on a war torn planet in the far far future of the 41st Millenium.

While the movie suffers from its lack of budget since it is an independent production, you can see that this is a labor of love made with respect of the source material, and the voice acting is top notch.

Just don't expect a fast paced Hollywood style blockbuster movie, this is more of a slow building story, more focused on characters and the feel of the setting than a fast paced action flick. Also for an animated flick the movie is quite visceral and might disturb some younger audiences.

[–] WilliamCQ 9 years ago

It's better to have something mediocre than nothing. Imagine you write a book and, short of having 10s of thousands to make a film, even one like this, someone make a comic of it. It turn out that the comic drawings are unpolished and the text doesn't convey the story as you would've liked. The characters are still easily recognizable and the story goes through most of the main points of the books, some not-so-important points might be significantly changed to have a better comic (to the detriment of the real story).

So now do you prefer that:
A) People know the overall story pretty well and can describe the characters to a good degree.
B) Convince the authors to not publish thus have a non-negligible portion of readership less.