Good things: Music, voice acting, general lore stuff, all good and great. The bolter sound is fantastic.The beginning of the story itself I think would've been better with Imperial Guards and heretics, the whole soldiers being frightened and such, doesn't fit very well with the super soldier "we shall know no fear" of space marines. It didn't feel very much like super soldiers, the two pilots in the landspeeder getting sniped without a sound by Chaos Marines felt very out of tune. Both for the durability of marines, and the combat tactics of Chaos Marines.The graphics are better than earlier attempts, but still not that great. It's destracting I think, making the combat scenes, which are a lot of the focus, seem a bit clunky.I think it would've been better to show the marines coming to help imperial guards, show them in context of "mere mortals". Show how they can sprint 40- 50mph, and tank boltgun shots that makes flak- armoured soldiers explode. THEN let the chaos marines and daemons flip it back into an underdog situation for the loyalist marines.

I can tell you that this is a solid first step for the Emperor....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 - and 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 of this setting (and believe me, 40K, being a 20+ year old franchise, has lore deeper and more complex than Tolkien's Middle Earth!). It is all in here: the Cult of the Emperor, the daemonic forces of Chaos, bolters, chainswords, seals of purity...all that good stuff that makes 40K...well, 40K.The CGI is quite impressive at times and is loaded with all sorts of wonderful detail, even down to the texture of the Space Marine armor. In addition to the often lavish detail, the art direction of the CGI, one that combines a detailed realism with a bit of a graphic novel shaded cell technique, gave this movie a very distinctive look, one that is well suited to the nature of 40K's oft epic artwork. Even the combat scenes were deftly handled, and not without a bit of gore (parents might want to keep this in mind). Not everything is perfect, though, as I found the facial animations to be emotionally flat and devoid of life, with the Space Marines having a walking/gliding gait that seems thoroughly rigid and unrealistic at times.The voice acting was quite good, too. I guess this is no surprise considering the talented cast of voice actors, including Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Sean Pertwee. Likewise, the music was first rate and filled with medieval sounding chants that are so suited to the warrior monks who are Space Marines.All things considered, I consider Ultramarines to be a success. Sure, 40K purists might find a few things to grumble about (such as the chapter strike cruiser being seemingly staffed by about a crew of twelve - in the novels, these things have thousands of souls upon them), but despite a handful of flaws, the movie delivers the goods and is most definitely a 40K film that remains faithful to the setting we all love.In short: if you are a fan of Warhammer 40K, do yourself a favor and rent/buy see this movie. It is not perfect, but it is a good first step. And remember: "Blessed is the mind too small for doubt."

This is a good film, considering it's the first one about the Warhammer 40k universe done by Games Workshop. Overall, the plot is not so great and I expected more from Dan Abnett, the animation seems kind of rushed and stubby in most parts of the film, where in some it's relatively good, the acting is good, but the characters are not convincing enough as actual Space Marines.Analytically: 1) The plot has a good line, but it lacks in a lot of its background. For example, what is a single squad of Space Marines doing in a planet that had a massive fortress build and guarded by Imperial Fists nonetheless (who are expert in defence) and was overrun by a surely huge army? By 40K standards, there should have been a whole company there, or at least a veteran squad with an Imperial Guard regiment on their backs. The only chapter known to send single squads to deal with problems anywhere is the Grey Knights chapter, as it's spread out throughout every galaxy sector and rarely acts as a single chapter. 2) The animation was both good and bad. It was cool that they decided to go with CGI and motion capture technology but they did a poor job at delivering something that was supposed to considered an 90-minute animated film. It felt more like a cut-scene of a game. Movement was stubby and very few models were at the screen at any given time. It was excellent artwork but it lacked on detail and depth. An Imperial vessel is meant to be an immense structure, kilometres long and supposed to have at least a million in personnel inside it. The one portrayed had hardly 10 marines and 2-3 servitors. The landing bays were empty and they are supposed to be bristling with activity as are other areas of the ship. The battles on the planet surface were very poor in numbers. We had 2-3 Chaos marines coming up at the heroes at each moment, while the rest waited patiently their turn to die at the Ultramarine chainswords, which showed how little work and how many limitations the animating crew did and had. 3) Space marines, even young ones see battle for at least 5 years before becoming space marines. They serve as scouts and have to prove themselves in the battlefield before being granted rights of wearing a power armour. The apothecary is revered by all marines (even the captain and chapter master) since his function is extremely important and not talked back to by a neophyte. The acting was good but because of the background given to the characters they weren't that convincing 4) No prior history is given about what 40k is about. People who don't know anything about the universe will just find the movie dull. 5) The music was amazing and was one of the few positive things in the film.Although I liked it very much and have seen it multiple times, I was dismayed by the plethora of errors in it and would like something more from GW next time. It cried of limited budget and poor work put in it. The actors themselves said that they went in for the motion capture and voice acting maximum one-two hours each (poor direction?). I think GW invested more in getting high-paid actors and hyping up the movie than in actually putting it together. I'd propose that next time they use cheaper actors if they have money problems and invest more in animation and direction. They could have had a much better result if they used 2D animation instead of 3D (much like Dead Space: Downfall or Heavy Metal 2000 was done).Overall I give it a 6/10 because a) it's a not bad first attempt, b) I wouldn't want to discourage GW from making another, hopefully improved, one.

I am not a Warhammer 40k fan but I always thought it was a cool universe and wanted to know more about it. So this movie looked like a great way of getting to know more about Warhammer 40k without having to paint any miniature figures or roll any dice.The positives: I thought the story was good and the movie was very atmospheric. The voiceovers were also good.The bad: The visuals were just poor. Even when played on a high quality 1080p upscaling DVD player, the movie looks muddy, washed-out and dated. The animation is very poor in places and the movie looks like a cutscene from an average, 10-year old PS2 game.Overall I enjoyed watching the movie but the poor visuals really subtracted from the experience.