Redundant and unnecessary.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one.Despite the 2010 animation restrictions, I found the plot and pace were great entertainment.Definitely worth the view.

For me, as a 40K fan and an avid commander of Space Marines on the tabletop, this was a decent first outing for GW. It could've been better, but for what we got, it could've also been a lot worse.The voice acting is great. I usually don't like it when movies, especially lower-budget ones, cast celebrity actors in place of professional voice actors, but most of the celebrity actors they got were pretty well picked. Terence Stamp and John Hurt are always great, so I can't complain. I haven't viewed much of Sean Pertwee's work, but here he's also pretty good. In fact, this is one movie where I never disconnected the celebrity voices from the characters.The characters themselves weren't very memorable. The Ultramarines (both the Chapter and characters) lack any defining traits to make them stand out, and a Chapter like the Raven Guard or the Space Wolves probably would've been more interesting and/or fun. Also,the Space Marines not nearly as indestructible as they are portrayed in the tabletop game or in the lore. These are the guys who, after having their heart and both lungs stop working, can take off their armor and swallow poison while UNDERWATER and still get back to the fight after a quick dust- off. Here, their armor breaks like glass and a single bolt round to the chest kills them outright. Space Marines should be tougher than this, and that goes for their evil counterparts, too, along with that Daemon Prince. A DAEMON PRINCE SHOULD'VE WIPED THEM OUT, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!The story was... Underwhelming. Dan Abnett's not my favorite Black Library author , but he can still deliver a solid story. The story he gave us here was essentially just a fetch quest with a twist thrown in towards the end, which wouldn't bother me if the characters a bit more memorable. This problem could probably be fixed by a larger budget and a second writer. *cough* Graham McNeille *cough*The animation and character designs are pretty "bleh". The attention to detail with the miniatures and video games makes the movie look like a college student's final project. The animation's not always fluid and the dust storm that's in a good chunk of the movie's fight scenes feels like a weak attempt to hide this from the audience. But, again, the Warhammer 40,000 universe has yet to get the big-budget treatment it deserves.So, is this a good movie? No. Did I enjoy it? Eh, not really. Do I want a sequel? YEEEEESSS. So hop to it, Games Workshop, and this time get a studio to fund and distribute it theatrically. I'm sure Warner Bros or New Line would be breaking your door down.

I've always been ambivalent about the idea of there being a Warhammer 40,000 movie. It sounds like a wonderful idea, yes, but the setting that's been built up over the decades is so detailed and varied that I can't help but feel it couldn't be done justice in a single feature length narrative. The universe is also so harsh, alienating, sombre and overflowing with religious mania and entropic hopelessness that trying to appeal to a mainstream SF audience would probably gut it of the things that made it unique.So, when Games Workshop said they were creating a Warhammer 40,000 movie as a direct-to-DVD film available through mail order... I wouldn't say I was looking forward to it per se, but it did pique my interest. They're selling it directly to a limited audience of fans who already like it, ergo they can cut loose and deliver something that's true to the universe without worrying about demographics. And Dan Abnett's writing it! So, even if it does reduce the entire universe to a couple of pitched battles and a squad of not-very-interesting space marines, it'll at least be true to the material. A fanservice-y animated companion to the game, like the art books and source books they release, only in movie form.Even on these terms, I was disappointed. Aside from the superficial details, the story takes no advantage of the setting - a squad of soldiers go to a featureless desert planet to investigate a mysterious signal, wander around, have a firefight, rescue some guys, have another firefight, escape and then have a pointless non-fire fight after the predictable last-act "twist". Yeah, the spaceship has stained-glass windows and they detect the monsters using an enchanted banner rather than a bio-scanner, but so what?Why not give us something we can't get in Every Direct To DVD SF Movie Ever? We could be seeing the feudal system that creates the Ultramarines. See the role they play on their home world, as defenders and as aristocrats. See how they're selected, what happens to them, what drives them, whether they ever question their belief system, how well they get on with factions who interpret scripture differently - in other words, it could have been ABOUT them while maintaining a strong action / suspense narrative. The setting calls for something along the lines of Kingdom of Heaven, or The Seventh Seal, or even Alien 3. Instead, it's about a squad of identical blue dudes shooting a squad of identical black dudes.But that's not the big problem with Ultramarines. The big problem with Ultramarines is that it's incredibly boring. The first half an hour - of a seventy-six minute film! - consists almost entirely of the characters wandering around a featureless desert without finding anything. There's no mounting tension, or sense of discovery, or even character interaction; it's like watching someone get lost in a video game and not know where to go next. I'm not joking when I say that the big turning point at the end of act one is the discovery that some people were killed during a war.Ooo.Show the audience a pile of bodies in a setting where there normally wouldn't be a pile of bodies and you've got their attention. Show them a pile of bodies in a war zone and... well, that's business as usual, isn't it? There's a hint of something potentially interesting and disturbing in these scenes, because the bodies have been mutilated and arranged in what appears to be a demonic symbol, but it's never really dwelt on, it just exists on the edge of the frame in a couple of shots. There could have been some real suspense built up here, but it comes across as just another day in the Ultramarines. If the characters aren't affected by what's happening, then why should we be?Oh God, the characters.Almost every character in this movie wears identical blue armour, including a helmet which covers their face. Because they all lead lives of fanatical, monastic devotion to the Emperor of Mankind, there are no differing views beyond "Let's rescue the captain" "No, it's too dangerous", which means no conflict, which means no drama. We can't tell who's who and we don't know what they're feeling, so how are we supposed to care about what's going on?When the "hero" character defeats the demon at the end, it's meant to be a moment of apotheosis for him, except I honestly couldn't remember what he'd done prior to this point or why his heroism was more notable than anyone else's - even with their helmets off, they're all lantern-jawed white men with shaven heads and British accents.Now, there's a (hugely predictable, mostly because the plot's finished fifteen minutes before the movie has) "twist" finale in which one of the marines is revealed to have been possessed by a demon. Fine, "daemon". This strand of the plot exists solely to pad out the story to feature length, but had some more attention been paid to it then we might, MIGHT have had a decent story going. Show how someone raised for a life of pious devotion can fall and become the thing he's been fighting. Does he doubt his faith? Has a life of poverty and chastity left him unfulfilled? Was his zealotry really just an outlet for the uncontrollable rage of a psychotic monster? Is he fighting against it, or does he enjoy the power? Not a clue, he just got possessed.The animation isn't great. It's not the overall quality that's the issue, it's that nothing moves seems to have any weight or physical presence. These guys are in what amounts to plate mail armour, but they're jumping around like they're on the moon. This totally destroys any threat generated by their presence - they seem hollow, not imposing.Even at 76 minutes, it's still too long.

Well, I really thought this film was good. I'm not normally into Warhammer 40k, I'm more of the Warhammer fantasy type girl but I still enjoyed this film. It was a bit slow paced at first but the storyline was really well thought out.The cgi in this film wasn't the best, I got the feeling that this film was almost a bit of an experiment to see how people would respond to their movies but it was watchable and pretty good compared to some films. (maybe I am biased because I love Warhammer).I didn't think i would enjoy it but it surprised me and now I am so desperately waiting for the Warhammer fantasy film to be released if they are making one!