Ultramarines: The Movie

"From Ancient Terra the Emperor commands His Proud Sons."
"From revered Blood-stock these Warriors are made His Proud sons."
"No fear they shall know as Adeptus Astartes, His Proud Sons."
"Humanity's foes they defend against all, His Proud Sons"

"Warrior Elite, Unbreakable spirit, Astartes!"
"Supreme Defenders, Unchallenged in Battle Astartes!"
"Warrior Merit, Unbreakable spirit, Astartes!"
"Courage and honor, Emperor and Primarch, Astartes!"
- Steel and Doom

Ultramarines: The Movie is a 70-minute CGI movie from 2010 about the Ultramarines Chapter. Directed by Martyn Pick Matt Ward, produced by Bob Thompson (The guy who produced the Bionicle movies) and starring, among others, the late JOHN MOTHERFUCKING HURT.

Plot

It is the 41st millennium, a savage and grim dark future when mankind battles for survival in a galaxy riven by bloodshed and destruction. Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, assailed on all sides by the most grievous enemies - aliens, mutants and traitors. Only the colossal numbers of the Imperial Guard and the indomitable strength of the Space Marines, genetically-enhanced elite warriors of superhuman power and devastating ability, can offer any defense. Of all the ancient and venerable chapters of Space Marines, the Ultramarines are arguably the most powerful, most respected and most fearless. Pure of purpose and loyal to the Emperor, the Ultramarines are regarded as the most driven and strict, the most disciplined and courageous of Space Marine chapters.

Captain Severus, a revered veteran warrior with a considerable reputation, has received an urgent request for assistance from the remote backwater planet Mithron. Mithron has only one site of strategic importance, a shrine defended for countless generations by a full company of Space Marines from the Imperial Fists Chapter. What dreadful fate could have overcome them that they ask for help?

Leaving the bulk of his company on Algol to prosecute the war against the nightmarish Tyranids, Severus sets off for Mithron with only a ten-man squad for support. Ultima Squad is a raw, untrained band of battle brothers, all recently promoted from the ranks of Space Marine Scouts and thirsting for glory. Mithron will be their first taste of action as fully fledged Ultramarines. Severus, with his sergeant Crastor and his apothecary Pythol, knows they’ll need to keep a careful watch on the recruits.

On the tough and unforgiving surface of Mithron, Ultima Squad discovers that a terrible battle has taken place. The shrine has been attacked, and some great evil has been unleashed. As unseen dangers close in around them, the recruits have to mount a tense and deadly insertion to find any surviving Imperial Fists, and the reason behind the distress beacon.

For ambitious new recruits Proteus and Verenor, competitors for their captain’s approval, the reality of the task ahead becomes clear. They want a glorious first taste of combat as fully fledged Space Marines to prove they are worthy of selection. But this mission is a savage fight for survival and, if the Ultramarines fail, events on Mithron will threaten the fate of millions of densely populated Imperial worlds starting with their fortress home of Macragge...

Things got off to a flying start as the Ultramarines disembark their Thunderhawk and take to the field, unfortunately enough for the Ultima Squad,(and great for /tg/) a full 2 Ultramarines die VERY early on in the movie, (keep in mind there are 13 of the bastards) then another dies, to the joy of every veiwer. After that, the Ultramarines make their way into the Shrine, unknowingly shadowed by a powerful Daemon of Khorne... Anyway, when they get inside the Daemon shows himself and kills off Severus by throwing him and himself off a cliff. For some reason however, Severus left orders to allow Proteus to take command.. huh, strange. So, instead of leaving this hellhole, Proteus commands the Squad to remain with him as he investigate the beacon. They happen upon the Chaplain Carnak (voiced by John Hurt) and his bodyguard Nidon, who are the only survivors of the Shrine Guard. They guard a tome which they claim was granted to the Imperial Fists at their founding by the God-Emperor, however things are not as they seem. The Imperial Fists and Ultramarines then begin the journey to their extraction point only to find the Chaos Space Marines in wait. After a pitched battle against the Traitors, wherein many Ultramarines are slain, and a Crozius Arcanum proves to be a canon raping sonic blaster, Captain Severus returns and turns the tide in the favor of the Loyalists.

After returning to their Battle Barge, Proteus and Severus confront Carnak and Nidon, after inspecting the Codex that they guard and finding it empty of text, Severus executes Carnak, however, it would seem it was all deception... For the apparent Captain of the Ultima Squad reveals himself to be the same Daemonic Spawn of Khorne who we saw at the Shrine!!

WHAT A TWEEEST!!!

Nidon, Proteus and Verenor pursue the Daemon, finding the remaining battle brothers wounded heavily, one dead and Pythol hanging on by a mere thread. They corner the beast in the Reclusiam, finding him engaged in a dark ritual to bring forth a legion of daemons. Nidon is summarily slain and the Warp Spawn attempts to draw Proteus to Chaos, Pythol appears and strikes the beast from behind, causing it to flee while roaring out; "FORGET GLORY! GET UP AND KILL THIS BEAST!" despite this badassery, Pythol too is slain. The only hope for out Ultramarine heroes is the mighty Thunder Hammer kept in the Reclusiam, remembering a technique taught to him by Severus, Proteus smashes away the beast with... a Space Marine Helmet... Huh.. Anyway, Proteus claims the hammer and proceeds to open up a Holy can of FUCK YOU! on said Daemon, sending it and the Heretical tome back to warp. Only Proteus and Verenor survive.

At the end of the film, they have been granted leadership over the Ultima Squad, and are presiding over a new group of Space Marines that they will lead into battle with these words;

"You are about to receive the honor of going into combat for the first time as Ultramarines... You shall make your battle pledges upon the sacred Warhammer, wielded by the greatest of our veterans; it has slain both alien and daemon alike. One day you shall be worthy of it, but until then, you shall kneel before it. We march for Macragge! And we shall know no fear!

A fine first attempt at a Warhammer 40K film. Buy it (and the carrying case, and the comic book, and the making of extras, and all the other swag that comes with it. No, you don't have a choice, it's everything or nothing)(heresy, digital is better) so we can have a better one.

Characters

Ultramarines:

• Captain Severus (Terrence Stamp) - Captain of the Ultramarines 2nd company. No relation to Severus from Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. Or Severus Snape. Or the Ultramarines Captain Severus Agemman, for that matter. He does, however, have the same goddamned voice-actor. No he doesn't, that was Peter "Darth Maul" Serafinowicz.
• Brother Proteus (Sean Pertwee) - Newly promoted battle brother who is actually a trigger happy lunatic. Has a sort of anime-esque hate-rival relationship with Verenor.
• Brother Verenor (Steve Waddington) - A newly promoted battle brother and resident sniper. He has a rivalry with Proteus for the approval of Severus.
• Apothecary Pythol (Donald Sumpter) - Some old fart who's friends with Severus. Switches between "Captain Obvious," "Bitter, Cynical Old Fart," and "Stone-Cold Badass." Only member of the squad with more brains than balls, and guess where it gets him?
• Sergeant Crastor, Brother Junor and Brother Remulus (Ben Bishop) - Crastor was, in a way, the redshirt of the movie (Though, more of a "red helmet") because he, along with Lycos, was the first to die. On a side note Crastor was the only original member of Squad Ultima after most of the original squad got nommed by Nids. Junor went out in a badass way, he got wounded and his flamer started leaking promethium. After telling the others to fall back, he detonates the flamer and blows up a load of Chaos Marines. Remulus got torn to pieces by the daemon on the strike cruiser.
• Brother Hypax, Brother Maxillius and Brother Decius (Gary Martin) - Expendable Marines who exist pretty much to die. Hypax became the standard bearer after Boreas had his chest inconviently ripped up by an autocannon. Hypax met his end on the Strike Cruiser when the daemon disguised as Severus impaled him with the standard. Maxillius, armed with a heavy bolter, got his head split open by the daemon and Decius got shot up by Chaos Marines.
• Brother Boreas and Brother Lycos (Christopher Finney) - Hmm, 'Boreas'? Now where have we heard- Oh Emperor... Anyway, Boreas served as the standard bearer until he FEHLED TEH EMPRAH was penetrated by an autocannon. Lycos served as the driver for the landspeeder until he got killed, along with Crastor, during said ambush, when a Black Legion Marine with a Stalker Bolter perforated their heads.

Imperial Fists:

• Chaplain Carnak (John Hurt) - Chaplain of the Imperial Fists. He's the one responsible for sending out the distress signal. Helps the remaining Ultramarines in battling the Black Legion and returns with them to their battle-cruiser. Gets shot in the head by Severus (Actually, the Daemon Prince in Severus' form) **BUUUURN HERETICS**.
• Brother Nidon (Johnny Harris) - Carnak's Bodyguard. Possibly the most mush-faced marine in the movie and totally insane, being very protective of the Liber Mithrus (despite its contents being highly questionable). Is decently badass until (maybe) dying in a lame way by being thrown across the room into a stone column by a DEMON PRINCE. His death isn't confirmed.
• Nailed up in the Front gate Imperial Fists (Themselves) - They're having the time of their lives.

Black Legion

• The Daemon Prince - First attacks Ultima squad in the shrine and plummets to its supposed death along with Severus. It kills Severus and takes his form later on in fooling Ultima Squad. Almost succeeds in opening a warp gate on the strike cruiser, but Proteus goes Hammer-Time and the daemon gets banished to the warp. Given his red coloration and the Black Legion warband's preference for chainaxes, he may be a Daemon Prince of Khorne.
• Black Legion Legionnaires (Unknown. Possibly played by themselves) - The main enemies. The Majority of them are either raging psychopaths with Boltguns or Raging psychopaths with chainswords, chain-axes, and bolt pistols (including a serious badass who dual wields bolt pistols to little effect). For some reason, the majority of them are having trouble with their aim (possibly suffering from the infamous "Stormtrooper Effect"), and are taking more casualties than the Ultramarines despite having taken down nearly the entire Imperial Fists 5th company (FUCKING ULTRAMARINE PLOT ARMOR!!!). Of course, if the Fists went down to Furies, they're probably Alpha Legion impostors or some shit. It is possible that, due to their love of close combat and their leader being a Khornate Daemon Prince, this Black Legion is dedicated to Khorne.

Misc

• Horribly mutilated and decimated Imperial Guardsmen (Themselves) - Like their Imperial Fists counterparts, they're having a blast with their role.
• Servitors - Aside from one short bit of dialogue between a servitor and Crastor, they don't get up to much.

Things that Rock

• Ultrasmurfs
• A Warhammer movie for the first time in 24 years. Finally. Apart from Damnatus, of course, and that ancient Inquisitor movie thing that no one remembers, but those were considerably lower in budget.
• Dan Abnett writes the story.
• Voice acting ranges from amazing to mediocre, but isn't overall bad.
• Space Marines who don't look like Hair-etics.
• Have we mentioned John Hurt? (God-Emperor rest his soul) His awesomeness is so great that we must do so. He stands second only to the Emperor.
• Chaos Space Marines are in it (Specifically, The Black Legion)
• Violence, glorious amounts of decently crafted violence.
• Lots of HERETICS die.
• Severus' armour looks awesome.
• Carnak's armour looks awesome.
• Carnak's line "BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN, HERETICS!"
• Pythol's line "FORGET GLORY! GET UP AND KILL THIS BEAST!"
• Pacing is nice.
• Character development.
• The soundtrack, especially the parts with Ominous High Gothic English Chanting (like PROUD ASTARTES)
• The ending.
• The Bolters actually sound like fucking Bolters.

Things that Suck

• Ultrasmurfs
• Complete lack of Eldar, Tyranids (stained glass murals don't count) or Necrons to name a few.
• Space Marines look exactly like their tabletop counterparts. This means that the Bolters are comically oversized and lacking in details compared to the armor. They also move like you'd expect tabletop minis to move: very stiff and exaggerated.
• Not a single Beakie.
• Complete lack of anyone without a Y-chromosome.
• The animation is constantly shifting quality of texture, movements, dynamics, lighting, detail and meshes. Some scenes show high quality designed animation while some were pretty sloppy, as if they were hurried. The absolute nadir is the jumping-across-the-broken-bridge scene; they move like they're playing hopscotch. Still, it does manage to look nice most of the time. As described by Araghast the Pillager "The production values and designs look like it was made in the 1990s."
• Not enough gigantic dark Gothic space cathedrals, and way too fucking many convenient scenery-obscuring dust clouds.
• The thickest part of power armor, the chest plate, is somehow consistently punctured clean through by a single bolter round actually it was an autocannon round. The owner of the power armour dies from this single round, despite being a Space Marine and having another working heart.
• Carnak dies for no reason.
• Where the FUCK is Khârn?
• Released only as a special edition. No regular release.
  • While no longer true, it took so long for the DVD and Blu-Ray release to come out that everyone who wanted it probably already had it.
• It got delayed. Because of this, it caused lots of fans to go batshit crazy and rage.
• Lore rape: Promethieum fuel is not gel, power armor sliced apart by a simple chainaxe in one hit (Although this is consistent with Abnett's other Space Marine works were Power Armor might as well be paper to Space Marine weapons), and the Crozius Arcanum shoots magic beams. Dan Abnett defended this weakly by saying "but yea, all Crozius Arcanums aren't the same, even if they've always been exactly described the same in every book and lore piece until this movie was released." Although you can think of it as the blessed holy aura of the Crozius and the Chaplain that are screwing with the Chaos Marines, it's still a weak explanation. (It seems likely that the slow motion beams fired from the Crozius were inspired by the Chaplain's special ability in Dawn of War)
• Going with lore rape, they fucked up the drilled-in order of promotion through the Codex Astartes chapters. Tactical Marines are not fresh out of the Scouts - The scouts that are promoted first go to battle as Devastators then Assaults, to say nothing of portraying those scouts as young hotheads despite the fact that an ultramarine scout will have had decades of military training and experience. It's something that's likely done to have 40k newbies or even non-fans understand the pecking order better, but it's sucky nonetheless.
• For even MORE lore rape, you can consider the following: a daemon of Khorne engaging in disguise and plotting. A captain abandoning his entire company in favor of dicking around on some random system instead of just sending a veteran sergeant. A ship having a reclusiam without an attendant chaplain. An ultramarine, one of the most highly trained soldiers in the galaxy, smacking a daemon with a helmet instead of just punching it.
• Speaking of Lore Rape: There's a stain glass window of what's clearly the Battle for Macragge, as the plot takes place shorty after this, meaning Cato Sicarius should be Captain of the 2nd.
• Now, a tactical squad in action with an old apothecary.... IS THIS ULTRA-VERSION OF 'BROTHERS OF THE SNAKE'?!
• With how the Chaos Space Marines act, it would have made more sense to use the World Eaters than the Black Legion.
• Space Marines are too wimp for their standards, yet still decimate the Black Legion.
• The space marines banner crackles with electricity when daemons are near.......*cough*frodo's sword anyone.
• The entire vessel is utterly deserted save for 15 marines. Some argue the marine count is consistent with Battlefleet Gothic fluff states; the obvious rebuttal is that there are no serfs anywhere and only 7 servitors.
• There is one line that is repeated over, and over, and over again to the point of nausea. Take a shot every time they say "We march for Macragge! AND WE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!", and you will be more dead than a guardsman two days from retirement. You will get so tired that one of the most iconic, bad-ass lines of the Emprah's marine speech will seem utterly boring and meaningless.

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