What can I say? The CGI makes criticized Final Fantasy look likebrilliant and finished, but we all knew that already. The charactersare shallow and have the personality of a rock, and power armorcertainly doesn't help. Most of the time there's a group of identicalmarines (excluding the Captain and the Apothecary) wandering around.The movie starts slowly and the first half of the movie consists mostlyof the new space marines playing macho and wandering aimlessly.

I tried to enjoy the movie by ignoring the CGI, but in some parts itrears its ugly head. Half of the movie the marines wander in asandstorm because Codex Pictures didn't bother to model theenvironment, which is quite absurd as the movie was hyped to usethe-state-of-the-art technology. In the only part where a Chaos SpaceMarine is seen without a helmet, it's a nasty sight. In a bad way.Sometimes the facial animation is frankly awkward, like in this poorChaos Space Marine's case. Sometimes it seemed that they were aware ofthe lacking visuals and tried to "cover" it with excessive use of thesmoke effect. Or then they just really love smoke.

I could also complain about the lore errors, prometheum not being gel,bolter rounds not exploding and Crozius shooting magic beams, but Ispare you.

The movie had good parts, the story, as predictable as it was didentertain even though the pacing needed more attention. But hey, it'swarhammer, and I doubt you expecting anything deep from the movie.Right? They did try hard. They tried to add 'thrill' to the movie withChaos Marines whispering in the bushes and (unintentionally amusing)sudden face zooms. There were nice little details, like "thoughts forthe day" flashing on the marine's visor screen.

While the CGI makes me wonder whether to laugh, cry, or take ablowtorch to my retinas, the audio content compensated it, if nottotally, well. I've heard differing opinions about the voice acting.Some say it is good, a few say it is bad. But here I'd like to remindyou that bad voice acting and voice acting that doesn't fit are twodifferent things. I think the cast was chosen well, with one exception.Donald Sumpter did well as Pythol, even though his lines ranged fromCaptain Obvious to just downright hilarious. And sometimes he justsounded like an old man whining about his prostate which doesn't reallymatch my image of a Space Marine. Music and voice effects, they weregood, but nothing exceptional.

A bad movie? Nah. A good movie? Nah. After watching the movie, I'mstill more or less sane, so I guess it's not a bad way to spent anhour. But still, would I pay 40$? No. If you expected the movie to bethe messiah 40k movie the mankind has been waiting for, you're gonna bedisappointed. But if you were like me, watching the trailers with zeroexpectations, it ain't a bad movie. Just don't expect too much.

I must say that I am somewhat biased as I absolutely LOVE the Warhammer40.000 universe and have been waiting for an official movie for years.That said I will try to be fair and consistent in my review.

The Warhammer 40.000 universe has a long and extremely complex historyfrom its humble beginnings as a wargame set in a strange and gonzouniverse, to the dystopian war-torn sci-fi epic it has become today.

To even attempt to put the complexities and sometimes contradictorynature of this world on film is a daunting task indeed. That is whycodex pictures wanted to pursue this endeavor with the utmost respectto the fans and creators of this world.

The movie is focused on a very tiny aspect of the universe as a whole,and it is assumed that the viewer is somewhat familiar with the settingas phrases and terms like astrophaths and auspexes are tossed about inconversations but never explained.

The story focuses on a small unit of newly initiated super-soldierscalled Space marines, which is perhaps the most iconic part of theWarhammer universe. These particular unit belongs to a chapter known asthe ultramarines, the most famous of all the hundreds of differentspace marines chapters in existence.

These marines are called out on a special mission to find out what hashappened to a contingent of space marines from a fellow chapter knownas the Imperial fists. The Imperial fists are stationed on a distantplanet guarding a holy relic.

The fresh squad of Ultramarines arrive and discover that somethingtruly dark and vile is going on.

I'll not go into much detail about the specifics of the plot, butneedless to say there will be a lot of bloodshed before the movie ends.

The movie runs in at nearly 80 minutes and for the most part goes by ata good pace with fairly interesting stuff going on for the majority ofthe movie.

The animation is pretty bland and the terrain and background can be abit monotonous at times, but the space marines themselves are prettywell made with lots of attention to detail going into each character toset them apart from each other.

The soundtrack is suitably epic and grandiose and really suited for thestyle of the setting and the movie as a whole. Some points in the movieare mostly silent which gives a sense of dread and suspense for what'scoming next.

One of the greatest things of this movie is the voice acting withveterans like Terence Stamp, John Hurt and others. The highlight comesfrom Sean Pertwees portrayal of Protheus as an eager yet unpreparednovice and would be hero.

The story is fairly interesting and Warhammer veteran writer DanAbnett's script is surprisingly complex and character driven for amovie with such a short running time.

The movie is far from the action extravaganza that many people mightexpect from a movie about super-soldiers fighting in a universe wherethere is only war. It is pretty character driven and atmospheric attimes, although there are lots of bloody action going on especially inthe later parts of the movie.

For the first attempt at making a movie in such a complex and loveduniverse as the Warhammer 40.000 setting is I think Codex pictures dida great job and I applaud them for having the guts to see this projectthrough.

I hope this will be the first in a long series of Warhammer relatedmovies, and if this franchise continues maybe we will someday have aHollywood budgeted movie with the same heart and respect for theuniverse as this movie has.

Been waiting for this for a long time.... and now it's here.

The Good stuff: The voice acting was superb, everyone did a perfectjob. 10/10.

Ambient music and general mood of the movie is dead on, I especiallylike the first minutes after landing on Mithron, the setting and moodjust awesome. 9/10.

The detail of the warhammer 40k world, equipment & lore, is nearlyperfect 9/10.

The Mediocre stuff: CGI and animation of characters notably meleecombat was a bit awkward... maybe its just me, but it was fair for afirst try 5/10.

The story... not bad, not good, a bit simple, expected a little bitmore from Dan Abnett 5/10.

The Bad stuff: The Spacemarines! now I saw this with a friend of minewho has little or no knowledge of the 40k universe, and I had toexplain a lot to him before and during the movie, and before the movieI told him about the spacemarines as being huge superhuman bad asseswho kicks butt, whether its an army of heretics or aliens, after themovie he asked "whats so special about the spacemarines?" and to behonest I had the same feeling, you don't get the feeling they areanything special, not that I'm saying you feel like they are wimps,they just lack the Superhuman quality 3/10.

On board the Reclusiam, where are the Ultramarines serfs? who is flyingthe thing? are the only ones aboard the 12 Ultramarines and a couple ofservitors? Here they could have put a few normal humans in, and see theUltramarines stand head and shoulders over the tallest of the punyhumans, but no instead you get a feeling that the Reclusiam is devoidof the and some computer flies the ship... 2/10 Way too short 76 mins?this is reflected in the plot of the movie which is pretty simpleBuuuu! :o) I really wanted to score this high, but my personal verdictis... well 6/10 wait +1 just because it a 40k movie so final verdict7/10.

Will I buy more 40k movies? yes! will I recommend others to buy andwatch it? yes! will the fans be disappointed? no I think not :o)

After watching this animation, I had very conflicting feelings aboutit. I was a bit disappointed because it didn't work, for me, as asci-fi movie. But then I also realized that I wasn't happy about thechoice of the races portrayed, as I think the Eldar Harlequines wouldmake for a much more visually pleasing experience. Nevertheless, as asci-fi movie, it might not have delivered anyway.

Then I had another, retrospective, look at what the movie presented,and realized that some essential aspects of the Warhammer 40.000universe were touched upon in a balanced way. It doesn't distract thecasual viewer, and it probably wets the palate of the die-hardWarhammer 40.000 nerd. (I am neither, I just happened to study thisuniverse for a few weeks.)

The plot is vaguely interesting, though the action suffers from tempoissues at times, which I am sure any viewer will notice and be a bitfrustrated about. The action sequences range from boring tofascinating. Here, too, I have some conflicting impressions.

The characters are clichéd but one is really not expected to care muchabout them in a personal way. They are all warriors, and in that sense,the Warhammer 40.000 universe's flavor comes through and it probablydoesn't disturb too much.

All in all, I think I could have spent these 70 minutes in worse ways,and hope most viewers will gain at least the same amount of fun as Idid.