Ultramarines: The Movie - EPIC FAIL

I've returned to the blogosphere (more on that tomorrow). What has brought me back is partly the need to comment on the trailer for the Ultramarines film that was released a few days ago. In many ways I'm reiterating and expanding on what others have already said: that it's not very good, looks low quality, that codex should go back to square one etc etc.

* The Pictures: We've known since the first teaser trailer that the quality of animation on the film was going to be poor. Everyone seems to be comparing what we have seen to the intro movie to Dawn of War very unfavourably with some reason. What Codex has produced so far is indeed below par and a complete letdown, even for those of us who weren't expecting Avatar-like graphics. Really, though, did we really expect anything else? The budget for this film is no doubt way below Avatar [sic] as well as most computer games. If you want decent graphics then GW would have to either stump up more cash or try and get a major studio to make the film - neither of which is likely to happen (remember when GW were sniffing around Dreamworks almost a decade ago?). Without a decent budget to do it properly, GW should really just leave it to the fans (for example, this and this).

* The Story: One common refrain seen across the blogosphere and on the comments for the clip, is an acknowledgement that the imagery is poor, but that the story will in some way save it. The fact that Dan Abnett is involved is, in some way, seen as a saving grace. Leaving aside the debatable quality of some of Abnett's work (notably Legion), do we REALLY expect a decent story? Just look at 99.9% of the Black Library's releases, including the audiobooks. It's all bolterporn with, in the case of the audiobooks, the only thing to signify different characters being that they have differing levels of gravel-ness in their voices. Equally, who is the film pitched at? Unless GW are insane, it will be pitched at their core audience: 8-14-year-old fanbois, who just want to see bolterporn and 'cool stuff'. Anything approaching an interesting story (at least for adults) is never going to happen as the core audience wouldn't want it. The story is going to match the imagery - it's going to be basic fodder to milk the fanbois

* First this and then...: Another response is that this is just a way of generating interest in the fluff, and once it becomes a success, a mainstream company will become interested in 40K and make their own high-budget release. Again, this doesn't appear to make sense: which Hollywood company (that wasn't already interested) is going to watch a poor 70 min piece of bolterporn that is just released in specialist outlets and think 'wow, we should develop this'? It's never going to happen. This is GW's only chance to make a go of it

Again, as I said waaaaaay back in the day when the project was unveiled, I'm willing to stand corrected on this, but....

Ultramarines: The Movie Trailer: WAS THAT IT???!!!

After much hype and speculation, a trailer for the forthcoming Ultramarines film was released today on the official site. The production company had been previewing loads of shots of what the weapons are going to look like (cos, hey, that's all we are interested in, right? forget plot, characterisation etc. Just give us a nice bolter and we are happy. er....)

Well, my initial reaction is that even the diehard fanbois are going to find it hard to say anything overly fanboi-ish about it. Clocking in at just over a minute, the majority of the trailer is John Hurt narrating (with his AMAZING voice) and then a shot of a hagged-looking Ultramarine....and that's it. really.

Aside from the fact that the trailer doesn't really give you much at all, the CGI marine looks really poor - about on par with the one on the start of Dawn of War intro movie from back in the day (in fact the guy on the trailer looks like his grandfather).

I'm always willing to stand corrected, but my guess is that this is shaping up to be bad, really bad.

Ultramarines - The Film

News is bubbling up that there is a W40K film in production. Ultramarines, according to the publicity blurb, is to be produced by the London-based company, Codex Pictures (the people behind the Lego BIONICLE films) and "will use CGI and state-of-the-art animation production techniques". It should also clock in at around 70 mins (and will, I'm guessing, most likely be released straight to DVD and sold in GW stores).

I am obviously excited about this, not least because of my interest in W40K fanfilms and fandom generally. My excitement, though, is tempered with a fair bit of pessimism as W40K fandom has been here before. Back in 2001, there were news reports that GW was in discussion with Dreamworks to produce a £25m film. The subsequent project, Bloodquest, however never made it off the starting blocks - allegedly being pulled because GW needed the cash to fund buying the rights to produce miniatures for the LoTR films. All that remains from the project, at least in the public domain, is a trailer for it over on youtube. My fear is that the project will either run out of money or, based on past form, GW will pull the plug on it before the project really gets going.