New Ultramarines Movie Trailer is out... and looks awful

[Cykeisme]

Never mind the upcoming Space Marine or Dawn of War 2 game cinematics, even the first Dawn of War's intro had more impressive visuals than this.

Can someone in the know give a rough ballpark estimate on how much a cinematic of the length, complexity and quality of the first Dawn of War's intro would cost to make, if it were to be made in 2010?

[Hawkwings]

Old guy looks way too tiny and thin of neck to be a space marine. I imagine that the scenes where they have their helmets on will be much better, if only because we don't have to look at their facial animation.

[Korgeta]

As I'm sure has been said before, this movie is GW testing the waters to see if this medium will work for them. The low budget is to ensure low risk. If GW makes any kind of profit from this, then I would expect better and more ambitious works in the future.

I think Juubi is right, I've heard that elsewhere before this.

I think it sounds like a horrible approach.
While I understand that GW is a company that needs to turn a profit, there is a very real risk that a movie with unpalatable visuals could do poorly even if there was a massive untapped market for Warhammer 40k movies.
Done right, the success of the movie (and possible sequels) might, in turn, boost the exposure and sales of their myriad other 40k products.
Done wrong, there's a chance that a poorly made movie may even cause far-reaching damage to the franchise.

I'm pretty sure I'm doing nothing but stating the obvious here, though.

Low budget is what I was expecting, it's popular now to have games and a CGI movie in the making but their sensible enough to test the market first before throwing in a high budgeted movie and see it crash (eg: final fantasy spirits within)

[thejester]

Most jarring thing for me wasn't the animation, it was that initial voiceover. The enormous gap between the gothic, blood-soaked ritual mystique of current 40k and its initial existant as a bunch of blokes dicking around with some resin models on a tabletop never looked so vast. 'And the best of the best are....Ultramarines' is canonically true (well I suppose the best of the best part is subjective) but sounds retarded, like something out of a dodgy 70s anime. I'd drop the 'Space Marines' name totally and run with 'Astartes', but GW would probably violently object.

[NecronLord]

Thread stickied because people keep posting about it.

[OsirisLord]

"And the greatest of them, are the Ultramarines"

This is followed by fifteen seconds of Ultramarines being slaughtered.

I had no hopes for this film at all but congratulations GW for always finding a way to sink that bar. Now I have negative hopes it will be good. Not even Abnett's characterizations can save this if his lines are being spoken by plastic skined rubber manikin geriatrics with the charisma of a lump of cheese. Hell he might just be phoning it in since he's not writing about the Glorious Imperial Guard.

[Batman]

I've not been overly interested in this movie and have decidedly limited knowledge of 40K but why wouldn't a Space Marine several centuries old look geriatric? Even with ages as achieved by humans today, you can still have lots of hard muscle under decidedly flabby looking skin (look at Ric Flair towards the later years of his career).
That being said, while I do think the visuals look better than those of Dawn of War (intro and otherwise), they don't by a sufficiently large margin for something that is supposed to be an actual movie (even if not a Hollywood budget one).
I also agree the intro narrative was...less than stellar.

[Aaron]

In a fair number of novels the veteran Marines are described, not necessarily as geriatric but pretty damn weathered. If you spend your entire life (which could be hundreds of years) fighting, and training to fight, your not going to look factory fresh. Marines also don't seem to go in for juvant treatments, guess they don't much care what they look like.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I like the old look. Grey hair, weathered skin, old scars, etc don't give me the impression of infirmity or brittle-boned senior citizens hollering at Matlock and waving their canes, at least not when combined with a big ol' suit of power armor and a 2-meter frame. It says "veteran", "wisdom", "experience" and all the gravitas of one's elders.

Plus, it meshes nicely with 40k's ongoing themes of ancient things and the general scale of time 40k operates in (with conflicts often measured in hundreds of years and the like). "Ancients of war" and all that.

[Srelex]

I would hope that they at least show them fighting Tyranids or Orks in some sort of montage at the beginning, to at least give an impression of the scale. I find Chaos kinda boring as an enemy, to be honest.

[Aaron]

Yeah, theres nothing wrong with it. Its one reason why I'm a big Space Wolves fan, all their Wolf and Rune Priests are grizzled and grey.

I would hope that they at least show them fighting Tyranids or Orks in some sort of montage at the beginning, to at least give an impression of the scale. I find Chaos kinda boring as an enemy, to be honest.

Depends who does it I think. Abnett is decent so I have hope. Though I prefer Zou's take on Chaos.

[loomer]

Yeah, an old marine says to me more 'I have spent an eternity fighting. I am tired, but I cannot rest until I am dead.' than 'GET OFF MY LAWN YOU DAMN CHAOS PUNKS!'

[white_rabbit]

The whole "looking old" thing is as variable as anything in 40k. The Space Wolf books explicitly mention that some ancient guys look like they are fresh out of the training camp, whilst guys half their age look all grizzled and weathered.

Depends who does it I think. Abnett is decent so I have hope. Though I prefer Zou's take on Chaos.

How do you mean ? And do you mean "Emperor's Mercy" Zou, who is great, or "Flesh and Iron Zou" who is kinda naff ?

[Aaron]

Flesh and Iron but the Blood Gorgons specifically. I prefer that their a little more sane then some of Chaos. I like their attitude I guess you could say.

[Imperial Overlord]

I found Flesh and Iron to be better than Emperor's Mercy. Zhou's soldiers feel much more real than his Inquisitor.

[Aaron]

Agreed, I also didn't much care for Roth running around like a soldier.

[Srelex]

It's unfortunate that they didn't go for a depiction of the Battle of Macragge IMO, but that would probably exceed the budget. Would be a good showpiece for the Ultramarines.

[CyrilsScribe]

I feel that this trailer felt more like a game or animated series announcement than an actual movie trailer, it just seemed to lack the use of the more common, advanced technologies of 2010.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I feel that this trailer felt more like a game or animated series announcement than an actual movie trailer, it just seemed to lack the use of the more common, advanced technologies of 2010.

That's because it doesn't have the budget to use them. Seriously, this movie costs less than a tenth of what a big studio animated film costs, reportedly under $10 million as opposed to $100 million. Are you seriously expecting Avatar-level CGI from a direct-to-video movie based on a niche property?

[Batman]

No. But given this looks marginally better than the opening cinematics of Dawn of War, which is six years old and a game I think for a movie we can expect more.

[Srelex]

Well, how much time and effort does it take to make a short cutscene like that? Anyone here have any knowledge in that area?

[Rye]

No. But given this looks marginally better than the opening cinematics of Dawn of War, which is six years old and a game I think for a movie we can expect more.

I would expect a massive disparity in budget divided by screentime between the DoW intro and a whole film. It's not like the opening sequence to DoW isn't highly professional; it is, I am sure Relic outsourced it to a well paid cgi animation team for a far greater amount per second than the film has.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

No. But given this looks marginally better than the opening cinematics of Dawn of War, which is six years old and a game I think for a movie we can expect more.

The opening cinematics were not part of the game and were in fact animated by an established animation company, professionals who cost a lot more than Codex Pictures can spend on a per-minute rate, and they only included one or two backgrounds and a few different models to be created.

Making a whole movie is very different.

[Zaune]

I'm pretty sure a bad animator charges the same hourly rate as a good one.

[Stark]

I'm pretty sure a bad animator charges the same hourly rate as a good one.

Excuse me? Are you serious?