Written by Beau Cameron
|
12 March 2010
Hey All!
With work well under way on the Ultramarines movie and the recent announcements regarding its cast, there is understandably a great deal of excitement building up over the project. I for one am looking forward to it and with Dan Abnett writing the story and some damn good actors involved (If I don't see John Hurt as a Librarian, I will be one sad panda) I think its safe to say that it certainly looks promising.
When I was at our Club on Sunday however, I heard one of the younger gamers remark that it was great someone finally decided to make a warhammer movie. Well thats not right I said to myself... I've been wondering since how many people are actually aware that there have been multiple attempts at a 40k movie, long before Ultramarines. Seeing as no-one has beaten me to it, I thought I'd provide some interesting links to those that came before Ultramarines.
Now Brave Reader, I must warn you. What I have to show, isn't necessarily all good. Some of it is good, some of it is ok if a little awkward and some of it is just laughably terrible. If special effects and A-list, Oscar award winning Jeff Bridges level quality acting mean the world to you, this may upset you.
With that out of the way:
INQUISITOR
Made in the early 90's, Inquisitor is a veritable relic. Hell, Its nearly as old as me. As a result of that, several things stand out besides the film's age. Namely as this was made around the days of Rogue Trader and 2nd ed 40k so there are some inconsistencies with current established 40k canon. It follows the Dark Angels Captain Darius and a squad of Dark Angels as they accompany the mysterious Inquisitor Krieger into some eerie ruins where they are ambushed by Chaos Marines.
It was originally made as a pitch to GW to make a full length movie and for its time, its quite well done. I'm not sure what to say about Inquisitor. It was great in some ways and kinda awkward in others. It was very cool to see an astropath delivering a message to a fleet admiral, and the bolter blazing action of the Dark Angel vs Chaos marine shoot out was also pretty cool, just a shame the marines seemed to be rolling plenty of 1's to hit. Pretty good with their to wound rolls as well.
On the downside, its ending seemed a bit rushed and confusing and its incredibly weird seeing world eaters toting boltguns and firing in a relatively disciplined manner. Let alone the fact their lord is quite level headed and well spoken. Like I said. Awkward. Still, its worth a look.
INFESTATION and BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
From the same people that brought us Inquisitor, comes these two interesting additions. Made around the same time and released with Inquisitor on VHS (remember those things?) this was relatively official at that point in time too, GW was much more relaxed in this regard back then and being relatively young as a company, they probably appreciated the publicity.
Infestation follows a group of Space Wolf Terminators, cleansing a hive city of a genestealer infestation. However, where Inquisitor had potential and its failings could be overlooked, Infestation... Well... umm, watch the vid and you will see. There is no forgiving the latex expressionless genestealers waddling and flailing around. And then there is the Tyranid warrior. The Space Wolf Terminators were at least visually impressive and there is some nice camera work. Just a shame some poor effects and make up let it down.
Blood for The Blood God may well have been written and directed by Michael Bay. An Ork is taken into custody by Dark Angels only to be freed by his warband of comically bizarre Orks. There is lots of shooting and splosions and allegations the Ork may bear a Mark of Chaos. Then there is a Random Khornate Berserker, again extremely calm voice and seemingly well mannered. You know, the kinda guy you could go to the pub and sink a few pints with. That said the berserker does look damn cool. I wish I could make power armour like that.
Trailers for Infestation and Blood For The Blood God back to back, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0XNf0G5ugs&feature=related
BLOODQUEST
The movie that never was. Bloodquest was to be an animated feature much like Ultramarines following the exploits of the warhammer monthly comics Blood Angel character Captain Leonidas and his battle brothers as they strove to fight off an Ork Waagh. Unfortunately they made a rough trailer before Exile Films, the developers of Bloodquest, went bust and the project never eventuated as nobody was willing to pick up the project.
All that exists of Bloodquest:
DAMNATUS: The Enemy Within
2005's Damnatus was the most recent attempt at a warhammer 40,000 inspired film and for what it was, it was quite impressive. It took 4 years to make and was an independent fan film made by a very dedicated and rather talented group of fans. It follows a group of mercenaries as they journey into the depths of a hive city, coming to blows with a sinister chaos cult, but not all is as it seems... There are crazy, raving loonies, Tech priests, a ruthless inquisitor and rather menacing Daemon. Unfortunately no Space Marines though. The costumes and CGI is fairly impressive for something that these guys did in their spare time. That it is all in German is a tad frustrating if you watch it without subtitles. A damn cool movie, just a terrible shame GW's lawyers had the project shot down for IP infringement. A seriously stupid move in my opinion.
Here's the trailer, the full version wouldn't be hard to find...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77TpMvRZ_LQ
So, some good, some bad, and some terribad. Will Ultramarines be better? Well I'd hope so! So long as it gets further then Bloodquest, I'm happy. Hopefully this has been an interesting lesson in 40k history, if I've left any out by all means feel free to share!
Thanks for reading, till next time!
- Beau
