GOT MY COPY! wooot
OK the CGI was on par with the Dark Crusade intro at times, and quite nice at other times, overall felt about 5 years old game intro tech wise, but it is their first film so one can only assume as the company grows so too will the bling factor.
The story/characters were pure dan abnett, but very cut down, i assume he will get better at writing for film (compressed story) with time, and i can sympathise that it would not be easy making a marine gripping on film. half the time they have a helmet (can't see face) the other half they have a face of stone.
But i gotta say I LOVED IT!!! It felt like 40K, pure and simple, no hollywood-ization (meaning screw history lets rewrite everything) had the gore, the dark brooding feel, the crazy fights, and some very cool moments.
They said it was for the fans and they didn't lie. There was no pointless info dumps, it just assumes we know all there is to know, because we are fans and that's why we are watching it. Bravo!
And for proof that doing things that way works, my wife watched it with me, She enjoys the art work, but knows very little about the history. she only asked 3 questions throughout the film. whats a chaplain, who is the guy in all white, and whats a gene seed. that's it, she took the rest on face value and really enjoyed it. Now if only hollywood would realise that not all the earth is populated by idiots and leaving some history/info dumps out does not ruin a story. perhaps even sucks people in more, since straight after the film, she logged on to games workshop and did some research. Then began reading my 'Horus Heresy- Collected Visions" Book. (which she ironically bought me for Christmas a few years ago hehe)
But overall i agree with Alex and raz, yes it 'could' have been a heap better, but the zing of even having a 40K film to watch wipes all that away, and all is forgiven. HAHA second time round they may not have such leaway however.