(Spoilers abound, read at own risk)
Okay, i watched it yesterday, it wasn't half bad, but more than the lacklustre animation, i felt they took a few too many liberties from what we all have seen from the books and games and codex that most of us have read. The story is very typical and very nice, Dan Abnett is an excellent writer, his books along side CS Goto and others are gripping and typical, but they managed to somehow ruin his otherwise excellent story by deviating from what Space Marines are and do. This very much feels like Marvel giving away the rights to someone else to make their movie and the studio taking too many liberties, and true fans not liking the non canon way they've done things, I know i'm being anal about it but damnit some of us are proper fans and there's some things even the most unlearned person knows about warhammer that this movie JUST DOESNT FOLLOW.
a] No matter how disobedient or unique the character, they never talk back to their commanding officer the way they did in the movie, that's what years of training are for, to weed out the ones who can't follow orders, im not saying be an automaton, but even today's Navy wouldn't stand for such behaviour.
b] How blind and useless are they having come from such an illustrious chapter that they missed the guy dead on the battlefield surrounded by the eight pointed star of Chaos, even the captain and the apothecary, apparent veterans, missed it.
c] Also, coming from such a chapter as they've chosen, the supposed best chapter, none of the soldiers looked fit to be in the ranks of any first founding chapter, at the point they first entered battle, they're supposed to have years of field training as scouts and then become full marines, these bunch look like they've been injected with the stuff but none of the training.
d] While people are shooting at them, half of them are standing and looking around, lolwat. And once they know there's been murder and war about, they're all walking around like Cool Luke, none of them scanning for anything.
e] When Proteus says he sees something, like any other typical movie, the senior officer would scoff as he did, but the marines are trained to be a bit more than that, they should've listened.
Overall, the music had a good orchestral, gothic feel, apt for such a movie, the animation was disappointing, most of the marines looked like 6' men in big suits, kind of like Starcraft, not 8' tall superhumans with power armour. The marines themselves actually felt just like regular soldiers, being killed off as in any war, and i think that's the issue, they treated this movie like just another war movie and saw the marines in the same light, bodies to the effort. All of them are wooden and not even strict of themselves, so they're both non engaging but still dont have any air about them.
Since GW signed off on this, they knowingly let this travesty take place and i put the full blame on them, i would've put good money and bought the dvd had it been worth it, but it so isnt, i'd rather read the books and play the currently terrible games than ever consider rewatching the butchering of everything WH40K that this movie showed. What they assumed was that the watcher was a fan of the 40K series, but then instead of repeating facts that we know about space marines, they showed all the wrong things that space marines DONT do, you cant have it both ways, either you show a newbie your version, or you show a fan canon material
Edit: What would have made a more apt movie, was an origin story, a boy who's chosen to join a chapter, taken through years of burtal tests and modifications and becoming a battle brother and so on. I would've watched that with more enthusiasm because then they couldn't take as many liberties and ruined it.