If you've been a fan of Warhammer 40,000 at any point in the past half decade or so, chances are you've come across Erasmus Brosdau's Lord Inquisitor passion project. It's always looked stunning, but seemed destined for video vapourware. As it turns out though, six years on from the film's beginning, it's finally been completed and now we have an eight minute prequel to chew over.
Getting a look into the Warhammer 40k universe in any manner other than the books, has always been a bit of a difficult task. The games do a pretty good job with story, though don't flesh it out much, but official movie properties like Ultramarines fail to live up to the franchise's epic scale and certainly don't come close to Lord Inquisitor in terms of aesthetics. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZc6cr6G2E4′]
Then again, this short film does suffer for its voice acting, but when you look at the scale and depth captured by its visuals, it's easy enough to ignore that issue. The rattling thump as the Space Marines march through the streets, with the stomping dreadnoughts behind them on their epic parade, are an amazing backdrop for the story unfolding in the towers above.
Perhaps most surprising for those that followed the project in the past though, is that this turns out to be a prequel for the main show, set for release next year. That will feature much more of the Lord Inquisitor himself, a character which not only is the piece named after, but received special attention during the developmental process. He's arguably the most real looking character in the short film, though the others are far from lacking in detail.
Look forward to more work from Brosdau and his team of co-developers next year.
KitGuru Says: The fact that Games Workshop has never sold the rights for a feature length, CGI driven movie is criminal. A really dark, 40K movie about humanity's greatest warriors facing insurmountable odds, perhaps with an Alien-like horror twist thrown in, could be fantastic.
That’s insanely impressive for a fan-made vid. 40k needs to be made into a movie or HBO mini series!