Director/Writer: Neil Marshall
A splinter group of Roman soldiers fight for their lives behind enemy lines after their legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack.
Centurion is one of the fairly recent movies about the Roman 9th legion. This movie came out just before the movie The Eagle, which I haven't seen yet, but aparently it's a similar story. I think this movie gets a pretty bad rap, but I was quite entertained.
It's a mainstream film with a pretty high production value. The film looks really good in production and costumes. The effects look good, although there is a fair amount of CGI blood here, which I'm usually not a big fan of. It looks good in over-the-top, stylized films like 300, but I'd have preferred classical blood and gore effects.
The cast is very good here. I really enjoy Michael Fassbender in most everything he is in, and Olga Kurylenko is fucking beautiful and plays a really good bad-ass chick here. It's probably a good thing that she doesn't speak at all in this movie.
The story itself is pretty straightforward and simple. And, of course, don't expect an oscar winning movie here, but I think it does what it set out to do. The pacing slows down a couple times. I wasn't really a fan of the "sit in a cave and talk for character development" scene, but I lived through it.
If you're looking for some good action with swords, arrows and spears, and good blood and gore, then this movie is for you. It can get a little slow at times, but picks up nicely.
Verdict: Recommended
The Cast
Olga Kurylenko ... Etain
Dominic West ... General Titus Flavius Virilus
Liam Cunningham ... Brick
JJ Feild ... Thax
David Morrissey ... Bothos
Imogen Poots ... Arianne
Noel Clarke ... Macros
Ulrich Thomsen ... Gorlacon
Riz Ahmed ... Tarak
Dimitri Leonidas ... Leonidas
Yeah, this has the same basic "Eagle Of The Ninth" story as The Eagle and I'd be hard pushed to choose between them. If forced to pick one ahead of the other, I'd give the 'thumbs up' to this one, I guess.
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