Centurion

I never thought about it before, and actually this movie helped me to understand something. When you go to see a movie you want to have some satisfaction, and mostly you get it when you sympathize with the hero, you get emotionally involved in their problems and you worry about them.

Here, you have two sides and I personally can not empathize with any of them.

The Picts, while they have a right to protect their land and families, are shown in quite cruel way and Olga Kirylenko's character is far from being attractive.

On the other side the Centurion and his soldiers are nothing but invaders killing and enslaving the locals just for the sake of glory of the Roman Empire. All in all, it's fair for them to be killed by the people they are oppressing and I can't really worry about the Centurion trying to survive because I feel more like he deserves to die for what he's done. If you are a professional soldier and came to a foreign land to ravage it... well, you get what you get.

This movie looks like a historical documentary, which shows you some facts and reasons/motives of both sides to do what they do or have to.

It's done fairly well, but for me it defeats the main purpose of movie - it's not entertaining. There is no point of attraction in it, there is no one to feel for, and I expect quite the opposite when I'm paying for the ticket.

I recently picked this movie up cheap after watching the Spartacus TV show. I guess i am going through a Roman phase! This movie although not what i was expecting was actually very good.

If you are expecting large scale battles then look elsewhere as ultimately this becomes a chase movie as a small band of surviving Romans are being chased across Scotland by the savage Pict led by Olga Kurylenko.

Kurylenko is fantastic in this, frightening without saying a word. Fassbender is ok, seeming to grow into the role as the movie progresses. He is supported by a band of mainly British actors including David Morrissey. Dominic West steals every scene he is in, in an all too brief appearance.

I was pleasantly surprised with this movie and it just goes to show you don't have to have a huge budget or mammoth running time to create a good movie.

In 117 A.D., the Romans in Britania is stretched to the limit by the Picts in the north. After 20 years of stalemate, the Romans aim to finish the resistance. Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is half naked running in the snow. The movie moves back two weeks to see Dias and his garrison outpost under attack. He is captured and taken to the Pict leader Gorlacon. General Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West) in York is ordered to destroy the Picts with his men. He is given mute Pict scout Etain (Olga Kurylenko) to guide him.

This is a straight forward bloody violent sword and sandal war movie. The actors are solid led by West and Fassbender. It doesn't have many big story elements. The action is brutal and chaotic. The mood is dark and brood. I also love tracking in the wilderness. I like the cat-and-mouse game of the escape.

Centurion is directed by Neil Marshall who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Dominic West, Michael Fassbender, Olga Kurylenko, Liam Cunningham, Noel Clarke, Riz Ahmed & Imogen Poots.

Britain, 117 AD and the Romans are struggling to contain the Picts in Caledonia. The Roman Governor sends in their best army, the Ninth Legion. But they are victims of a trap and are forced to flee on foot across the mountainous terrain with the vengeful Picts in hot pursuit. Can they stay alive and make it to the border?

One thing you know you are going to get with a Neil Marshall film is blood and guts. Be it squadies facing off against werewolves, pot-holing babes grappling with hungry Gollum types, or a secret unit sent in to quarantined Scotland to fend off cannibal punk rockers; Marshall likes to pile on the grue. With his latest, Centurion, he continues in this vein. Sadly that's about all there is as the talented director appears to be getting a little carried away with himself and forgetting to put some substance into his characters. What promises to be a telling historical epic anti-war movie ends up being one long chase movie. Only pausing for breath for intermittent blood letting and the now obligatory love interest sub-plot. Oh it's fun, very much so, and the visuals coupled with the excellently constructed fight sequences don't waste a penny spent. But as a whole it just doesn't work, it's more a collection of set pieces linked together by visceral pleasures under the guise of being a take on a folklore story.

However, there is no denying the commitment to the genre from Marshall. Centurion is often thrilling and brutal into the bargain, so as long as you don't require any semblance of depth then it will surely entertain you. While he has assembled a very admirable cast of British & Irish thesps and put them thru a very tough shoot up in the Scottish hills. The craft is there, from director and stars, just no decent script to flesh it out. Oh and do we really need Roman soldiers saying the F word to show us how hard they are? Coming after Doomsday flopped (personally I think it's a whole bunch of fun), Marshall is at the crossroads of his career. Once the indie darling of Britain he's been courted by Hollywood and needs to make big decisions. You can only homage so much in your favoured genres (here he nods to Gladiator, The Warriors and even Zulu) before it gets to be boring. So is it time to let someone else write now? Also if he must stay mainstream then he has to get the budget to do the job properly; witness the digital blood used for the first fight sequences, laughably bad and able to take you right out of the film.

At times ridiculous and over the top, Centurion only works well as a pure action flick. Which of course will find an audience. But director and cast are better than this, as an effective story is bogged down by lack of narrative heart that in turn is most likely hidden by arterial blood. Lots of it. 5/10

A small group of Roman soldiers are left alive after an attack on their legion. They must survive the elements and an expert tracker coming after them. Behind enemy lines and fighting for the lives.

With Centurion, Neil Marshall has his biggest budget to date. The film is ambitious in style and tone. Marshall, who get a cult following after two excellent small horror films (Dog Soldiers and Descent) has gone on to bigger, but not really better things. Doomsday was a nice throwback to genre films (even though it didn't really know which one it wanted to be) and now Centurion, which has Marshall tipping his hat to Gladiator and Spartacus.

I consider myself a Marshall fan, which is why I even bothered to give this film a viewing. If his name weren't attached, I wouldn't have bothered. Marshall is apart of the Splat-Pack. The horror coined group for filmmakers like Rob Zombie and Eli Roth. It's no question as to why Marshall is apart of this group, every film of his has some body part ending up some place. It's funny to me that this film might be his most gruesome one yet and it isn't even horror.

The film's most gruesome moments are during the big attack on the romans. Arrows are shot into heads, arms, legs and necks are taken out like a hot knife through butter. I had a few moments where I was actually shocked at the carnage on the screen. One of the more gruesome period pieces. During the attack, the Picts (Scottish) take prisoner the General (Dominic West). The small group of survivors, including Michael Fassbender decide to try and get him back. They fail, but they did succeed in killing the lead Pict's son. He sends a group of people to go after them, thus we have a cat and mouse chase throughout the film.

It's suspenseful in places and aggravating in others. The lead tracker, is suppose to have excellent skills, where she is always on their tail, no matter what. Yet the filmmakers seem to forget this sometimes. She can sense them across the river in one scene, but not underneath her feet in another. These inconsistencies are bothersome. Yet it happens. The characters themselves aren't too memorable either. I couldn't really tell the survivors apart from one another and neither stood out of the crowd. These shortcomings in the script are what bring Centurion down. The most interesting character is killed off too early too.

Yet, Marshall still manages to deliver an entertaining film. It's not near the level of awesome that is Dog Soldiers, or even The Descent, but it does deliver what you would expect from this genre. There are moments where the film loses its sense of direction (such as a lover subplot) and there are even moments of predictability, but as a whole, the film delivers.