The Lost Legion

This film was a bit ploddy .It does entertain in places but not very convincing.

I almost slashed my wrist to stay awake.

More useless talk then needed and hard to follow who they were talking about. If that legend was the last of the great Romans, you can tell why there was an end to the era. The beginning of the movie was the only real action and even then you didn't know why or where they were going the rest was blahhhhh.

Indeed many huge movies and TV series was made by many with huge budgets, yet Legion delivers on what it promises: A good drama, love story, some nastiness and of course bevy of nice slave girls. A bit too long( I have seen 90 minute version) and as compared to the so called original ( which most folks have seen since LionsGate released it in a rough cut form) it is quite good.

Now as to the history of the piece. It is of course a part fiction and part historically accurate. I have not considered Wikipedia as a reliable source. I consider Wilipedia a source for those who are lazy to do a proper research or too ignorant to read a book. Well, I have read Peter Heather's " The Fall of the Roman Empire" the only real book on the subject since Edward Gibbon's more then 300 years ago. In Lost Legion I see elements of Heather's accurate history as well as fiction, all blended well.

For the connoisseurs of history I suggest for future viewers to look for the shorter 90 min version. As a pilot for possible series this exceeds anyone's expectations. I do however agree with the original review above , that the 2h original version is indeed too verbose and badly put together, however an intelligent fan of history will find the "pearls" among some of the "amateur "editing and sound post production.

Acting skill is lost, as well as a plot that makes any sense at all. The fighting scenes, cheaply done in a very small set, are contrived. The sex scenes look like the trailer to a cheap porn movie. The dialogue is spoken so slowly as if to lengthen the movie. My time watching was ultimately what was lost in the Lost Legion.

Going through a phase of watching "End of the Roman Empire" movies ("The Last Legion", "The Standard") and so gave this one a go as well. After a slow-motion fight sequence (not very well handled) at the very beginning, the thing descends into non-stop copulation plus the lead participants in this (the masters/mistresses of the performing slaves) talking endlessly of plots, intrigues, machinations and political manoeuvrings. After a solid half hour of this, I could feel myself going comatose and did something I very rarely do once I have started to watch a movie; gave up and did something more constructive with my time. I am grateful for the hour or so I saved by not watching this tripe further, but resent having wasted the half hour spent watching the first third. Do ANYTHING (rearrange your sock drawer, sort your desktop paper clips according to size, polish all your shoes etc.) rather than making the same mistake! (Makes the two other (moderately good) films mentioned look like "Gladiator" or "Ben Hur" in comparison!)