![]() ![]() Those are the two main flaws of Centurion. ![]() ![]() A character will seem to get the upper hand on another one, right after being punched in the face multiple times. So are some of the fighting scenes, especially the one-on-one combat scenes, where the editing gets so quick it's hard to understand what the hell is going on sometimes. Yeah, so the acting is a little all-over-the-place. Doesn't help that West delivers the best performance as a part of the support cast also. Next to the very charismatic and physically singular West (by that I mean he has a face you remember), he comes off as being a little hollow. Michael Fassbender does his best, but he is a little bit of a miscast. She has the eyes of a dancer in a rap video, more than those of a soulless killer. She had that model habit of trying to be edgy and fierce all the time. That's the problem she had in Quantum Of Solace and it keeps tailing her in Centurion. And she's not, no matter how hard she tries to be. Since she has such an important, yet mute role, she has to be perfect. Olga Kurylenko is the Achilles heel of that movie. It also doesn't help that Gorlacon has a special weapon, an mute amazon named Etain (Kurylenko) who had suffered the worst of the Roman savagery and is now hell-bent on making any broomstick-helmet wearing motherfucker pay the price for what she endured. The Ninth Legion is decimated, General Virilus is made prisoner and the Romans are down to a handful of men, decided to make it out from behind enemy lines alive. So Centurion Quintus Dias (Fassbender) and awesomely named General Titus Flavius Virilus (the even more awesome Dominic West) will have to serve for example for Gorlacon's blood vengeance, just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.Īnd serve for example they do. It also doesn't have that they are oblivious to all the blood that was spilled in the name of their expansion, because Gorlacon (Ulrich Thompson), leader of the Barbarian tribe has a chip on his shoulder about that. They know and own every inch of the landscape while the Romans are blind and oblivious to the danger that awaits them. The Ninth Legion, that Neil Marshall takes for example in his movie, have walked deep into a land that belongs to the Barbarians. If the Roman empire made such a spirited effort to conquer the land north of the Caspian Sea, is the result of a profound lack of communication between the decision-makers of Rome and the actual soldiers on the field. What I mean by that is that Centurion doesn't take any shortcuts and explains the profoundly political nature of military disaster. Now, I said Centurion was an honest movie and I don't mean this in a pejorative way. It's not "transcendent good" but it won't make you regret the ninety-seven minutes of your time you decide to invest. It's a gritty and honest movie about war, where everybody on the shooting set contributes. I don't think the result comes anywhere near what Marshall expected, but it gets the job done. A historical action movie that attempts to break free of the historical epic cliché that Hollywood loves so much. The man behind the fly-by-night horror classics Dog Soldiers and The Descent attempted something quite different with Centurion. Who could change my perception of this once unmatched power that ruled the civilized world with an iron grip? If anybody had a decent shot at this, it was Neil Marshall. To me, they were always the quintessential villains, perpetually drunk on their own power and a lot of ale. I don't know who of Benito Mussolini or Sylvio Berlusconi is to blame for that, but I cannot for the love of me take any interest in the trials and tribulations of the Roman empire. ![]()
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