grantss Had potential as a war drama, but quickly degenerates into a common-or-garden adventure movie. Predictable plot, full of holes and implausibilities. Direction is pretty much paint-by-numbers. I guess the giveaway that this movie won't amount to much is that it stars Channing Tatum, who specialises in B-grade action movies. (Though it appears that he has now branched out into B-grade romantic dramas too - The Vow, anyone?). Performances are strictly of the hammy, superficial and monosyllabic dialogue kind. Donald Sutherland must need the work.Avoid.

ma-cortes This is a fine as well as exciting production with enough budget , great sets and thundering battles during the Roman Empire . Ultraviolent historical/epic/action yarn with breathtaking battles including lots of blood and gore . In Roman-ruled Britain, during Antoninus Pius empire , who was emperor of Rome at the time this film is set , AD 140 ; his reign is considered one of the calmest in Rome's history , there a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father's memory by finding his lost legion's golden emblem . The picture deals with the destiny of a soldier Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) , the honour of a slave , Esca , (Jamie Bell) and the fate of an empire ; concerning historical facts about confrontation between Romans and Northern barbarians . The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt , Britain to Spain , and East as far as the Black Sea . The Year is A.D. 140 , and it has been 20 years since Rome's legendary Ninth Legion marched north into Caledonia -modern Scotland- to gain control over all of Britain . But in northern Britain , the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy : the savage and terrifying Celts and Picts who were generally thought to not have worn any clothes . Aquila (it is the Latin word for "Eagle") is the son of the Legion's General , and determined to exonerate his father as well as to retrieve the Eagle banner . But his detachment is besieged and deadly attacked . After his legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack , Marcus Flavius along with a slave crossing ¨the Hadrian Wall¨ and both of whom set out in pursuit a great dream : to seek to retrieve the ¨Eagle¨ . They fight for their lives behind enemy lines . As they attempt to destroy the Celt leader and face a desperate struggle to keep alive . Bloody version based on historical events about Roman conquests with overwhelming battles and great production values starred by Channing Tatum as the fictional Roman officer and Jamie Bell as slave , both of them are two battle-hardened warriors who try to defend themselves against a bunch of bloody barbarians led by a brutal enemy . Stunning battles scenes illuminate the full-blown feats with a plethora of engaging action set pieces on the combats in which the heads and limbs are slice off here and there . There are great action sequences including the gory battle in woods and the final confrontation at the climax of the film . Because of budgetary consideration , cast and crew had only one night to shoot the night battle scene , which gave it the disorganized, raggedy look they wanted . The movie has great action sequences well staged with stylish and vitality , thrills , and turns out to be pretty entertaining . Although is a little revisionist about characters , history and time when is developed the action in a dirty , gritty Roman Empire during its period in Britain . Several action scenes are outstanding with spectacular battle images and thrilling fights . Unfortunately, on small house screens much of the splendor will be lost . The film is well set with nice gowns , evocative weapons , appropriate attrezzo , adequate costumes ; however , production company decided to use stirrups, despite their being anachronistic, because there would have been issues getting insurance for the lead actors, especially as Jamie Bell had never ridden before and he had to learn on set. As the movie makes a big deal out of the supposedly deathly rivalry between Romans and Celts . German archaeologists have found evidence of the 9th Legion on the banks of the Rhine River and carbon-dated them long after these events took place, suggesting that rather than being wiped out , the reason that there is no evidence of the 9th Legion being in Scotland after these battles is that they moved to Germany . The working title for the film was "Ninth Legion" , the story goes that the Ninth Legion marched to Scotland from York with 3000 men and were never seen of again. Historians dispute what actually happened to them. Some believe that they were disbanded, while others believe that they were massacred . The picture results to be a crossover among : The 13th Warrior (1999) by John McTiernan , The Last Legion (2007) by Doug Lefler and Centurion (2010) by Neil Marshall . Support casting is frankly good , such as Donald Sutherland , Dakin Matthews , Tahar Rahim , Douglas Henshall , Denis O'Hare and Mark Strong . Impeccable and evocative cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle . Being shot on location in Lomond, Argyll and Bute, Summer Isles, Highland, Scotland, UK and Szentendre, Pest, Budapest, Hungary . Filmmaker and his director of photography Mantle spent long time discussing the look of the film before making it , one thing they were adamant about was that it should be shot on location and nowhere near a green screen . Magnificent and stirring musical score by Atli Örvarsson . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Kevin MacDonald (State of play , The Last King of Scotland , How I Live Now ,Touching the void). Kevin shot the film in such hard conditions that some cast members suffered health problems . Rating : Good , it's a nice historical extravaganza well set in ancient Rome , done in great scale and praised for its action sequences .

Vlad_the_Reviewer You probably saw Centurion and figured this might be a nice movie as well. I have read on the Internet that this is the better movie as it was more realistic. I, being immersed in the study of the Roman empire, ignored IMDb's average score of 6.2 and had a go at it.The Eagle (Aquila) is one of the standards a legion carries with them during war. Losing the Aquila, even dropping it, would bring a huge shame upon the unit. Legend has it that an entire legion full of fear hesitated to leave their ships. The bearer of the standard (Aquilifer) left his ship to march forward on his own. Now the legion decided to make haste as they didn't want to abandon the Aquila.In this movie the (in)famous Ninth Legion lost the Aquila, probably because they lost a battle. The son of this Legion's commander, a Centurion himself tries to undue the shame his father induced by retrieving The Eagle. How he knows the Eagle was dropped is not explained in the movie as the entire Ninth disappeared.This movie builds on the mysterious reasons for the disappearance of the Ninth. Losing the Aquila was the catalyst to get the story going.A centurion enters a base in Northern England to take over command. The monologues and dialogs are pretty bland from the get-go, but I gave it a chance as the scenery wasn't bad at all. A bit like in the movie Centurion, without blue screens and pretty unspoilt. Sadly enough bland conversations turned out to be the standard for this movie throughout.After having been introduced to the usual tropes and stereotyping, we're thrown into battle quite soon. Here my second major gripe enters: shaky cam à la handicam. It was almost unwatchable and headache inducing.We are introduced to historical inaccuracies quite soon. First of all the "Tetsudo Formaton" used was inappropriate. Then the enemies (Picts) rushed at the Romans like madmen, but none of the legionnaires thought of spearing them. The Picts even crawled on top of the formation. Funny but idiotic. Also the transverse crest on the Centurion's helmet was incorrectly worn: it was worn only during ceremonies, not in battle. Finally the Picts is in this movie wore plenty of clothes: in reality they were almost fully naked. Once again the lesson is not to assume a movie is accurate no matter how convincing it looks.Our hero, who fought bravely off-course, gets wounded, passes out and wakes up elsewhere in a safe Roman community. He is relieved of his duties due to his wounds. Soon our hero Centurion heals enough to undertake a tough journey which includes running, fast horseback riding in rugged terrain and fighting. He healed 100%, who are we kidding. The movie writer needed an excuse to detach him from his legion.But then again, this entire movie is full of it. The "Seal People". They are the main antagonists. When the movie likes it, they catch up with running horses and whatnot. The usual tropes and errors, you know the drill.We are looking at history the way (main stream) movies like it: toe cringing sentiments with sword fighting in between them. Again the shaky-cam; horrible. It was used during fights, but also when emotions ran high. It didn't add anything.And the ending was outright ridiculous. In the end I was left with the question "why?". I know it comes from a book written a few decades ago, but why this cheapskate implementation? For example the fights had potential, therefore the shaky-cam was unnecessary. And why being sentimental the corny way? There's also the blandness. Could it be that the actors are simply overrated? Surely it's not the budget I'll tell you that; The natural approach, low on computer-based special effects, was the charm of this movie. Nor did this installment require A-list actors.I think the truth is that this product was just a standard-issue money-making cash cow, leaning on the relative success of the movie "Centurion".I rated it 4/10. It could easily reach at least two notches extra by (1) removing the shaky-cam, (2) less bland emotions and finally (3) implementing an ending worth while. The executive producers know, but they don't care. To them this was project "Easy Money".

Fyodor Tolstoy There was nothing much wrong with this movie. It was well filmed and the acting was capable. I found the odd American accent distracting though. I think Tatum Channing and Donald Sutherland might have done well to use a Brit accent, just for the sake of accent conformity. Mark Strong was good as the highlander too. There was good suspense throughout and an ominous mood of impending doom at the right time. Donald Sutherland's nice false teeth should have been less perfect too for the sake of credibility. But it was a well made movie showing Britain as it was- an invaded place full of indigenous Celts. The photography of the Scottish highlands was nicely incorporated into this gripping swashbuckling tale that did not over do it. I liked the authentic looking highland village and the scene of the killing ground. The appearance of the seal people was spooky and ominous and very well rendered. It was swashbuckling yet very believable. There were no holes except fort the anachronism of the false teeth and the incongruous American accents. A good movie worth watching.