Centurion: the new Neil Marshall movie

[Larry_Borgia]

Couldn’t find a thread on this. i just saw it and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a lot better than Doomsday, not that that’s a high bar. The acting and dialog were pretty good and there’s plenty of gory action. It’s obviously very low-budget, and some plot points don’t make sense, but if you like action movies, it’s worth a look. Basically it’s quality cheese. I give it a B-.

Anyone else see this? It really is better than the reviews made it out to be, IMO.

[Tangent]

I gave my opinion of it over in this thread, which was mainly about why the movie received such a limited release.
Here is what I wrote in that thread:

@Tangent

I watched *Centurion *on TV last week. HDNET Movies had it for a one-night only sneak preview. I think you can pay to watch it On Demand, too. But don’t–it’s not worth it.

It’s not god-awful, but it’s not very good either. It feels very much like a direct-to-video release. I did have fun spotting some of the D-list actors that I’ve seen before, like “Mickey” from Doctor Who, the girl from the last Bond movie, and the girl from the story-within-the-story of V for Vendetta.

@Tangent

Rotten Tomatoes is a little more dependable to me, and they’ve got *Centurion *at 56% fresh. That’s not an unreasonable rating, to me, though I’d probably give it a 4 out of 10.

The main problem with the movie is there is no one to really root for. The Romans are the invading horde committing atrocities against the natives, and yet I think we are meant to sympathize with the small group of Romans who are the center of the film. It’s hard to, though, since one of them is a villain and most of them are obviously “red shirts” who will fall along the way. The titular centurion is somewhat nobler than the rest, but he lacks any kind of charisma on screen. The Picts could be sympathetic, but they are portrayed mostly as faceless savages (not unlike the lawless cannibals in this director’s previous movie, Doomsday). The warrior-woman Pict (played by the Bond girl from Quantum of Solace) is interesting at least, if a bit cliche and a lot unbelievable, and she is one of the things I **did **like about the movie. She had screen presence.

The battle scenes have plenty of blood and gore, if that’s your thing, but a lot of the blood is digitally added and looks pretty fake.

[muldoonthief]

I saw it on HDNet too, and I agree with most of Tangent’s review. It showed promise at the beginning, but the 2 most interesting characters

the General and his right hand man, are quickly written out of the movie - I especially hoped/thought the RHM would be one of the survivors involved in the rescue attempt.

Centurion Dias’ Pictish accent was just terrible though.

[gladtobeblazed]

It was pretty damn mediocre. Tangent’s review is spot on. This is the kind of movie I would only watch late at night when nothing else is on the tv.

I was wondering if two Roman soldiers, armed with swords, would really be afraid of a small pack of wolves…or indeed, if the wolves would even attack them to begin with.