Tangent
September 8, 2010, 6:38am
2
I gave my opinion of it over in this thread , which was mainly about why the movie received such a limited release.
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 .
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
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.