Centurion Review [2]

Posted by Joseph Lee on 08.30.2010

You know what they say. No guts, no glory.



Starring:
*Michael Fassbender as Quintus Dias
*Dominic West as Titus Flavius Virilus
*Olga Kurylenko as Etain
*Riz Ahmed as Tarik
*Noel Clarke as Macros
*Liam Cunningham as Ubriculius
*JJ Feild as Thax
*Dimitri Leonidas as Leonidas
*David Morrissey as Bothos, a soldier of the Ninth Legion.

Story: A splinter group of Roman soldiers fight for their lives behind enemy lines after their legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack.

Trivia: The Pictish spoken in the film is actually Gaelic. Pictish was related to the Brythonic languages and may have been closer to Welsh. All that remains of the Pictish language are some place names.

It's no big secret that I am a really big fan of Neil Marshall, and have been since his first film Dog Soldiers back in 2002. From there he continued with The Descent, one of the best horror films of the last decade. Even his post-apocalyptic film Doomsday, while flawed was still an entertaining effort. Now comes his latest, Centurion, a war film between the Ancient Romans and the Picts, a group in Northern Britain whose land the Roman Empire is trying to conquer. Even though this is far removed from Marshall's horror start, you can still see he hasn't lost his flair for violence.

As I mentioned, the Romans were trying to conquer the Picts. They're not successful. In fact, they're decimated within the first fifteen minutes in two graphic battles in which men are brutally decapitated, gored and sliced open. The Picts manage to capture the General (played by Dominic West of The Wire fame) and slaughter all but a small group of Romans after the scout assigned to the group Etain (played by former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) betrays them. These aren't spoilers, they happen early and set up the rest of the film.

The group of survivors are led by a centurion named Quintus Dias(played by Michael Fassbender, last seen in Inglorious Basterds), who is the sole survivor himself of a previously massacred Roman fort. They don't have a mission anymore, except to save their general and survive while trapped hundreds of miles in enemy territory. It's like Behind Enemy Lines, only set in 117 A.D. They have to brave the elements as well as being hunted by their enemies if they ever hope to make it back to the Roman Empire alive.

There's a big problem with this scenario. We aren't really given any reason to care about the protagonists. The characters are written to be bland stereotypical soldier types and have no real personality, which makes it hard to care what happens to them. Not only that, but they are being hunted after they invaded someone else's territory, as well as for reasons of vengeance given the history of violence among Roman soldiers. Maybe these men are good and loyal to each other, but they are still being punished for trying to conquer another group of people.

Uninteresting or not, the actors do deliver the best performances they can, under the circumstances. Both Dominic West and Michael Fassbender have been in war films before, and together were in 300 (which contained just as much bloodshed but had interesting characters to go with it). They know how to play a soldier and while these characters are different than others they've played, they still do a good job. West plays almost a "lite" version of King Leonidas from that movie, complete with gruff beard. Olga Kurylenko isn't given any lines to speak (her character is a mute) so she has to let her eyes and body language convey her emotions. We buy it. And he doesn't do much, but it is nice to see Liam Cunningham back in a Marshall film.

With average acting and a dull script, it all depends on the action sequences to make this worth watching. Even though there is no emotional attachment, the violence is what you expect. There are a lot of nasty kills and one or two interesting set pieces that make the film pick up at least a few times. The massacre of the Roman troops in the beginning of the film is a gritty battle that does not shy away from the gore or brutality. It's even well-choreographed, letting us have a good idea of what is going on (something other war films in recent memory seem to forget to do).

When all the blood has been spilled and the final frames are over, Centurion ends up being a disappointment. As a fan of the director's prior work, you can't help but feel that way considering everything that's come before. But we all make mistakes and Marshall's career is just beginning. There's plenty of time for him to deliver more entertaining films in the future.

The 411: While Centurion delivers a bloodbath that fans of violence can certainly appreciate, it doesn't deliver the characters and sense of fun entertainment we've come to expect from Marshall's films. This film is dull and lifeless, even with the brutal violence. The writing is uninspired and doesn't compliment the action. Centurion aspires to be bigger than it is and as a result falls short of the expectations of Marshall's usual quality.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]