Review of Centurion (2010) by Brandon R — 20 Feb 2011

Neil Marshall's Centurion is many things, although I wouldn't exactly use the word 'good' to describe it in any practical sense. Coming across like an ultra violent, made-for-cable time slot filler for the vast majority of its running time, Marshall only succeeds in bringing a certain injustice to the mystery surrounding the Ninth Roman Legion and its legendary disappearance by mounting it as nothing more than a springboard for interminable scenes of decapitation and gratuitous bloodletting.

It's almost amusing when one considers how much more successful The Eagle is in comparison; despite playing by the rulebook while hovering over the safety net of a PG-13 rating, at least Kevin MacDonald's film offers an actual plot and is consistently well made on multiple levels, which is far more than can be said about this messy tripe.

I could forgive the incessant gore if even one of the action sequences qualified as something other than lifeless, or for that matter if such a gifted actor as Michael Fassbender hadn't been so tragically underused.

Aside from the fact that Olga Kurylenko radiates sex appeal even while covered in mud swaths and primitive war paint, Centurion swings low, proves nothing, and wastes nearly every ounce of its potential.