Review of Centurion (2010) by John M — 13 Jan 2011

Impersonal and a good bit schlocky, but not without its charm. Centurion tells the story of a group of Roman soldiers that survive an ambush deep behind enemy lines. They've got to stay on the move because they are being tracked and hunted down, and it's a race to see if they can make it back to friendly territory before a nasty fate catches up with them.

When I first heard about this and saw the poster, my gut reaction had to have been the same as many a moviegoer: this looks like a 300 knockoff. Well, it's not, largely because there's no slow motion, but also because this is a B-movie.

It's a B-movie through and through in every sense of the definition, and there's nothing wrong with that; B-movies can be a lot of fun if done right. It's occasionally done right, and that has everything to do with director Neil Marshall.

He's really good at shooting cool kills and death scenes, and those are easily the best thing about Centurion. Trouble is that that's all Marshall is concerned about, and he isn't all that good at building characters or telling a story, which are two essential elements to any movie.

Maybe it's because everybody's caked in a layer of shit, but it ends up being difficult to discern one soldier from another, as they aren't given much in the way of personalities. Centurion is a movie that works best when it's being a spatterhouse flick and that's about the only thing it's got going for it, but if that's why you came, you'll get your kicks.