Country:
UK
Recognizable Faces:
Michael Fassbender
Olga Kurylenko
Dominic West
David Morrissey
Directed By:
Neil Marshall
I don't know who of Benito Mussolini or Sylvio Berlusconi is to blame for that, but I cannot for the love of me take any interest in the trials and tribulations of the Roman empire. To me, they were always the quintessential villains, perpetually drunk on their own power and a lot of ale. Who could change my perception of this once unmatched power that ruled the civilized world with an iron grip? If anybody had a decent shot at this, it was Neil Marshall. The man behind the fly-by-night horror classics Dog Soldiers and The Descent attempted something quite different with Centurion. A historical action movie that attempts to break free of the historical epic cliché that Hollywood loves so much. I don't think the result comes anywhere near what Marshall expected, but it gets the job done. It's a gritty and honest movie about war, where everybody on the shooting set contributes. It's not "transcendent good" but it won't make you regret the ninety-seven minutes of your time you decide to invest. Neil Marshall doesn't do that.
Now, I said Centurion was an honest movie and I don't mean this in a pejorative way. It's not naive or unoriginal. What I mean by that is that Centurion doesn't take any shortcuts and explains the profoundly political nature of military disaster. If the Roman empire made such a spirited effort to conquer the land north of the Caspian Sea, is the result of a profound lack of communication between the decision-makers of Rome and the actual soldiers on the field. The Ninth Legion, that Neil Marshall takes for example in his movie, have walked deep into a land that belongs to the Barbarians. And when I say BELONGS, I mean it. They know and own every inch of the landscape while the Romans are blind and oblivious to the danger that awaits them. It also doesn't have that they are oblivious to all the blood that was spilled in the name of their expansion, because Gorlacon (Ulrich Thompson), leader of the Barbarian tribe has a chip on his shoulder about that. So Centurion Quintus Dias (Fassbender) and awesomely named General Titus Flavius Virilus (the even more awesome Dominic West) will have to serve for example for Gorlacon's blood vengeance, just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
And serve for example they do. The Ninth Legion is decimated, General Virilus is made prisoner and the Romans are down to a handful of men, decided to make it out from behind enemy lines alive. It also doesn't help that Gorlacon has a special weapon, an mute amazon named Etain (Kurylenko) who had suffered the worst of the Roman savagery and is now hell-bent on making any broomstick-helmet wearing motherfucker pay the price for what she endured. Olga Kurylenko is the Achilles heel of that movie. Since she has such an important, yet mute role, she has to be perfect. And she's not, no matter how hard she tries to be. That's the problem she had in Quantum Of Solace and it keeps tailing her in Centurion. She had that model habit of trying to be edgy and fierce all the time. She has the eyes of a dancer in a rap video, more than those of a soulless killer. Michael Fassbender does his best, but he is a little bit of a miscast. Next to the very charismatic and physically singular West (by that I mean he has a face you remember), he comes off as being a little hollow. Doesn't help that West delivers the best performance as a part of the support cast also.
Yeah, so the acting is a little all-over-the-place. So are some of the fighting scenes, especially the one-on-one combat scenes, where the editing gets so quick it's hard to understand what the hell is going on sometimes. A character will seem to get the upper hand on another one, right after being punched in the face multiple times. Things like that. Those are the two main flaws of Centurion. They are nagging issues, but not overbearing. It's a well-written movie with a strong art direction and a knack for not taking any easy decision. Neil Marshall makes the war as ugly as it gets and puts his main cast through hell, guts and bad weather. Yeah, I mean the surviving Romans could have been all named Anonymous Pawns and you would have felt bad for them either, because they go through so much shit. In the end, Neil Marshall is the shining star of the show, which I'm not sure is all good. His movie doesn't help me out to come to terms with the Roman empire at all. I'm still convinced that they were terrible people. But Neil Marshall is a good director that doesn't fall for the Hollywood system. At least not completely.
SCORE: 81%