But the vast stretches of film in which pursuer followed pursued I found eye-rollingly dull, despite some novel characters and gorgeous scenery.CENTURION is a gritty, violent, but stirring and heroic, action movie from England about a Roman centurion in Ancient Britain trying to survive a barbarian Pict hunting party. Moreover, I genuinely didn't see the ending coming, which was a treat. As one who steps out for popcorn when a film "cuts to the chase," I'm much more interested in the former, so I enjoyed those scenes in which the Romans betray the "civilizing" values they claimed to be taking to "the barbarians." Fight scenes, too, were pretty engaging, though I was a little surprised that the giant fireballs from "Troy" managed to roll all the way to the Scottish highlands. This film inserts itself into a couple of historical gaps: first, what happened to the soldiers of the Ninth Legion second, what were the Picts really like? "Centurion" comes up with much more sinister answers than historians venture, but, hey, it's a movie, right? Problem is, the film This film inserts itself into a couple of historical gaps: first, what happened to the soldiers of the Ninth Legion second, what were the Picts really like? "Centurion" comes up with much more sinister answers than historians venture, but, hey, it's a movie, right? Problem is, the film can't decide whether it wants to be a kind of anti-epic or a simple chase film. It's a good film but perhaps should have been an even better one regardless of the budget … Expand It's a film that could be somewhat more cerebral and character driven but has sacrificed this in order to be a violent historical action adventure that doesn't let up. In fact the infamous line about Afghanistan being " The grave yard of empires " is almost spoken in relation to the Picts And that's perhaps the underlying fundamental problem with CENTURION. By this I mean an all conquering super power finding itself unable to decisively beat an indigenous population. One possibly might suggest that there's a subtext on Afghanistan going on here somewhere. Neither side is painted in black and white and the Romans are helped by the fact that they're played by a likable cast. That said films such as THE NAKED PREY and APOCALYPTO don't have much in the way of conversation either I'll say one thing in favour of the director and that is he's able to make a film where the British Isles have been invaded and the modern day British audience are still able to empathise with the invaders to an extent. If someone makes a bio-pic on Elvis then Neil Marshall will not be that director. I had hoped for a little bit more conversation and a little bit less action please. When characters sit down and talk you find yourself hoping for a bit more character interaction but this rug is pulled from under the audiences feet and we're back to a bloody set-piece regardless if it's needed or not.
If there's a problem it's as in his other films Marshall shows a slight problem with pacing. I saw this on the same day as I saw the last RAMBO movie and there's not a world of difference between the two movies where violence is concerned, people are decapitated and disemboweled and rivers run red with blood. At least the Scotland here resembles the gloomy bleak landscape seen in Winter From the outset Marshall shows his genre roots by making CENTURION as violent as possible. That said he knows Scotland very well since his previous films DOG SOLDIERS and DOOMSDAY were both set there even if they were filmed in Luxumberg and South Africa respectively. An established horror director isn't the first person you'd think of when choosing a director to make a historical adventure featuring ancient Rome in their battle to tame the Picts. That said he knows Scotland very well since his Neil Marshall seems an odd choice for this type of movie.
Neil Marshall seems an odd choice for this type of movie.
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