Centurion (2010)

Director: Neil Marshall

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko

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

I don’t know exactly what it is that made me not enjoy the film as much as I had hoped I would. Maybe because it felt like it was trying to be like ‘300’ (2006) or ‘Pathfinder’ (2007), but without the incredible visuals and photography.

‘Centurion’ certainly was better than ‘Pathfinder’ but not nearly as good or interesting as ‘300’. It was fast-paced with lots of action, good cinematography, and good acting, yet it still lacked something, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. It was incredibly brutal, bloody and gory – but then again so was ‘300’, and I loved that movie. Maybe it was just too barbaric, and I didn’t quite enjoy the characters. None of them really stood out for me, not even Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) as the hero. There was nothing special about him. He kept surviving attacks because every time luck was on his side, not because he was a strategist, or good fighter, or even clever enough to outsmart the enemy.

The main protagonist was Etain, but I didn’t buy her character and I didn’t feel Olga Kurylenko did the character justice. She was just trying too hard. And then there’s the other antagonist, Gorlacon. His army is in pursuit of Quintus’ legion because his son was killed by one of them, but Gorlacon simply vanishes from the script towards the end. What, no reckoning???

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a badly made film. I just don’t like it.

‘Centurion’ only recuperated about half its budget at the box office…

Would I watch it again? No.