Category: Film Reviews, News
Tags: Centurion

British filmaker Neil Marshall has attracted a lot of attention with his debut Dog Soldiers, a smart, low budget werewolf tale, before making perhaps the best horror film of the last decade with the unbearably tense and claustrophobic The Descent. The follow- up, Doomsday was a fun apocalyptic B- movie. It was no masterpiece, but any director who can make a GOOD trash movie with Malcolm McDowell clearly has talent to spare, so I was curious to see what he would do next.

He is back with Centurion. It is a historical adventure, taking place in the second century A.D. and follows the story of the Ninth Legion, a group of Roman soldiers who dissappeared after a raid in the north of Britain and are assumed to have been slaughtered by the Picts (although historians dissagree on their exact fate). Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) stars as a centurion who has to lead a small group of survivors to Hadrian’ s Wall. Along the way, they have to face wolves, Pict trackers (who enjoy finding creative ways to kick Roman ass) and the harsh, unforgiving landscape of Caledonia. Some great character actors show up as members of the ill- fated legion, including Dominic West (The Wire), Noel Clarke (Doctor Who), Liam Cunningham (Dog Soldiers, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Clash Of The Titans) and David Morrisey (State Of Play, Doctor Who, Red Riding). Unfortunately, they don’t get much screentime, as the survival rate of Roman soldiers in Pict territory seems to have been extremely low in those days. Olga Kurylenko (Hitman, Quantum Of Solace) somehow shows up as a mute warrior as well. Which is not very convinsing, since no amount of wolf fur and blue paint can discuise that she is a smoking- hot supermodel and not somebody who disembowels people for a living. Not that I am complaining or anything. They should cast her in every film as far as I ‘m concerned.

Marshall deserves a lot of credit for making this a small, terse story of survival and not some bloated epic. This is partly because the budget is very tight, but he makes it work. This is the sort of adventure story that Robert Howard used to write for Weird Tales when he ran out of Conan material. Short, brutal and disposable. And when I say brutal, I mean it. There is a huge number of bloody dismemberment on display here and I loved every single frame of it. At the end of the day, Centurion is an entertaining movie and that counts for something. It could have been a lot worse (anyone who has had the misfortune of watching the idiotic King Arthur, with Clive Owen and Keira Knightly knows what I mean). I am still waiting for Marshall to fullfill the promise he showed with The Descent though.

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

About the Author: CnB