![]() ![]() Creating a story to tie together some unanswered historical questions requires some creativity. Director Neil Marshall definitely gets credit for building suspense and delivering exceptional battle scenes. The effect of drawing viewers into the melee demonstrated the incredible accomplishment of the special effects. The battle scenes were chaotic with in-your-face close-ups that transported the audience to the battlefield. Running into a tree is not likely to cause someones head to explode like a melon (unless they are going at an incredible speed). There were also a couple of times where the effects appeared to exceed the violence. I am not certain a sword could be sharp enough to make a clean cut straight through a skull, but it happened in the film. The effects were overplayed a few times, but that didn't bother me as much. Although incredibly violent and gore-explicit, the effects were stunning. The action and special effects in Centurion fared much better than the dialogue. If this were presented as a graphic comic set in an alternate past, I could have gone with the idea.but the dialogue still needed work. It simply felt like a thrown together script based loosely on events from the second century with no regard to historical accuracy. The anachronisms may not have been so bad if the dialogue had been rich and worthy of accolades. You should not be finishing lines in a film on a regular basis. ![]() That was compounded by the fact that the dialogue was hackneyed and predictable. Although there were also anachronistic expressions, the use of language was really irritating throughout the film. It appeared that the anachronistic use of curse words was intentional. The first thing I noticed was the same nagging issue that remained with me throughout the film. I was a bit disappointed once I started streaming this film. Survivors whose story will never be committed to the history books. Following an ambush, we are left with a chase sequence where the Roman soldiers are slowly whittled down to less than a handful of survivors. With a nod to historical fact (or absence of full historical knowledge), the Ninth Legion is never heard from again. The General enlists Dias to return to battle with the Ninth Legion, aided by a tongue-less Pict scout called Etain (Olga Kurylenko). Dias finds his way back to the Roman Garrison, where he unites with General of the Ninth Legion, Titus Flavius Varilus (Dominic West). Dias refuses to yield to his interrogators and eventually slips his bonds. He was the only survivor, taken captive to extract whatever information he held regarding the Roman advance. Two weeks earlier, Dias was stationed at a Roman Outpost that was overrun by Picts. Their tenuous hold on the Northern reaches of Europe has been challenged by tribes engaging in guerrilla tactics and politicians seeking to improve their own lot (has anything changed in two thousand years?) The Roman's have overextended their reign stretching halfway across the globe. He is in the area now known as Scotland, which was once ruled by a vicious tribe of warriors called the Picts. I fall somewhere in between.Ĭenturion introduces us to a Gladiator named Quintas Dias (Michael Fassbender) running for his life through snow-capped scenery in 117 AD. This film will probably excel among fans of graphic comics, while falling completely flat as a period piece. ![]() Beyond those basic facts, Centurion prefers to fill in the blanks with an odd mix of anachronistic hackneyed dialogue and graphic violence. The Legion also truly engaged the Picts in the early second century. ![]()
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