Reviewed by Daniel Rutledge
Neil Marshall made the awesome Dog Soldiers and The Descent, two of the most kick-arse horrors from the ‘00s.
He also made the highly disappointing Doomsday, but the less said about that the better.
Now he’s gone all swords and sandals, and it’s well, pretty good.
A cult horror director moving into other genres may be a concern to his fans, but they should rest assured that while Centurion is far from a horror, it’s still very, very bloody. It’s almost as if Marshall saw the completely bloodless scenes in the recent Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe Robin Hood movie and thought he’d do the complete opposite.
The second major battle scene in the film goes for minutes on end like this: quick shot of someone’s head being chopped off, quick shot of an arrow going through someone’s head, quick shot of a throat being slit… moneyshot after moneyshot after moneyshot.
But the problem is these flashes of violence aren’t put into context with longer shots of the fight that produced them, leaving the audience not knowing who it is being dispatched each time. Still, I’d take Centurion’s mash-up of violent battle snapshots over Robin Hood’s mash-up of violence-less battle snapshots any day.
Not all combat in the film is edited so hurriedly and some of it is in fact pretty damn awesome.
The scope of the film is surprisingly and pleasingly tight, or it seems that way at the beginning.
It follows a splinter group of Roman soldiers who fight for their lives behind enemy lines after their legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack. The soldiers must evade pursuing Pict warriors as they try to make their way back to Roman territory.
It could’ve been a really enjoyable slice of fairly brainless but fun genre action, something like Apocalypto maybe.
But then at the end, the story frustratingly and totally unnecessarily takes some serious turns for the worse.
What a shame, as Centurion has a great cast delivering generally solid performances, especially by Fassbender.
There are lots of good bits and I did enjoy the film, but I had pretty big expectations which were not lived up to.
Centurion
:: Director: Neil Marshall
:: Starring: Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko, Noel Clarke, David Morrissey and JJ Feild
:: Running Time: 97 mins
:: Rating: R16 – Violence & Offensive Language
:: Release Date: September 9, 2010
:: Trailer: Watch here
