Centurion Review

• 1st Sep 2010

Neil Marshall follows up the disappointing Doomsday with yet another film that sees his placing the action over the border in Scotland. This time instead of going into the future, he has delved right into the past with the Roman Empire trying their luck on the native Pict army.

The premise is based loosely on fact with the Roman’s not having much luck conquering Scotland (which really kinda makes them the bad guys). Michael Fassbender gets to do the action role this time, initially finding himself captured and tortured by the Picts, but escaping and being found by a division of the army called the Ninth, lead by an impressive Dominic West.

Sadly things go all Last of the Mohicans when their scout, a native called Etain (Olga Kurylenko), walks them right into an ambush and all but a handful are slaughtered and the general captured. The mission now becomes very simple – get back the general and then get the hell out.

This then sets up the action for the group to be Pict off (haha) one by one as they make their escape. The drama is pretty light, but thankfully the cast is made up of a few recognisable actors. Aside from rising star Fassbender and West the group also has David Morrissey, Noel Clarke and Marshall regular Liam Cunningham. If it were not for these actors you’d have barely a care for anyone in the film as most of the screen time is spent on our lead.

If you want a bit of adventure and a lot of blood then Centurion delivers. What is also very impressive is how good the film looks. The ‘making of’ docs really show the hardship the cast and crew had to go through (especially with the weather) when making the film and it has paid off with some astounding landscapes captured beautifully on film.

The supporting material is pretty much here, there are deleted scenes and also a crew commentary which informs whilst being light hearted at the same time. Marshall could have done with doing one with his actors too, as in the past they have proved to have been entertaining and a group of guys moaning about filming in the freezing cold would have been a good listen.

Marshall is one of the UK’s directors who still has a bright future ahead of him. Centurion should only help solidify getting to take on new projects.

Steven Hurst