The movie begins with sweeping shots over the snow-coated mountains and ice-laden streams of Scotland, getting us off to a start that forced me to switch on the gas fireplace next to the recliner, savering the warm glass of Gabbiano vino in my hand. The film was written and directed by Neil Marshall, who, in Centurion, made the names of the actors and the movie title appear to us very Stone Henge-like upon the mountaintops. We turn the corner of those mountains to have other names pop out at us. But a director can't carry a film all on his on, just as I mentioned in my review of The Eagle. Centurion treads on the same subject matter, and though the premise of The Eagle was a good one, the one for Centurion was much better.
In 117 AD, the Roman Republic had long morphed into the Roman Empire, swallowing up Gaul (France) and Greece with its eyes set on Germania and Britannia. They had already taken southern Britannia, but sought to push further into what is now Scotland and Wales. I believe there were three Roman command posts, or garrisons, in Britannia at the time the movie takes place. Centurion Quintus Dias (Northern Irish actor Michael Fassbender from 300 and Inglourious Basterds), son of a Roman gladiator who earned his freedom, is stationed at the frontier garrison, often enduring sleepless nights in the freezing cold winter months of Briton. After leading a resistance against an nightime attack on the garrison at the hands of the Picts, a brutal Scottish tribe, Quintus is taken hostage and the movie seems over before it begins.
Meanwhile, we're introduced to General Titus Flavius Virilus and his Ninth Legion in their garrison dining hall. I truly believe that writer/director Neil Marshall knew his Roman history and based Virilus on Mark Antony. Virilus is loud, bruttish, and impulsive. He loves a good brawl, a strong drink, and a beautiful woman, found in the mute Pict tracker and traitor to her own people, Etain. Virilus is beloved by his men, as we see him arm wrestling and drinking with them in his opening scene. He wears a scraggly beard and disheveled hair, just like we hear of Antony while embarked on battle campaign. Plutarch said of Antony that "his swaggering air, his ribald talk, his fondness for carousing in public, sitting down by his men when they ate, or taking his food standing at the common-mess table made his own troops delight in his company and almost worship him." This passage almost totally and completely describes the character of Virilus, and being that Antony is one of if not my favorite figure of ancient Rome, Titus Flavius Virilus was a joy to watch on-screen. And Dominic West (300, The Punisher: War Zone) played the part so well that I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Virilus and his Ninth are called to arms when the Roman governor of southern Britannia, Julius Agricola, receives the go from Emperor Hadrian back in Rome (who we sadly never get to see). Agricola is played by Paul Freeman, who made his bones in the 80s as Dr. Rene Belloq, arch nemisis to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Neil Marshall didn't cast a lot of A-listers, but a bunch of solid actors who are either big in England, Ireland, or are simply forgotten about. Olga Kurylenko plays Etain, as ruggedly attractive as she is brutal and sadistic. She soon proves more trouble for the Ninth than she's worth, making her a formidable villain alongside the rugged terrain.,
Back in the seemingly fleeting life of Quintus Dias, the centurion escapes from the Pict village to run shirtless through the snow to the headquarters of the Ninth Legion, where he joins with them in their plans to march on the Picts. But the Picts are guerilla fighters, smaller in number but maybe even more vicious than the Romans invading their homeland. We immediately begin to root on Quintus because he's a good guy, but the Romans are ultimately wrong in their intentions, attempting to take over territory that doesn't belong to them. Not sure if Neil Marshall was going for it, but he paints a picture in which the Romans deserve their devestating losses, but circumstances see to it we don't root for the Picts either. We can empathize with Etain and Gorlacon, the Pict tribal leader, but we certainly don't call them heroes - as justified as they are.
The forest terrain becomes a major disadvantage for the Ninth Legion, or the Legio IX Hispana (so named because they conquered Iberia, or Spain). As I said, the Picts are guerilla fighters who use guerilla tactics, which is why the Romans have had so much trouble conquering all of Britannia. The Ninth shifts into defensive formation while the Picts roll flaming boulders at them, which actually looks a lot cooler than I just described it. After the first onslaught, the Picts rush out to attack. The battle that takes place in its wake is bloody and spectacular. Snow flurries falling and blood spurting and splattering, we get a battle sequence much like the opening of Gladiator. In the DVD extras, Dominic West tells us that some of the actor extras who worked on Gladiator worked on Centurion, and they said the latter was better. It's hard for me to say that as well, as they're so similar. The sequence is definitely gorier, and probably more realistic. I would say that if the one in Centurion isn't equal to that of Gladiator, than it's better. In the wake of the battle, they are seven Roman survivors, which are not all Roman. True to history, our ragtag crew is made up of soldiers from all around the Roman Empire, including two Greeks and man of Indian descent but born in Sicilia (Sicily), all with pretty creative names - including Macros, seen below (who looks a heck of a lot like Ice Cube).
Just like Quintus Dias towards the beginning of the movie, General Virilus is captured by the Picts and the magnificent seven embark on a rescue attempt - which ultimately sees them on the run behind enemy lines. Etain is a tracker with a pretty heavy axe to grind, as she was raped and had her tongue cut out by the Romans at an early age. But some say that when you lose one sense, your others become heightened. This seems completely true in Etain's case, who has the nose of a she-wolf and who really knows what she's doing with a spear. The Roman runners ditch their armor and run through tundras, mountains, and over waterfalls in an attempt to escape the Picts. They're eventually helped a bit by a Pict outcast, Arianne (Imogen Poots, 28 Weeks Later), heavy Scottish accent and all. She's an outcast living in a hut because she's been labeled a witch by the rest of the Picts. I found this element a bit strange, being that the Picts would have been a pagan tribe, engaging in sorts of witchcraft-type, Druid-like pagan rituals. In any case, she's an outcast and therefore offers no allegiance to her fellow Scots.
Even though I don't have a whole lot of viewers on this blog (that I know of), I won't spoil the end. But I will say that the Romans get tired of running, and we see a face off between Quintus Dias and Etain. And even this isn't quite the end, as word comes down from Emperor Hadrian for all garrisons in Britannia to abandon their posts (meaning that the Ninth fought and disappeared for nothing). This is of course the time in history when Hadrian's Wall is first built, to block out the Pictish tribes from the sections of Britannia controlled by the Romans. Without the consent of Hadrian, Governor Agricola makes a decision that greatly affects Quintus and the other men, resulting in a strong climax.
The fate of the eagle itself, the standard carried by the legions that meant everything to them, is a topic still hotly debated. In The Eagle, Channing Tatum sets out on a suicide mission in enemy territory to reclaim the Ninth's lost eagle. In Centurion, the legion's eagle takes a different fate in a scene blatantly clear and poignantly done by the director. To see both films back to back is interesting, to see which avenue the directors decided to take on certain aspects of the disappearence of the Ninth Legion. Both films are based on the vanishing Ninth Legion, and of the two, Centurion gives us a more vividly-imagined idea.
Neil Marshall did a good job as far language went, giving the Picts, whose actual language was never known to history, a Gaelic Scottish dialect in the film. The director of The Eagle gave the Britannian tribes their own language, but I'm not sure which he actually used. Of course, the English spoken in Centurion is actually supposed to be Latin, as Arianne, who speaks Pict, claims to have learned her Latin (English) from the garrisons stationed near her secluded home. Both recent films about the Ninth Legion did well in this aspect of languages, none seemingly better than the other.
The uniforms in Centurion were spot-on and simply looked amazing. Legionaires during the second-century AD would have mainly worn lorica segementata, a type of segmented armor completely different than that worn in the first-century BC by Caesar and Antony's generation. At the time of Centurion, some soldiers would have worn lorica segmentata, and some would have worn chainmail and Roman phalarae medallions. Both types can be seen respectively in the picture below of Quintus Dias and fellow soldier Brick. As far as weapons went, there were a few inaccuracies. The spears used in the film were Persian in style, as the Roman-styled spear, the pilum, was not used at all. The Romans used the pilum for stabbing but also as javelins for throwing. The spears used in the film were mainly for stabbing the enemy attackers. Also, some Roman soldiers, mainly commanders such as Virilus and Dias, would have used a spatha sword, slightly longer than the gladius wielded by the all the Roman soldiers in the film. The rectangle shields were accurate, the helmets looked great, and the uniforms overall were nicely done. I'm not sure if the Roman soldiers wore animal furs on their forearms, but it sure made sense for them to do this in the winter months of Britannia.
Neil Marshall's cinematography added greatly to the overall feel of the film, which was gritty, bloody, and often unsettling (like when the soldiers plummet off a cliff into freezing waters). The movie is shot in gray and blue hues, two shades that added greatly to the already drab look of Britain. The snow flurries mixed with the blood and the director's selected camera lense worked very well for the look of the film, bringing to mind that cold, muddy, and bloody battle scene in Gladiator. 
Centurion has a great look and a great premise, both working in well with one theory on the disappearence of the Ninth Legion. I look forward to other outings from Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday). He clearly knows what he's doing (for the most part) in Roman historicals, so I hope he tries his hand with another. There's no story left at the end of Centurion to make room for a sequel, but there are so many aspects of Roman history that a director could focus on. Michael Fassbender's character in 300, Stelios, was my personal favorite of the film, and I think he was a good choice for Quintus Dias. Dominic West's character in 300 wasn't nearly as likeable, but he turned in a wonderful performance in Centurion. Olga Kurylenko is a beautiful actress, but Neil Marshall made sure that people focused on the more sinister and dangerous aspects of Etain in the film. I really like this movie, and as I now own it, I'll be watching it a lot more than twice in the coming years. "In the chaos of battle, when the ground beneath your feet is a slurry of blood, puke, piss and the entrails of friends and enemies alike, it's easy to turn to the gods for salvation. But it's soldiers who do the fighting, and soldiers who do the dying, and the gods never get their feet wet." - Quintus Dias
Great line. The only thing that would've made Centurion a better movie is if its dialogue had been written by the writers of Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.
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