Centurion

The digital blood bothered me quite a bit. The saying that less is sometimes more applies here, but it’s not missing Marshall’s typical trademarks are not missing. The raw, dirty, harsh environment is excellent. Michael Fassbender is becoming more and more likeable to me, and the plot has a devilish pace. Considering the budget and the script, it could have never been an epic blockbuster full of monumental battles, but it can still be survived. It is rather a modern action film set in a rough medieval era. Apart from the details, it comes together fairly solidly. (09/04/2010)

I'd like to give it four stars, I really would. For how exciting Centurion is, for how something is (almost) always going on, for how it's (almost) never boring and full of likeable characters, for how uncompromisingly it chops, stabs, cuts, slices, and God knows what else, for Marshall's ferocious direction, for Eshkeri's music, for the (to me) surprising Olga Kurylenko.... But I can't, because of the final confrontation, the witch and the more or less stupid ending. That’s too bad. Really too bad. So I give it a better three stars, knowing that I won't have a problem watching Centurion again sometime, which is definitely also a plus point. (03/04/2011)

Centurion is definitely not a realistic historical drama from the ancient history of building the Roman Empire, but a historicizing fantasy, which takes from real history only what it deems suitable as a starting point for an adventure story. The whole film stays afloat with raw action, albeit being sometimes straightforward and cheaply bloody. There are definitely more blood spatters than would be possible in reality, and the director utilizes contemporary digital technology, so severed limbs fly in all directions and the viewer can also enjoy disgustingly bloody details. The story itself is not complicated, but in terms of action films, the cast is highly above standard, because everyone involved can act and, speaking about the male part of the ensemble, they also have charisma. The female participation in the war campaign somewhat resembles a caricatured Xena, because a barbarian warrior with half a kilogram of makeup, whose eyes drown under such a dose of eyeshadow that even Queen Cleopatra would surely envy her, does not exactly inspire trust in historical fantasy. Not to mention the fact that the participating girls, despite their diligent battle cries and fierce grimaces, come across more like they just stepped out of a fashion show. Overall impression: 55%. (10/23/2010)

Centurion is a historical adventure-hunt movie. Congratulations to Neil Marshall for working himself up to be a director of actors such as Fassbender, West, Cunningham and Morrissey. All of them, together with the fantastic natural scenery, help make the movie fun and engaging. This film is not bloody and brutal just to shock the audience; rather, it is realistic and its violence fits into the concept of a harsh drama in which the likable main characters are hunted in the wild by the bloodthirsty Lady Vengeance hitchhiker. Her anger and cruelty are justified and therefore her character does not inspire disgust and hatred in the viewer, but fear and respect. Less realistic is the make-up and blow-dried hairstyle of the beautiful wild woman living alone by a river in which she catches a fish breakfast with her bare hands – but still we are grateful for a bit of tenderness in the gray world of hopelessness. If the ending had been more confrontational, I would have considered giving this film four stars. (10/04/2011)

Objectively, this is probably Marshall's weakest film, but in the "bloody historical carnage" category it's still a strong above-average film. It rests mainly on the director's sense of maximum blood (never mind that it splashes digitally) and charismatic actors. For an hour and a half where nothing actually happens, the film is fully immersive and makes you feel that sometimes there is real beauty in simplicity. (08/17/2010)