This a decent film, featuring Romans and a bit of mystery.
There were a few irritants for me: 1) the unlikely dialogue (like "we have someone working on it", or the unintentionally amusing "What made you choose Britain?"); 2) the fact that nobody even attempts a non-American accent in c.900 A.D. Britain, although Tatum was surprisingly believable in this area; 3) and numerous historical inaccuracies e.g. thumbs up = live, when this long-debated gesture has been convincingly argued in recent years to mean the opposite, or the startlingly modern-English "Hadrian's Wall" rather than "Vallo Aelium" on a supposedly-Roman map.
But - the story is simple but engaging enough, and despite the above I found it quite watchable. It's very linear, but there are a couple of credible fight scenes and the characters are well played for the most part - I suspect they made the best of what they were given (as since when would a centurion let his slave demand to "do the talking"?).
Basically the idea is that Marcus (Tatum) is desperate to get to Britain to search for his father, who went missing with his legion 20 years before, and recover the missing standard. Everything he does is geared towards this, and involves him finding family he didn't know he had, and trekking into Scotland alone but for his newly-acquired Scottish slave.
For a slave, Esca is far too cocky and defiant. It surprised me that Marcus didn't just get rid of Esca as soon as he discovered Esca wasn't telling him everything. He just didn't seem to mind, which was a bit weird, especially as Marcus and Esca weren't friends at this point - and this led to sth bad happening (of course!). So you kinda wonder why Marcus let Esca live long enough to let it get so far. Then you wonder why, when Marcus threatens to kill him the next chance he gets, he instead trusts this guy over and over with his life. And then eventually frees him from bondage, because they're suddenly friends.
Esca continues to be a bit slippery - "tell me what the chief said about my father" (because lots of the film is in Gaelic and there are no subtitles) - "there's no time now". And again. Just tell him already! Grr. Do we ever find out? No.
Anyway, there is a small twist in the tale which is nice, and leads to a final battle in a gully. Question: how did they get a funeral pyre to light on a river bed?? Does Marcus finally get to know what happened to his dad? You'll have to watch it to find out I guess! Anyway, at the end I didn't want those two hours back like I did with Season of the Witch, so it's all good.
Plus Tatum is a pretty sexy centurion.
This isn't even in Gladiator's league, but for entertainment value this isn't a bad choice if you fancy a half-decent film with a bit of action in it.
There were a few irritants for me: 1) the unlikely dialogue (like "we have someone working on it", or the unintentionally amusing "What made you choose Britain?"); 2) the fact that nobody even attempts a non-American accent in c.900 A.D. Britain, although Tatum was surprisingly believable in this area; 3) and numerous historical inaccuracies e.g. thumbs up = live, when this long-debated gesture has been convincingly argued in recent years to mean the opposite, or the startlingly modern-English "Hadrian's Wall" rather than "Vallo Aelium" on a supposedly-Roman map.
But - the story is simple but engaging enough, and despite the above I found it quite watchable. It's very linear, but there are a couple of credible fight scenes and the characters are well played for the most part - I suspect they made the best of what they were given (as since when would a centurion let his slave demand to "do the talking"?).
Basically the idea is that Marcus (Tatum) is desperate to get to Britain to search for his father, who went missing with his legion 20 years before, and recover the missing standard. Everything he does is geared towards this, and involves him finding family he didn't know he had, and trekking into Scotland alone but for his newly-acquired Scottish slave.
For a slave, Esca is far too cocky and defiant. It surprised me that Marcus didn't just get rid of Esca as soon as he discovered Esca wasn't telling him everything. He just didn't seem to mind, which was a bit weird, especially as Marcus and Esca weren't friends at this point - and this led to sth bad happening (of course!). So you kinda wonder why Marcus let Esca live long enough to let it get so far. Then you wonder why, when Marcus threatens to kill him the next chance he gets, he instead trusts this guy over and over with his life. And then eventually frees him from bondage, because they're suddenly friends.
Esca continues to be a bit slippery - "tell me what the chief said about my father" (because lots of the film is in Gaelic and there are no subtitles) - "there's no time now". And again. Just tell him already! Grr. Do we ever find out? No.
Anyway, there is a small twist in the tale which is nice, and leads to a final battle in a gully. Question: how did they get a funeral pyre to light on a river bed?? Does Marcus finally get to know what happened to his dad? You'll have to watch it to find out I guess! Anyway, at the end I didn't want those two hours back like I did with Season of the Witch, so it's all good.
Plus Tatum is a pretty sexy centurion.
This isn't even in Gladiator's league, but for entertainment value this isn't a bad choice if you fancy a half-decent film with a bit of action in it.