Centurion *** (2010, Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko, Imogen Poots, Ulrich Thomsen, David Morrissey, Dave Legeno, Paul Freeman) – Classic Movie Review 3440

Michael Fassbender’s Centurion Quintus Dias, Dominic West’s General Titus Flavius Virilus and a bunch of Roman Centurions of the legendary Ninth Legion are over here in the good old Britain of 117AD, where life is nasty, brutish and short.

Quintus Dias, sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with Virilus, who has orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the land.  Can the Centurions survive long enough to beat the Picts, destroy their leader Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen) and get back to their lovely life under the Tuscan sun?

Well, certainly not if Olga Kurylenko’s devil woman Etain has anything to say about it. Well, actually, she can’t say anything. She has been raped and had her tongue cut out. But she can do plenty with her evil over-mascara-ed eyes, ESP-tracking facility and yes, darn it, her huge sword.

Writer-director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) brings all his horror movie sensibilities to bear on what could have been quite a jolly, exciting adventure saga, betraying the entertainment value inherent in the material in favour of a full-on kind of battle hyper-realism. History is indeed written in blood here. Yes, what we’re getting at is almost non-stop slashings, choppings, cuttings, hackings, smashings, gougings, pulpings, stabbings, beheadings, limb removals, eye-poking-outs, a little spears-up-the-nether-regions and so on. Well, you make up the rest.

Though, of course, many horror fans will be kept entertained, this excruciatingly sadistic violent stuff is pretty darned vile. And the film’s entertainment value is further downed by a constant spattering of present-day four-letter words mixed in with some silly dialogue that undermines credibility a lot.

Yet, the story is not half bad and the production values are astonishingly high. It’s such a remarkable visual achievement that you can easily see the film it could have been in the great sets, astonishing locations and amazing CGI. The director of photography to praise is Sam McCurdy and Simon Bowles is the production designer to applaud.

As you’d expect, Fassbender is in is element and really rather good and so is Imogen Poots as Arian. But the whole cast, working in what look like very difficult circumstances, all come up strong for the movie.

Despite its sequences of strong bloody violence, grisly images and strong language, it has a UK 15 certificate.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3440

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/