CGI blood aside, this one's a keeper

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2015)

When I first heard about CENTURION, I was excited: I'm a big fan of director Neil Marshall (yes, even his much-lamented DOOMSDAY) and I absolutely adore historical romps, so this was a match made in heaven. When I finally sat down to watch the Blu-ray of this film, I wasn't disappointed. CENTURION is a lean, pared-down adventure romp made on a low budget and with a plot that's simplistic in the extreme: a squad of Roman soldiers are cut off behind enemy lines and have to find their way to safety. It's nothing new; this kind of story has been done in multiple settings and with multiple variants on the theme (SOUTHERN COMFORT, in which a gang of US soldiers are pursued by bloodthirsty Cajuns, is a favourite), but the reason it's so popular is that it's easy to get right. Marshall gets it spot on.
My main beef with the film is that it's too short, focusing on action over plotting. I would have liked another half hour of dialogue and plot. However, like the recent RAMBO, the extra-short running time works in its favour, never giving the viewer time to get bored or dwell upon the various shortcomings in the characterisation and atmosphere. A bunch of interesting actors are cast in this one, and for the most part they do well; Michael Fassbender is an able, everyman hero, and Dominic West great as the shouty, sweaty, hard-drinking general. Marshall did well to cast character actors like David Morrissey and Liam Cunningham as the likable old-timers of the group, while Noel Clarke is underutilised as another. For the females, the beautiful Olga Kurylenko is well characterised and pretty terrifying as the vengeful Pictish warrior chasing our heroes, and Imogen Poots has a brief but important role as an ethereal outcast.
The emphasis here is very much on the action, and there's plenty of it to go round. The initial attack on the 9th legion is expertly staged and full of intense, bloody conflict a la BRAVEHEART. The subsequent bouts are on a much smaller scale, but still vicious and shocking, with decapitation a favoured method of execution for the bloodthirsty Picts. A fight between West and Kurylenko is a stand out moment, as is the final showdown between the whittled-down survivors and their pursuers. My only complaint with the action is the over-reliance on CGI blood, but then you can't have everything, and it's not as bad as that seen elsewhere. For me, CENTURION is a keeper and a film I'll look forward to revisiting.