Awesome

Rating: 8/10 (2 March 2020)

Centurion is another way underrated film from one of my favorite directors Neil Marshall. This time around it is a Roman period action movie based around the myths of the disappearance of The 9th Roman Legion in The British Isles and what could have possibly happened. Taken from the point of view of a Roman soldier and is a wonderful early performance( from now acclaimed actor) Michael Fassbender. Fassbender is in top physical condition and along with the rest of the cast truly earns his pay in this grueling, physical role. In a time of fake digital effects and seizure inducing cgi, Neil Marshall takes his cast and crew to the mountains and shoots on location in the blistering cold. In the opening scene we see our hero Michael Fassbender running shirtless through a violent snowstorm, which sums up the tone of the film early on. Although similar to Gladiator in many ways, this is much smaller scale and more action packed as well. The battle scenes are very bloody and brutal with lots of gory dismemberments and decapitations. Heads roll and body parts fly in a brutal gory fashion in this period action classic. The acting is quite good as well and the film is very, very gritty. This has a similar feel to John Carpenter's work, I see a big nod to him here. I see some similarities to Assault On Precinct 13 and Ghosts Of Mars in particular. Centurion gives a good glimpse into barbaric times and in my opinion is much better than a lot of much more hyped films that get heaped with praise.