Solid sword & sandal flick with hints of greatness

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2012)

"Centurion" takes place circa 117-122 AD in Great Britain and speculates the fate of the Roman 9th Legion, which disappeared at the time and remains a mystery to this day.
PLOT: Seven legion survivors of a surprise Pictish attack go into enemy territory to retrieve their general (Dominic West). The legionnaires then go deeper into the wilderness to escape the vengeance of the Picts with the intention of looping back around. Unfortunately for them, the Picts have an expert tracker on hand; a mute woman with whom the Romans are quite familiar.
ANALYSIS: Michael Fassbender is outstanding as the leader of the remaining legionnaires, Quintus Dias, while Olga Kurylenko is effective as the vengeful Pict tracker, Etain, and Imogen Poots shines as an outcast in the wilderness, Arianne.
The scenery of the film is breathtaking, shot on location in England and Scotland, whilst the pace is brisk at a mere 97 minutes. The latter reveals the weakness of the film as this is definitely a tale that would've worked better at 2 hours minimum. Although there are some quality character-defining sequences and near-epic moments, the film needed more. As it is, it's kind of a blur, but still very worthwhile. The score's quite good as well.
BOTTOM LINE: "Centurion" is reminiscent of 2004's "King Arthur," as far as story, location and overall tone go. The main difference is that the events in "King Arthur" take place 350 years later and involve the legendary Arthur as a Roman warrior. "Centurion," by contrast, occurs when Hadrian's Wall was just starting to materialize. Both films are worthwhile to sword & sandal devotees, but "King Arthur" ultimately plays better due to its longer runtime and therefore more characterization and epic-ness.
Be sure to catch 2011's "The Eagle," which is essentially the (unofficial) sequel to "Centurion" where the son of the general of the 9th legion ventures into the Pictish wilderness with a Briton slave to regain the 9th legion's gold eagle standard. "The Eagle" is less Hollywoodized, has a much better first act and is all-around more realistic, but "Centurion" is more conventionally entertaining, has important female characters and a superior last act.
GRADE: B+
*** SPOILERS FOLLOW***
One reviewer complained that the film fails to provide conventional protagonists: How can you root for the Romans when they're the invading army who were responsible for raping Etain when she was a girl, killing her parents, and cutting out her tongue? In addition, at least one legionnaire is revealed to be a total scumbag. But then it's hard to root for the Picts since Etain is so bitter and vengeful, plus the Picts are pretty much portrayed as the antagonists to the remaining members of the 9th legion.
I would argue that the film encourages us to disregard political loyalties (Roman, Pict or otherwise) and root for the persons worthy of rooting for. In this case, Quintus Dias and Arianne (the "witch"). Why? Because they both prove to have hearts of gold, which is one of the reasons they're so drawn to each other, beyond the physical attraction.
As for the film's message, it's driven home at the end: Big government is not worthy of your absolute loyalty and service because they'll throw you to the wolves in a second if it serves their purposes. (Government in general is good and necessary but big government is intrinsically untrustworthy and harmful, i.e. evil).