Don't expect another Gladiator...

Rating: 7/10 (4 February 2012)

This film has been sitting on my shelf for over a year now unwatched. Yesterday, I finally sat down and watched 'Centurion' with no great expectations, I was just wanting to watch a film.
The film is very good, the story works well without romanticising the Romans too much and portrays the Picts very well also.
The acting in this film was great for the most part, especially by Dominic West who had too small a role, his humorous character provides a lot of comic relief from gory battle scenes and he was probably my favourite character. Michael Fassbender's role was amicable, he succeeded in certain aspects of his character such as the warrior in him but failed at portraying himself as a leader. As a fan of Michael's work. his acting was very good in this but not as great as he has been in other films. However, some actors like Noel Clarke (who was simply playing Noel Clarke) let the film down in certain scenes. Even Olga Kurylenko was good despite her character not saying one word throughout the entire film! Imogen Poots' brief appearance is also welcomed with a very realistic Scottish accent - as a Scottish person myself, there's nothing more fun than laughing at an actor's poor attempts at the accent but Imogen did her's very well and there was nothing to laugh at!
The script can be quite predictable at some points which isn't necessarily a bad thing but you would like a little surprise here and there that isn't through the use of over the top gore. The gore in this film is the main problem I have. I certainly don't mind gore in films but it should be used when needed, not added in to places in fight scenes where, realistically, there would not be such a splash of blood!
Overall, I would recommend this film if you are just wanting a good old-fashioned war film, but don't expect Gladiator because there are very few points in this film where you are moved emotionally. The film tries its best to be Gladiator-like (with dramatic music, slow motion fight scenes and tiny incidents of tragedy) but I think if it focused more on the film itself it would have been better.