Battles, Blood & Warrior Women....what's not to like?

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2010)

This is a straight forward tale of a band of Roman soldiers being hunted down by Pict warriors in the stunning surroundings of the Scottish mountains.
Whilst the dialogue and script won't exactly win any Oscars, the film was entertaining enough with plenty of blood & guts fighting scenes.
Olga Kurylenko was actually quite convincing in her portrayal of a brutal ice cold warrior, much better than Keira Knightley's portrayal of a female warrior in King Arthur. Perhaps Olga not having to utter a word in the entire film as she portrays a Pict who had her tongue cut out was a clever way to make her character more cold and mysterious.
I wouldn't quite go as far as one of the previous posters who describes the first major battle scene on a par with the opening scene in "Gladiator". Indeed some of the small criticisms I would level would be the use of very fast action shots during some of the fight scenes, i.e the camera motion is faster than your eye can register, think opening car chase in "Quantom of Solace" and you get the picture.
What really stands out in the film though is the stunning back drop of the Scottish mountains, It's like "Highlander" all over again only better!
Centurion, doesn't carry the "epic" status as other movies like "Gladiator","Braveheart" or "Kingdom of heaven", no it's on a much smaller scale and doesn't really spend too much time on character development on either the Pict or Roman sides. I suppose in a way it helps this film as it doesn't get bogged down in lengthy dialogue, but concentrates more on action.
Whilst this film won't score too highly on the originality stakes, it's a good effort in an all too neglected genre.