Despite it's faults it's entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (12 December 2010)

Well 20 minutes into this movie I had no idea if I wanted to turn it off or keep watching, I went with the latter of the two and don't regret it. Michael Fassbender who I first noticed in the movie "300" does a great job with his role and is probably the best part of the movie. The faults within the movie has nothing to do with the acting or even the directing it's more about the screenplay, it almost seemed to simple for this type of movie.
I'm a sucker for good action scenes even when most nowadays are ridiculous and completely unbelievable and it's easy to notice here that Neil Marshall focused more on the action then the storyline. Now don't get me wrong I was a fan of "Dog Soldiers" and thought "The Descent" was one of the best movies of the year. However it seems here that he just wanted to make a bloody action movie. The thing that makes a movie like "Kingdom of Heaven" or "Spartacus" a great movie is not putting the action ahead of the story or characters. Honestly part of the way through I kind of forgot that this is suppose to be a historical drama.
Don't take this the wrong way I enjoyed what I saw I like action movies, I just don't like a movie trying to be something it's not. This movie is a good action movie and perhaps the Roman backdrop was a good idea, I haven't completely decided yet.
It's up to you though what you think and if this is your type of movie. I was in Chicago when Neil Marshall was promoting this movie and got to sit in on a Q&A with him at a convention. It seemed he did a lot of research and knew what he was talking about in regards to Roman history and the occupation of Britain. So maybe I missed something.