Great action movie with strong political message

Rating: 7/10 (3 September 2010)

This is how Conan movie should like. The action was relentless from beginning to end, and bloody as hell.. Kudos for the brutality level and for the realistic violence. You get a real feeling for what it might actually have been like to fight hand-to-hand in ancient times. It has excellent make-up design and costumes. It also has a beautiful cinematography that depicts cruelty and beauty of the Scottish landscapes where the ancient struggle of life and death took place.
The scene at the beginning of the movie is unforgettable -The ambush on the Ninth Legion by the Picts. Marshall masterfully created a horrible claustrophobic atmosphere when besieged Romans are waiting the attack from the Picts in dark forest.
But the best thing in Centurion is Olga Kurylenko as convincing warrior woman, something that is so rare in films of this kind. Olga did a great job with the character, she was ruthless, savage and creepy. She really steals the show, she is beauty and the beast all wrapped in one.
Yes, of course, Neil should have work more on story and character development, to remove all illogical and naive solutions from the plot ,to avoid cliché twists typical of the chase movies, to put a story in a broader historical context, but all of this would require quality screenwriter, better/famous/expensive actors, much bigger budget and a strong Hollywood studio behind that. And in that case the film would not be directed by Marshall and again we would see another Hollywood sword-and-sandals movie, polished and designed to please everyone like Gladiator. Nobody wanted to see again same boring theatrical Hollywood duels with fencing that lasts ten minutes, with macho posing as in 300, with pretty gay bodybuilders with oiled muscles who shout stupid slogans during the fight.
When Marshall announced that he is going to direct Centurion, all people familiar with his work knew what to expect from this movie: brutal and bloody action in the dark horror atmosphere. His horror fans have been interested to see how he would manage in the new genre, confident that he will not depart from his style, and all fans of historical films about ancient wars were amazed that someone would eventually capture and reflect the battles of the period as they truly were-brutal, without mercy, and of course with a lot of blood, spilled brains, cut-off limbs and heads. And that's what make this movie worthy of being in your DVD collection.
The movie also contains strong political message against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and against any war, of course. Every spectator is cheering for the Picts. You really don't care for Roman soldiers except for Quintus Dias but he is not the typical Roman soldier. At the very beginning we learn that he is the son of gladiator, he shows no hatred towards the Picts , even in the scenes when he kills them, he is just struggling to survive. At the end he stands up against his superiors (just like the Marine in the Avatar ) and by his love relationship with Arianne (Imogene),he indirectly joins the people who he came to enslave. Etain(Olga)on the other hand, at the beginning was presented to us almost as a beast in human form-heartless and bloodthirsty savage woman who is torturing and brutally killing the helpless prisoners, allowing us to suggest that she is the main villain.But then, we learn about dark secret from her past and about horrible crimes of the Romans who destroyed her life, then not only do we find justification for her brutality and obduracy, but we even feel sorry for her when she finally get killed at the end. Arriane is also cool character, but totally opposite from Olga. She is the victim of war too but unlike Olga, she is trying to hide from the war and evil, she does not hate, neither she wants the revenge for the injustice they have done to her, she has compassion and humanity even for the enemy. She is like some kind of a nun in the monastery. We could find both kind of women in modern days. Olga is for example a female commando from Israeli Army eager for adventure and action, or a Muslim suicide bomber who has nothing more to lose, and Arianne is a family woman who sits home and takes care of her children and of course, hates violence. In fact, two of them together are the perfect combination that makes an ideal woman-dream of every man.
If you can, watch Centurion on the big screen.
7/10