Keeps surprising you

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2014)

117 A.D. Rome wants Britain, but it looks like that won't happen. The Picts are holding on to it hard, with guerrilla warfare, that the legions were not used to. But maybe one last attack can do it. The spirited, short-tempered General Virilus(West, clearly enjoying himself) who is part of, not only leading, his own platoon is sent out, and on the way, he meets Centurion Dias(Fassbender, determined and somewhat brooding, without being dull and grating). Though aided by the mute, excellent tracker Etain(Kurylenko, her entire performance via body language and facial expressions, and shining), they soon find themselves on the run. Can they possibly escape alive?
A fast-paced 90 minutes(94 with credits) of chase film with frequent fight scenes - every time you think you know what's going to happen next, you're stunned by where it goes instead. The battles are chaotic without us losing track of basically what's going on, and, like the rest of this, brutal, intense and realistic(except for the ending, where some Hollywood creeps in, and some of the moral grey areas are moved towards being black and white). The dry, macho humor/dialog feel endemic to the soldier environment, and the fleshed out characters(yes, that includes the "villains") are consistent in their behaviour. One can almost feel the frostbite and hypothermia shooting on location in the harsh nature led to through the screen. This is a compelling take on what might have happened to the historical group. The sparse narration doesn't really add anything, and comes across as a late addition by a producer who worried audiences wouldn't get what had just been established if our protagonist didn't briefly monologue about it.
In addition to what I've already mentioned, this contains a lot of strong language including non-graphic descriptions of disturbing sexual situations. The DVD comes with 8 minutes of good deleted scenes, 6 and a half minutes of hit and miss outtakes, a fine 4 minute featurette, and trailers for Buried, Saw 3D, Get Low, 22 Bullets, Micmacs, The kids are all right and this. I recommend this to any fan of action-thrillers. 7/10