"Gladiator" meets "Braveheart"

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2010)

If you loved "Gladiator" - and, boy, how I loved "Gladiator" - you'll have mourned ever since that there could be no prospect of a sequel since Maximus well and truly bit the dust. The next best thing then is for actor Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott to get together to portray another heroic fighting figure and so a decade later we have "Robin Hood". While we wait for the man from Sherwood to saddle up, we have the poor man's "Gladiator" in "Centurion", written and directed by Neil Marshall and starring Michael Fassbender in the eponymous role.
"Gladiator" was set at the heart of the Roman Empire in 180 AD; "Centurion" tales place on the edge of the Empire, in northern Britain, in 117 AD. "Gladiator" opened with a stunning battle sequence in which the Romans beat the Germanic barbarians; "Centurion" starts with an even bloodier encounter in which the legendary Roman Ninth Legion is wiped out by the resourceful Picts except for a handful of survivors who then have to fight both warrior and weather to find refuge at Hadrian's Wall. In no respect - script, characterisation, acting, special effects, music - does "Centurion" equal "Gladiator" but there's plenty of action and much blood and then more blood - plus some splendid Scottish scenery and even a Bond girl.