Failed swords and sandals

Rating: 3/10 (28 October 2015)

You know when you watch a film and within the first few minutes you just know exactly how it will turn out? , well insert The Last Legion because it's that. It's basically a swords and sandals adventure film that looks an awful lot like a bad version of Indiana Jones but set at the fall of the Western Roman Empire and also not as funny. The movie is basically about Romulus Augustus and he becomes emperor, guarded by Colin Firth of all people (playing a character named Aurelius) and many things happen and it sends his city and the empire into dismay. The plot is just really dull I mean it's not that it's awful or anything but this was just made so badly that you can't even enjoy the plot or ever feel anything whatsoever for the people involved.
Based on a book the movie see's an extremely long journey which in this film is more like 5 minutes long. The cast involved consist of some pretty big names including one from Bollywood screens of all places. As mentioned Colin Firth stars and he is pretty basic, he isn't as bad as some others but I just felt he was wasted and I have no idea why he took this job. Ben Kingsley plays Romulus's teacher of sorts Ambrosinus and he is really in the same boat as Firth, not bad but never OK, I felt let down with all the stars on show. The person from Bollywood is Aishwarya Rai who plays an agent from the Eastern Roman Empire and quickly becomes embroiled within the plot, now Rai is not bad but I did feel she is wasted like the others, her character could have been alright but she is yet again thrown in among the generic characters put out here.
Doug Lefler directs and his vision I feel is left in such a way as Rome at the time, in a complete mess. It just feels so average the plot but the way in which it looks and feels, it just makes it very poor and a bit of a mess to be honest, Lefler never quite takes the movie up a step. Tom and Jez Butterworth are the main writers or you could say they adapt this but in truth if this is similar to the book in anyway then the book must be pretty bad because this is not written well as a movie. The script is like something you see in a bad TV or straight to DVD movie, it feels so cheesy and it even tries at times to make you laugh even when the scene is kind of going along seriously.
I can't let this review go without the mentioning of the villains. The movie has a serious problem with throwing villains at you actually and not in a good way at all, One bad guy is the invading Goth Odoacer who is one of many Goths with Scottish accents and also a rather bland villain, I expect a villain to be notoriously evil but he just doesn't come off as that, not really a scary kind of bad guy.
So overall The Last Legion is no good, bust, a movie I actually find hard to recommend to anyone. I mean action-adventures should be easy to enjoy, easy to watch and also one where you can watch it again in the future. This is none of the things I mentioned and to rub it in you get some silly special effects which only go on to hamper the movies reputation, Oh wait there, some decent fight choreography, so yeah there is one alright thing about this movie.