Old Fashioned, High Spirited Fun with Costumes, Battles, and Stars Galore

Rating: 7/10 (28 September 2008)

"The Last Legion" is a fun, high spirited, sword, sandal, and sorcery movie that can be enjoyed by a parent watching with a child, or with his or her own inner child. This is a movie like they used to make. I kept expecting Tony Curtis to pop up and say "Yonda lies da castle of my fatha." This isn't "Gladiator" or "Lord of the Rings." "The Last Legion" isn't graphically violent or pompously portentous. It's just a good, old fashioned yarn about Roman emperors, invading Goths, Hadrian's Wall, and fulfilled prophecy. There are gorgeous costumes, fun escapes, turquoise, Mediterranean waters, Capri and Britannia, archaic weaponry and threatened encampments. From top to bottom, the cast is fantastic.
In places the direction is a bit awkward, and the movie could have been so, so, so much better had casting selected a woman Colin Firth's age to star opposite him. Aishwarya Rai is young enough to be Firth's daughter and their pairing is not attractive or believable. Rai is never believable as a warrior. A small person can overpower a larger one, but not as Rai does in this film. The history is not credible. Other than that, though, "The Last Legion" is a movie much better enjoyed than nit-picked. It's a popcorn flick, a Saturday afternoon matinée the way they used to make them. Pop it in and enjoy when you just want to relax and have fun.