Centurion in UK Cinemas

Neil Marshall is back for more overblown awesomeness as his new effort Centurion is released in UK cinemas today. Remember folks, don’t fuck with the Ninth. I love the work of Neil Marshall as any regular reader of mine will know. Though he is mostly celebrated for 2005’s The Descent, I am most grateful to him for 2008’s Doomsday, so much so that I wrote a piece defending that film a few weeks back, which can be found here. It is therefore no surprise that I was looking forward to his new effort Centurion which sees him move out of the more horrific styled stuff he has done up until now. Instead the film is a swords and sandals low budget epic of sorts starring a wide range of British talent and also former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko as the lead villain, with the trailer hitting at what essentially boils down to Gladiator meets The Warriors. Though with added arrows fired at cocks.

Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is a Roman Centurion who has had a fair bit of shit thrown at him lately. After his base is attacked by hostile locals the Picts, he is captured by them but set free just in the nick of time by the Ninth Legion, headed up by Virilus (Dominic West), much loved leader of this troop. Quintus joins with them in a mission to take out the Picts “by any means necessary”. However while on the march, they find themselves ambushed and the troop of 300 men are massacred leaving only 8, though Virilus one of these, has actually been captured. The remaining men, led by Quintus go on a mission to get Virilus back and then to get away to safety with their lives intact.

Centurion displays something that I have never seen with a Neil Marshall film and unfortunately its not a good thing. Up until now, he has done what so many others fail at and has had a damn satisfying ending with every film which manages to wrap up the plot while leaving you wanting more. While the plot is indeed wrapped up here, and though you may well want more, I don’t think you can call the last third of this film all that satisfying and this is something that may leave a bad taste in the mouth. Fairly late in the film we are introduced to a love interest for Fassbender’s character and while their relationship is dealt with by the actors well, they have a decent amount of chemistry, though Imogen Poots looks WAY too glamorous for the role, this both stops the film dead in its tracks, opens up one scene to a massive logic hole and also really telegraphs the ending of the film, something that again Marshall has never actually dealt with before. There have been some rumblings that Marshall was not entirely happy with the producers on the film and indeed this cut does feel rather compromised in the final act and I would be interested to see if some sort of alternative cut is made available in the future but for now, the way this disrupts the flow and the focus of the film is a real shame and something that can certainly hurt it in the future.

It is even more a shame that the film doesn’t stick the landing as to be honest, the first 2 acts are absolutely fucking fantastic and sees Neil Marshall working at his absolute A-game. Though distributed by Warner Brothers, this is a low budget British production and as such you may think that it could have the cheap look which low budget action films are often plagued by but while the film never exactly looks like a $100 million effort, the whole thing looks like a god damn FILM, and a very good looking one at that. Working with cinematographer Sam McCurdy who has lensed all his films, Marshall creates a cold, desolate landscape, indeed the opening titles make fantastic use of the incredible locations and sets this up straight away, and when the action starts it looks bloody, it feels gritty and it is just very cool to watch. I am also somewhat amazed that the film got a 15 certificate as while the violence is never super intense, the sheer amount of it, and the detail in certain shots (make-up effects maestro Paul Hyett also reteaming with Marshall for this project) is sure to lead to some great reactions in a crowd and will also along with Kick Ass, really open up some younger minds to the kinds of arm loppings and beheadings that they can look forward to in many films to come. The scenes are also directed well with clear action and some nice stylised shots making sure that you will remember these sequences long after the credits roll.

As I said earlier, the film essentially plays as a mixture between Gladiator and The Warriors, combining the honour, though also ignorance and foolish pride of the Romans, with an admitedly generic “got to get home from a long way away” type story and while it’s not the most memorable, it is helped a great deal by the performances and also the simple trick of having certain characters picked off at moments you won’t expect. Suffice it to say, not many of the wide range of actors in the film will be making it by the film’s end but with certain actors, you will really feel the pain. Michael Fassbender is already on his way to becoming a real star and this helps with that aim. Looking like he can handle himself but with a nobility which you can see the other men gravitating towards, his character could have been bland but with Fassbender, he becomes a hero you want to root for. Dominic West also plays this but with a bit more of the badass about him and the two make a decent double act. Liam Cunningham (a real “hey that guy”) has a nice arc in learning that his way of looking at things may not be always right and he brings a great amount of warmth and charm to his role. David Morrissey gets less to do than I expected, as do much of the cast if I am honest, but he gets some of the better lines of the film and also looks like he can handle himself. Noel Clarke and Riz Ahmed also make notable splashes though again it feels like their roles, along with JJ Field and Dimitri Leonidas have been cut down a fair bit for this cut. Olga Kurylenko may get no lines at all, her character has no tounge, but she is intense and really quite terrifying in her role and is as stong a villain as you could want, single minded, lethal and animalisitic, she is impressive.

Centurion is not, in my opinion, Neil Marshall’s best film but then I think Doomsday is so what do I know? What it is though is a brutal, bloody and damn entertaining genre film which I think any red blooded male will have a great deal of fun with. My only real criticisms come with some rushed plotting and an anti-climactic feel to the final third, something which I feel may be fixed to a certain extent with a future release of a vision that may be more of what Neil Marshall really wanted. For now though its a solid entry in his filmography which I will certainly be watching again many times which looks fantastic, has some decent performances and has a great deal of dismemberment. Which lets be honest, is all we really want. Eat Sleep Live reported.