Centurion

So I guess Neil Marshall had a positive experience with Doomsday because he decided to do another big-ish picture.  He also must’ve particularly enjoyed shooting the medieval portion and gave him the yearnin’ to do an all out period piece.

This one takes place in Roman times and is about the legendary Ninth Legion.  In our real world history the group disappeared in Scotland and no one knows exactly what happened to them.  In Marshall’s history these guys were sent in to destroy the Picts but were massacred by them instead (also a popular theory of their demise).  With only a few survivors remaining, including Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, A Dangerous Method, Blood Creek) as the de facto leader, they first try to rescue their general (Dominic West (The Wire, Punisher: War Zone)) who’s been taken hostage and then try to cross back into Roman territory.

Fassbender and West are really good in this.  I get why Fassbender receives a lot of praise for whatever he’s in.  He seems devoted to the character and wants you to be into it too.  He cares for the ragtag group of men that’s been left to him and even after a horrible slaughter of the legion Fassbender still has his sense of duty.  The other dudes with him go along without question because this guy is confident and can’t stand the thought of leaving anyone behind.  These are all good traits for a hero to have but difficult to pull off well because you need to sense the drive and believe that our protagonist is doing this because it’s the right thing and not because this is a movie so they need something to do.  Good work Fassbender, I’ll keep a better eye on you in the future.

West is fucking fantastic as the jolly but tough as nail general.  Man do I love this character.  The way we’re introduced to him perfectly sums up the guy.  In a tavern he’s just beat someone at arm wrestling but the loser wants a rematch.  The general refuses at first saying that they should give it a rest and just drink together but the opponent is pissed and wants to go again.  The persistence pays off and the general agrees to one more match.  West wins pretty easily but after he pins his challenger’s arm he stabs it with a knife and slams his head on the table.  He then calls him a sore loser which prompts a bar fight to ensue.  So the gist is this guy could be your best friend or your worst enemy.  Fight fair and square and he’ll give you respect but be a whiner and he’ll cut a hole in your arm and beat the shit outta you.  Also, having this scene take place in a bar with the general among his men drinking and carrying on tells us that he respects and loves his troops.  He sees himself as one of them, not above them.  Now even though West does great he also hams it up quite a bit.  He yells practically every line, has a pretty smug look on his face a lot of the time and is just overall very belligerent.  It’s a little over the top and I love it.

On to the production, Marshall did a good job shooting this one.  Apparently it was all done on location and there were no green screens used.  The wide shots of people marching across mountainous and heavily forested landscapes look very pretty and the battle scenes are goddamn gritty.  Marshall balances these things nicely.  He also made his most violent and bloody movie to date.  So many people get their throat slit or their head cut off.  It’s fucking brutal.  It seemed like there was a bunch of CGI blood being thrown around because it just looked too beautiful and perfect a lot of the time and there was also a ton of it being strewn about but it’s difficult to tell.  The fight scenes are all done well too except the end of the last one which gets kinda messy and confusing.  In fact the whole last ten minutes get that way.  Marshall has a problem of late with endings ‘cause Doomsday and now this don’t seem to add up.

What’s sort of interesting about this movie is that the Romans are the good guys.  Or you find yourself rooting for them anyway.  And that’s sort of a weird notion if you can pull yourself back from the entrenched story that the film presents.  The game plan was that the Romans were supposed to march into Scotland and decimate the Picts but the Picts ended up completely destroying the Romans.  So we feel for the Romans because they were massacred and also because we’re set up to hate the Picts through various scenes.  But it’s the Romans that want to conquer everybody and not the other way around.  The Picts are only protecting their turf.  I mean fuck, they’re just looking out for their well being and their families.  And this handful of Roman survivors goes on to invade a Pict village and kill some of them anyway including a little kid.  This whole idea of making the bad guys the good guys is even more apparent in Valkyrie.  In that picture we side with this faction of Nazis that want to overthrow Hitler but I mean they’re still Nazis, right?  They still went along with shit and did these horrible things but we’re supposed to be on board with them because they’re more reasonable than the alternative that we’re presented with.  It’s sort of the same thing in Centurion.  We like Fassbender and West so anyone that does something bad to them must be the antagonist.  We’re set up with the Romans by showing that they’re more civil and have an ordered society that resembles our own while the Picts are barbarians that live by superstition and archaic rules.  I’m not talking about historical accuracy here but more how a film can play with your feelings.  It’s interesting that a bloodthirsty Roman general or even a rebellious Nazi can be a hero all in the proper context.

This is the third film Marshall has set in Scotland out of his four (Dog Soldiers and Doomsday are the other two).  All of his movies have the same broad concept of a small group of people behind enemy lines that go up against a formidable force.  Two have been horror and two have been action.  I like what he’s doing with trying to use real shit and not CGI.  And I also like how his characters have a real good outline to them but the problem is they aren’t given a lot of depth or back story.  His filmmaking skills have definitely improved over the years but his storytelling skills seem to be deteriorating a bit (like his inability to craft a coherent ending anymore).  It’s nice that he takes his time with his movies as there is generally a three year gap between productions.  I think he cares.  He actually wants to make a good film that also has well executed action and blood.  I’m not going to get into a whole thing about this but did anyone else notice that The Dark Knight Rises had no blood in it?  For such a big action adventure type picture the violence was kept strictly in check.  That gives it a cold and ball-less feel.  It’s good to know there’s a guy like Neil Marshall out there that still wants to make movies that are at least somewhat reminiscent of 80’s and 90’s action and when he’s not doing that he’s making some of the best horror films in cinema in my opinion.      

So anyway, as far as this one goes I liked it.  It’s probably my least favorite Marshall film of the first four but not by much.  Another not bad, not great picture to add to the pile.  If you’re into Roman era movies you’ll dig it.  If you’re into action you’ll probably dig it too. 

You know, since the disappearance of the Ninth Legion is a mystery this could be exactly what happened to them.  I mean it looks like this part of history is up for grabs and so far this is the version I like best (albeit the only version I’ve seen on the subject).