CENTURION Post Release Discussion

Great!
I'm so there. At this point, we are all gay for Fassbender already. This can only cement our love.

My ticket is sold. It seems like it's rare to have an action film that really invests in its characters, but that's just what I'm looking for. Well-written review, as well.

Yes. Will finally see a Neil Marshall film in the theater.

Devin, in light of this review I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the new Spartacus show and Scott's Gladiator. I already know you're a fan of 300.

Caught this at a screening on London a month or so back. Couldn't agree more with Devin's review, especially the Butch and Sundance vibe. Well worth checking out. Awesome action, Fassbender nails it as do Cunningham and Morrisey with West chewing it up Oliver Reed style for every scene he's in.

Great news, I've been looking forward to this for a while.

Didn't know Liam Cunningham was in this, should be cool to see him onscreen with Fassbender again (that one longass take they shared in Hunger was so great). Also loved his baddie in Dog Soldiers, so it's nice to see him working with Marshall again. I think Marshall should consider doing a movie where Cunningham and Jason Isaacs play identical twins, one evil, the other also evil.

Effing superior idea, that.

Cunningham and Morrisey both kick a shit load of ass. These two and Fassbender are a great action action trio. Nice to see an action movie where you actually care about some of the characters.

Interesting.... I haven't seen much or read much about this film. I'll see this just because you recommend it so highly Devin.

The thoughts on genre filmmaking at the beginning and end of this review are interesting, because I thought Doomsday was a perfect example of the kind of stupidity Devin complains about. Kinetic and well-made, but far too "turn your brain off" for me. I don't demand every genre movie do something radically new (though it wouldn't exactly hurt, would it?) but I do need a movie to have something fresh, either at the core of the story or in terms of the execution. Doomsday struck me as a Paul W. S. Anderson-style mashup of cool shit Marshall had enjoyed in the past, without any attempt to distinguish itself; the end result just made me want to watch Mad Max again. That's the trouble from an audience perspective: you can give me a solidly made Indiana Jones knockoff, but ultimately you have to give me a reason for why I'm watching this and not Raiders of the Lost Ark.

That said, the historical context of this movie is interesting, and if it's really ths well made I'm on board.

Marshall's films are nothing if not extremely well-made. It's true that Doomsday sort of went off the rails with the whole medieval aspect... so it's hilarious to think that he may have decided that the best thing to do was to take all of swords and armor and just give them in their own film. I, for one, am very excited for this. Most of my favorite genre films are of the "men on a mission" variety, and I think the historical twist just nails it.

I thought Devin did well to not overhype it.

No "just" about it, that's what I love most about a good movie. Oh I am so fucking amped for this. Thanks for yet another great review Devin, but shit it's going to make the wait so much more painful. Hell this doesn't even have a release date down here yet.

ETA:

Oh and...

...is it wrong that I heard Elvis singing "Glory, Glory Hallellujah" in my head as I read this and felt like standing up and pumping my fist in the air?

Australia gets CENTURION in August, RD.

Top review, Devin.

Just four short months, just four short months...

Fucking awesome! Its great to be living in 2010 when a filmmaker like Neil Marshall is doing his thing. Can't wait to see this.

Fassbender is great in Fish Tank too. Everyone is.

Also: "... it does have a group of characters that Marshall manages to sketch quickly and well."

So sad that this utterly basic part of the skill of film-making is so embarrasingly lacking from so many modern films. But so happy that Marshall, one of the good guys, is on point with it in this one.

Hopefully that means NZ will get it then or shortly after that.

I didn't realize Liam C was in this either (imdb didn't list him). Hopefully he's better utilized/treated here than he was in CLASH.

I haven't seen Clash but I can say he's very well used here. Doubt you'll be disappointed.

Loved this movie, it feels like a real step up in quality for Marshall as well. I love Dog Soldiers and Doomsday but there's a kitchen sink, cheap and cheerful asthetic to the films at times which Centurion doesn't have. It never feels particularly budget and at times it actually looks quite striking.

Fassbender, Morrisey, Cunningham and West are fantastic. There's nothing deep to the characters but the way the characters bounce off each other really makes you care. Marshall's great at the laddish bonding dialogue and you believe these guys have each others backs the moment they start to speak to each other. Kurylenko is really great as well, surprisingly imposing.

The action is fantastic although the film is more of a chase movie than a battle movie so you might be a little disappointed if you're expecting balls to the walls chaos. What action there is, is amazing, some of the gore shots are tremendous (I'm pretty sure that West cleaves some motherfuckers head in two at one point) and it's the most decapitaty movie since...well Doomsday.

According to Empire, he's up for the Professionals next. It's that kind of bonding that makes me think he'll nail it and we could get a great modern day buddy movie which doesn't feel the need to be ironic.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=27669

That shot of the half-way decapitation was awesome. Bet that hurt...

"In addition to the Sam Raimi-produced 3D splatter pic Burst"

Wha????

Marshall overdid it a bit with Quintus' voiceover but otherwise this showed that there is no one working right now that knows how to do a mid budget action movie like him.

Awesome. How was Fassbender Stel? Would you see it again?

Fassbender is Erol fucking Flynn reincarnated when it comes to screen presence. And a better actor to boot. Centurion is no exception. West is great, too.

And I'm sure I'll be watching this one multiple times. It will be a blast watching this with friends, having a few drinks and being manly. Quite a few great kills too. Marshall shoots the action kind of close and fast but he gives the fight scenes a really satisfying rhythm. Clash, clash, clash, arm gets cut off, clash, clash, clash, head gets cut in half, clash, clash, clash, spear goes in mouth. So fun.

Pretty fucking cool. From the cool credits sequence the film is paced relentlessy, with some decent character work and in particular a building of brotherhood in between the brutal cleaving and hacking. It's kinetically shot which works well for a chase movie, and Marshall has used his budget superbly. To creat a sense of scale. Totally recommended for anyone looking for an unironic, balls-to-the-wall action thriller, that aslo never reduces itself to a simple good vs evil tale. Really fucking solid flick.

Loved this. As Devin said, good old fashioned impalings, gore and most importantly great characters. My favourite kill has to be the first: A spear thrust straight up into an unsuspecting groin.

Great locations too. Scotland hasn’t looked this good since Highlander.

My only (very slight) niggle is that they don’t make clear how Fassbender escaped from the Picts at the beginning. (It’s not a spoiler – it’s the first shot of the movie). Unless they wanted him to escape, thus bringing the Romans too them.

I seem to remember a scene with him kicking the mud wall in his cell and it caving in a little. Am I imagining things?

I think so- it seems to be purposefully left ambiguous, so that you wonder whether it's a trap, or whether Fassbender's character is just a bad-ass.

Whoa, back up the truck a bit . . .
Neil. Marshall. Is. Doing. The. Professionals. Next?

Seriously?!

<passes out from orgasm>

I loved how Etain got an honorable warrior's end (compared to the bad guy from Doomsday getting that jokey over the top exit) and Thax getting pretty much a rat's death.

Just a bit of background history: I'm a massive Neil Marshall fun. His first 3 movies are on my yearly watch que. Love the crap out of them

Compared to Marshall's other films, I think this is a lesser work. Still a solid action flick that starts out very strong but then kind of withers away towards the end. The final action scene is sort of anti climatic compared to what comes before it as well.
Dominic west is just great. I'm not a raving Fassbender loon, so I thought he did a serviceable job here. Nothing special but he holds his own against West during their screen time together.
Just a small point: the action is a lot harder to follow compared to Marshall's other flicks. I'm not talking about wobbly cam nonsense, I'm talking about excessive quick cuts and closeups of the violence. Compared to something like Doomsday, Centurions action seemed somewhat small in scope and twitchy most of the time. Note: I don't have problems with smaller action/chase films but I honestly found the action more difficult to follow compared to say Dog soldiers.
Look, it's still a decent movie and not total garbage like say "Predators". Just temper expectations. I was expecting to blown away just like I was with his other movies, but instead I was just pleasantly entertained.

Well, I watched CENTURIAN last night, and I have to say I just about loved it. It was dabbling in similar territory to the (somewhat) unfairly maligned KING ARTHUR, but it managed to take that film's sense of atmosphere, location and time and give it a thrilling energy of it's own. There was no narrative fat, the story was lean and relentlessly paced and I for one found it to be one of the best action films I've seen all year, and that's not entirely just about the fact that I'm a classics geek. There was a palpable sense of danger to each encounter with the Picts. The ferocity of the combat they engaged in called to mind wild animals tearing apart their prey, and so you had no problem understanding why Fassbender and company would choose to run instead of to fight. In most modern action movies, such a move by our "heroes" would be unheard of, but here, you were biting your nails hoping that their flight from the fight would be successful.

Some people have mentioned that the action was hard to follow or used too many close up gore shots. I'd have to disagree. While I often find that "unrated" cuts which feature gory insert shots do indeed wind up making the geography of the action rather incomprehensible, in this case, the gore was planned to be there from moment one and so it never became a distraction or confused the action. You needed that gore, and the barbarity of the ambush scene, in order to make a movie about running away from the people who perpetrated those horrors exciting. You needed to see the threat, and Marshall did a fine job of showing it.

I had a few small problems, and they were basically sort of script level things that didn't really add up into a big deal. While I enjoyed the "this is neither the beginning nor the end of my tale" line (so many movies start just there, at the end of the story and flash back, it was kind of a relief to know that wasn't what Marshall had in mind), it seemed a bit clunky, starting the way it did. It seemed like it started with Fassbender running through the snow simply because it was evocative and cool looking, but in reality for me it kind of muddled the momentum for the first few minutes. There was too much time jumping with no real reason for it.

Other issues? While the film and it's characters felt pretty authentically Roman (key for any movie about Romans as far as I'm concerned, often times you get the feeling that the Romans in a given movie are just generic soldiers with swords), there were a few little things that bothered me. Such as? Fassbender bragging that his father was a Gladiator. That was just bizarre. Sure, gladiators got respect in the area and were objects of lust and adoration... but being the son of a freedman was NOT a classy position for a roman soldier to find himself in. There he is, speaking with a general, and he's bragging about something that he should probably feel a bit embarrassed to bring up in such company.

I liked Mr West well enough in his role. He's a good actor and a fun guy to watch on screen. With that said, I didn't really think he was the best choice for the character. He seemed too low class, too much of a brawler from birth. Watching him, you should have had a sense that he was an aristocrat slumming with his men. Still beloved by them, but above them all the same. West is a good actor, but he just couldn't pull off being a general during those scenes. He was better during his death scene, but all the same, if there was ever a role that cried out for the base animal magnetism of James Purefoy, this was it. Anyone who has seen ROME automatically knows that I'm right about the fact Purefoy would have made a better Virilous than West. Oh well, I digress.


Ms Kurylenko.... many people here have stated that they were fans of her work in this film. I thought it was pretty good. She seemed creepy, and had intimidating eyes. With that said, it felt at times a bit too close to Keira Knightly in King Arthur syndrome for comfort. I could take her seriously as an aggrieved person. I could take her seriously as a tracker. Yet as someone who is not physically strong myself, I needed to take only a brief look at her stick arms before I could no longer take her seriously as someone who could swing around giant spears. I had a hard time believing that she herself could take on anyone in a fight. Marshall's tight direction during the combat scenes helped to minimize this problem, but there seemed to be an ever present risk that I'd end up feeling like I was watching fantasy and not history (something I HATE in movies about ancient Rome). I have difficulty keeping a broom extended at a 90 degree angle, so there is no way she could have done what she did with that FINAL FANTASY type spear during certain fight scenes

Mr Fassbender? He was reasonably compelling. I liked him. I think he was good in his role because he wasn't meant to be the natural leader of those men. He was someone who was just motivated enough and possessed strong enough character to take that role upon himself in the crisis. Fassbender was fairly OK in IB, and I've been slowly coming around on him. His line delivery of "I am a soldier of Rome, I will not yield!" was pretty cool and got me jazzed up. With that said, he was probably the actor I hated the most in the loathsome 300*, and his association with that film is something that's currently still a huge obstacle for me when it comes to joining his fan club. This sure was a step in the right direction though. Another problem was that I don't find Fassbender's face particularly distinctive (this is no fault of his own) . I had a hard time telling if I was watching him or not during certain action scenes.

Anyway, I don't want to harp on whatever percieved problems may exist in this film because I really did love the experience of watching it. It's enjoyable on nearly every level even if it's not great art. I kept waiting for Marshall to drop the ball and that moment never came. A rare feat in today's cinema-world

BTW, I spent some time looking at various reviews for the movie last night, and I'm utterly perplexed by the critics complaints. "No fleshed out characters", seemed to be one of their main lines of attack. CENTURAIN spent more time developing it's characters than most action films in recent memory. No one died an anonymous death. Another review said that it was absurd to hear a Roman refer to being "Behind enemy lines". Huh? The enemies had lines, and the Romans were behind them. There is no part of that statement that feels in any anachronistic to my fairly well trained ears.

Before I shut up about this for now, I guess I'll also say this: I wish Fassbender's narration had been delivered slightly differently, and placed slightly differently. It often kind of mysteriously was plopped down into the middle of scenes, while characters walked around and did stuff. It felt like it was inserted because Marshall had not figured out a way to work that information into the story by other means. Combined with Fassbender's incongruously unhurried delivery (I liked how he read the lines, it just often felt like it didn't fit what I was seeing on screen given frantic chase), it became slightly distracting at times. I liked the lines he spoke, and how he spoke them, but they were just not well integrated into the over all movie.


Oh, and I loved the score! The floating opening titles were somewhat goofy, but when the french horn (was that what it was?) sounded a high note as the camera swept across the epic scenery, I knew immediately what kind of movie was in store for me, and I bought into the spirit of adventure at that moment

Anyway, another thoroughly enjoyable Neil Marshall film. He's becoming one of the most reliable directors out there, IMHO. Can't wait to see what he tackles next, but whatever it is, I hope someone finally gives him a big budget to play with. Something tells me he'd knock it out of the park

* Due to his line reading of "Then we'll fight in the shade". Not only do I hate how he said that, but I hate how the film changed the line from the far cooler "Then we'll have our battle in the shade". The wording on the second version is just so much more casual and bad ass. It's like "Oh, thanks! We get to fight in the shade! How nice of you". The first one, and Fassbender's delivery of it, is all posturing and fake bravado. Ugh.

While I realize seeing this in the theater would cost me and my wife $20, I find paying $10 to watch this in SD on xbox live absurd. Hell, I'd rather pay to see it in the theater if it were out here.

Yeah $15 for a 24 hour HD rental is kind of ridiculous.
Do you at least get a discount if they eventually have it available to buy?
The Playstation Store usually charges 19.99 to own an hd movie.

I posted about the whole XBOX download experience in the I'M ABOUT TO WATCH thread, but needless to say, I won't be doing this again. The fact that it cost more than a movie ticket and I don't even own the film when all was said and done was an absurdly shitty way to treat their customers

I thought it was pretty good, not great.

The first half is definitely better than the second half. You get some good performances from West, Fassbender and the other soldiers and some decent action/gore. There are a bit too many cheap cg blood shots, though.

The movie starts running out of steam when Dominic West is killed. After that the survivors start to get separated/killed and there's a lot less camaraderie. You get some running, some narration that isn't very interesting, the witch hut interlude and a pretty weak last stand. The last stand started out ok, but the two final fights were uneventful. Still, the movie is nice to look at throughout. There's some very good location photography.

Kurylenko was fine, but you can only get away with doing nothing but frowning for so long. There should have been another Master Hunter with an actual personality.

Amazon Video on Demand has it available for $10.99 in HD.

I guess I'm a sucker - I dropped 10 bucks to get this On Demand (in HD), but I'm glad I did. Thank God we have guys like Marshall making movies. They aren't perfect by any stretch, but he delivers the goods, and always makes solid, fun, and gory genre flicks. Centurion is no exception. I don't really have much to add to whats already been said - tons and tons of great kills, Fassbender is fantastic, and despite the small scope and smaller budget, Centurion looks great.

I guess my biggest problem was the villains in pursuit. Nothing really wrong with Kurylenko here, but I wish they had beefed up the numbers in her posse or something. I get that shes a crazy fierce warrior, and she pulled that off nicely actually, but there were times when I didn't really buy that Fassbender and Co. were really running for their lives. We see these guys are damn good fighters (even the cook), and its not like an entire army was chasing them. Minor gripe though - Marshall keeps the action moving so I never stopped too long to dwell on it.

Oh and Dominic West needs to be a Marshall regular from here on out. I'll always love him for The Wire, but based on his performance here (and Punisher War Zone for that matter), the guy seems to excel in crazy genre movies.

I rented this through Amazon-- which turned out to be a fair deal. 10 bucks, 48 hours, and you can watch it as many times as you like. Not bad, I'd say, even if by the end you own nothing more than the experience of watching the film. Note: Your mileage will vary depending on your connection (regardless of whether you choose to stream or download it) and your monitor. Word to the wise.

So how was the film? Extraordinary. Marshal easily solidifies his status as one of my favorite action directors working today; out of all of his movies Centurion, for me, best exemplifies his economical approach to letting his action scenes unfold. He knows when to go big and when to keep the scale smaller, and he knows how to properly and organically build into each of these sequences. The build-up to the big battle that sets off the film's plot is perfect; tense, measured without being ponderous, and full of dreadful anticipation. We know what's coming. We just don't know when. And when it does come, the payoff is undeniable.

I think what I love about Marshal as a director is that lean sensibility he brings to his projects. He's not a huge fan of fat; he keeps everything trim and appropriately brisk, allowing every scene to breathe as much as necessary before moving on to the next beat. And I like that despite his apparent favored approach, he'll still take the time to linger for a few seconds longer than needed on a moment like Fassbender and his companions eating a hot meal together after being on the run for days. He cares as much about his characters as his action.

Fassbender is simply outstanding here. I think the Errol Flynn comparisons are incredibly apt. Fassbender's been on such a roll lately that if he doesn't blow up and become one of the biggest names on the planet it'll be a fucked-up miracle. Charismatic, intense, as comfortable behind the swinging blade of a sword as he is wielding the emotions of his character, Fassbender takes a common trope in sword-and-sandal films and makes his noble, disillusioned soldier into a totally refreshing and unique individual. Great performance.

Olga Kurylenko brings startling ferocity to Etain; like Fassbender, she handles her character's physicality well but she does an amazing job conveying emotion through expression. Kurylenko has, I think, the most difficult character in the entire film but she makes bringing Etain to life and making her story palatable look easy.

I think most of all I like that Marshal never takes a side other than Quintas Dias', meaning that he doesn't really ally himself with the Romans more than the Picts or vice versa. He gives us reason to empathize with both sides, but leaves it to us to decide in the end whether the invaders or the invaded are the real enemy. Do we consider the Picts, whose archaic belief structure allows them to get away with scarring Arianne's face and exiling her to the wilderness, removed from her people, or the Romans, invading foreign cultures and enforcing fealty through violence, as the victims? If nothing else I think we can pity the soldiers who spill blood while tribal leaders and politicians strive to out-maneuver each other at a lesser risk to themselves.

I pulled all of that out of the film, and Centurion is "just" an action movie. If Marshal isn't one of the best filmmakers working today, period, then I'll eat my hat.

Fun flick. By far my favourite Marshall film, although again, originality escapes him.

Love Neil Marshall and he's 3 for 3 (I didn't care for Dog Soldiers) this is just a really solid little flick.

Fassbender impressed and Marshall delivered a lot of blood.

Can't wait to buy the bluray.

It's the least of Marshall's movies so far. Not as immediate as Dog Soldiers, not as intense as The Descent, and not as weird as Doomsday. There are a few good character moments, but the rest feels clipped and the third act love story was kind of sloppy. The whole thing, actually, feels kind of rushed, like Marhsall's head was somewhere else. The guy's too talented to be popping out half-assed stuff like this. I didn't hate it, but I see no reason to recommend it to anyone.

The problem with Neil Marshall's writing for this movie is his dialog is way too modern for the setting. Lots of modern slang and swearing between characters. Took me right out of the movie.

Best Neil Marshal film yet. I never liked Dog Soilders, can't remember it too well but I could swear it was a terrible terrible film. And even Doomsday didn't work for me, I just could not accept the lead, she bugs the hell out of me with her lack of personality and wooden face, the plot had a cool b vibe but the whole film felt extremely cheap.

Personally I think hes getting better and better, or it could just be his budgets are getting better.

Yeah, better budget and cinematography, but the film ain't that great.

The story is very simple and rundown and kinda boring in parts. Some of the battles are underwhelming. And yes, the dialog is shit.

I liked it. I just wasn't thrilled by it.

I was at a screening of this with a Marshall Q&A recently, and as the anachronistic nature of the dialogue was one of my favorite parts of the movie, I asked him why he made this decison. His reasoning was that he wanted to get away from the tropes of a typical "swords & sandals" Rome movie, and he wanted you to feel for these guys as soliders, rather than being removed from them. So he wrote how soldiers' talk, with boasting and profanity. And it works -- by making it modern, he makes it accessable and relatable. Much like how replacing "fuck" and "cocksucker" with 19th century blasphemy wouldn't get the point across in Deadwood, and would even be distracting, I think having these characters curse the Gods and use period appropriate dialogue (if even a record of such things exists) would put a distance between us and the characters.

Also, we wouldn't get one of Quintus' best lines: "This is Hadrian's big fucking plan?"

Ok watched this last night, feel like it was pretty darn good and deserves better than the shitty release it got. Fassbender and West are great here and Olga Kurylenko is creepy as.

My main problem is that after the initial ambush nd violence it all feels overly familiar. You could have been watching Dog Soldiers or Doomsday were it not for the period setting. Still I liked the cover up ending which finished things nicely. Would have liked the film to be about twenty minutes longer too to really flesh some things out a bit more.