Centurion is the part of history class that you looked forward to most. After trudging through peace treaties and electoral races, you finally get to the good stuff. The battles that are ready made for the silver screen. No talk, all action presides in this terrain. Only a narrative and small amounts of dialogue make up for an explanation. The rest of the time the swords do the talking.
The difference here is that you get to watch all of the action as opposed to reading about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for reading (I'd be in the wrong line of work if I wasn't). I believe one's imagination can be greater than any motion picture released. The keyword there is can. Your imagination can be full of unlimited potential, but it's not a guarantee. If it fails to deliver, somebody else's will.
Filling in for your imagination is Neill Marshall, the creative mastermind behind The Descent and Dog Soldiers. Here he travels into the realm of sword-and-sorcery, minus the sorcery, nailing it with as much finesse as his two big horror hits. He flounders when it comes to the story (something in which he had great command of in the previously mentioned flicks), but makes up for it with dazzling battle sequences.
This is where his imagination runs wild. No two battle scenes look alike in this film. They all follow the same formula, Romans and Greeks parading through a hack-and-slash extravaganza, but each sequence has their own style and substance. Each have their own distinctive look to them, with numerous, inventive camera angles being sprawled about. They're always placed in a conscientious spot, catching all of the action unfold. Unlike most action films as of late, you can actually see who gets hurt and how, instead of getting undesirable close-ups of the turmoil. When somebody is killed, you know exactly how it all went down.
You find yourself enjoying watching it all go down with visceral glee. Centurion is loaded with bloody sword battles, with a bit of archery and the like thrown in for diversity. Not that it was needed. Despite most of the deaths being dealt out via a sword, each one is of a peculiar nature. Nearly every limb is dismembered at least once, with many of the main arteries being spilt out on the ground. The ways in which they're dissected are of a peculiar nature as well. Very early on in the film, a Greek soldier stabs a Roman combatant square in the family jewels. That had to hurt!
All of it is a gritty masquerade of violence, yet it all looks so beautiful. It's weird to be fascinated in the visual style present beneath all of the bloodshed. You feel as if you're missing the bigger picture when mesmerizing the artistic style at hand. Yet you're not, as Marshall highlights the carnage in midst of the visual feast. Think of it like Zack Snyder's vision of 300. Gory as can be, yet with a touch of elegance. Centurion isn't as enticing as that film, though the action sequences are about as entertaining.
Where 300 outdistances itself as the better picture is in its story. While its action sequences are where it stands out, the plot between them was just as engrossing. Here, they're as far away from each other as possible. While the battles keep you glued to the screen, the story draws you away from it. Unlike in The Descent, the characters here don't enrich the story, they just supplement it. Their only purpose is to do battle, which makes it hard to root for them.
Making it even harder is the fact that the heroes, the Roman soldiers, don't act as ones. They don't even act as anti-heroes, ones in which don't care about their deeds, yet you do. Their original cause was worthy, but their way of handling their dire situation was cowardly. Along with dozens of their fellow soldiers, Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), Vortix (Dave Legeno), Thax (JJ Feild), Septus (Lee Ross) and Bothos (David Morrissey) are ambushed by the enemy (via flaming boulders), on enemy lines no less. Left for dead, the five men survive. They discover that their General, Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West), hasn't been slain in the line of duty, but captured by Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen). Despite being outnumbered, they head towards the enemy's base to save him.
They're unsuccessful at that, but do prevail in killing Gorlacon's son (Ryan Atkinson). They flee the scene to head home, but are now being followed by a mob of angry Greeks. Among them is a former ally named Etain (Olga Kurylenko), a mute master swordswoman who was on the side of the Greeks the whole time. She holds a grudge against the Romans as they killed her family and sliced off her tongue. With two lethal warriors out for revenge, the group of stranded soldiers have a huge target on their chests.
They spend the bulk of their journey ducking and dodging. They alleviate with one another through inane babbling, none of which adds depth to the story. Nor does it add much background to any of them. It's just there to fill up time until the next battle. Since five men taking solace in each other isn't enough, a love interest is thrown into the mix, as they stumble upon a woman named Aeron (Axelle Carolyn). She has the insider information on the entire landscape, which helps out the supposed noble soldiers in getting home. She elicits a romance of sorts with Centurion Quintus Dias, despite them not having any sparks with one another. The only reason she falls in love with him was to bide time until the next battle. Which really makes the whole relationship feel pointless.
That's all the story provides: time allotment. There's no rhyme or reason for it, other than to give the battles a rest. Marshall doesn't dive into the opposing sides' hatred for one another. He just states they hate each other and that's that. Nothing more, nothing less.
I usually wouldn't be as forgiving on such a defect, yet I found that the action sequences more than made up for the mundane dialogue buried beneath it. Marshall also plays it smart by not spacing them out too much. The only time a huge gap is present is near the end, and that's only to build up to the finale. Which was triumphant in its own way, as it made the final battle much more epic. Which is why I enjoyed this film so much. The story itself may be monumentally banal, but the action sequences are highly stimulating. all you have to do access them is trek through some drab dialogue. It's well worth the trip.
-Justin Oberholtzer
