This is a meat and potatoes movie. Slab of beef. Boiled spuds. No veg. No condiments. No gravy. This is man food at its most primitive. It promises only that. It delivers only that. And damn… it was fuckin’ tasty!
A Roman soldier is left for dead after an ambush leaves his legion decimated. He and a few others flee back to their homeland. But it isn’t going to be easy. A huntress, part wolf they say, is tracking them through forests, over mountains and across rivers. She has her heart set on absolute vengeance because Romans massacred her family when she was a child.
The film is directed by a very talented Neil Marshall, who was the mastermind behind “The Descent” — one of the ten best films of 2006. Yet again, he shows brilliance with spectacular visuals and a knack of choreographing action sequences that don’t get lost in a chaotic mess of edits and distractions. “Centurion” looks fantastic. I was taken aback by the stunning landscape shots on display. He uses the sweeping helicopter shot quite often, but always to great effect.
I also want to point out the animalistic performance by Olga Kurylenko. She is truly epic here. I was rooting for her character all the way. And that is not a given. This film doesn’t really dictate who to cheer for. It leaves it open for debate.
“Centurion” doesn’t reach beyond its grasp. It is visually grand, viciously brutal and ultimately simple. It is a chase film that stops every few minutes to show us another decapitation. The “squirty-blood” special-effects crew member was certainly paid some overtime on this film.
