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Centurion review
:. Director: Neil Marshall
:. Starring: Michael Fassbender, Dominic West
:. Running Time: 1:37
:. Year: 2010
:. Country: USA
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A bloody sandal movie set in England, Centurion follows a small group of Roman soldiers who, after having survived a merciless ambush, try to make it back to their lines, while being chased by barbarians.
While peplums are nowadays considered obsolete and cheesy, mostly due to a saturation of cheap Italian productions back in the 70's, there has been a few examples of modernization of the genre that have proved to be successful &nsbp; I'm obviously referring to Ridley Scott's Gladiator but also TV series such as Rome and Spartacus. What made these films and TV shows work was the fact that their respective filmmakers understood that they had to adapt this genre to current screen trends and give them edgier tones. Gone are the big muscled guys, the lions and corny production values, now replaced by a greater sense of authenticity, with an emphasis on violence and sex.
Writer/Director Neil Marshall follows that trend, delivering here a bloody drenched and nervous B-movie that focuses on action, rather than historical facts. But what Mr. Marshall is really doing here is actually transposing the horror genre in the Antique era, substituting Celtic barbarians &nsbp; here the Picts &nsbp; to monsters and post-apocalyptic barbarians while setting up a chase, following the Alien/Predator template. If you look at Mr. Marshall's filmmography, you will notice that he pretty much always makes the same film, only transposing them in different settings, from werewolves chasing British soldiers (Dog Soldiers) to monsters chasing speleologists (The Descent) and post-apocalyptic barbarians chasing a female warrior (Doomsday). Another common denominator to all these films is not only that they are bloody but also that they feature strong female characters &nsbp; most particularly Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) here and Rhona Mitra (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) in Doomsday.
While you might rightfully argue that Mr. Marshall didn't reinvent the wheel and is only recycling other filmmakers' works, from Alien to Mad Max, he certainly knows his craft &nsbp; and the mechanisms of the genres he adapts &nsbp; having created a series of effective films that fulfill the expectations of his audience. Whether he tackles creatures or barbarians, he succeeds at delivering movies that are not made to surprise you but to give you what to expect, which is the foundation of B-cinema. You might think that it's easy but, how you can notice at your local video store, there are dozens of shelves filled with crappy B-movies. What differentiates Mr. Marshall from other bad genre directors is that he has real filmmaking talents that he uses with caution and intelligence &nsbp; you could somewhat class him as a follower of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Roger Corman, without their strong sense for satire. This allows him to always make decent works, despite budget restrictions &nsbp; see Dog Soldiers to get an idea. And when he has adequate budgets, it allows him to give us solid entertainment, as Doomsday and now Centurion can attest.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews: from 2012 to present
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