The legend of the 9th Roman Legion, lost for ever in Caledonia around AD 117, has been the subject of half a dozen stupid movies. Neil Marshall’s take on the apparent disaster has the Picts to blame, playing the guerrilla game rather better than the Taliban. Michael Fassbender is Quintus Dias, leading three other survivors (Dominic West, Liam Cunningham and David Morrissey) back to the border where they are building Hadrian’s Wall. Meanwhile, the Picts are led by Olga Kurylenko’s mute but beautiful warrior, bent on revenging Roman atrocities. "I don’t know whether to fight or **** her," says one of the Roman officers — and that’s the trouble. The screenplay is often giggleworthy.
Centurion makes a decently mounted action movie in which only the uniforms and weaponry differentiate it from Iraq or Afghanistan. Maybe that’s the point of it. But you still have to pen a script.
Centurion
Cert: 15
