CENTURION
3 out of 5 stars

"my name is quintus dias, i am a soldier of rome, and this neither the beginning nor the end of my story."


an interesting tale about one man named quintas dias (played by michael fassbender- remember him from QT's inglorious basterds?), who survives a brutal attack on a roman frontier post. he is then captured by the picts (i'm guessing they were the nomads living in what is today britain), but he ESCAPES! it's not soon before the ninth legion, lead by general virilus (dominic west in ANOTHER greco-roman film) comes to his aid... quintas joins the ninth, and on their way to invade the picts once more, they're ambushed by the picts (very clever warriors), and they basically destroy the legion in one epic slaughter. quintas ends up in a ditch underneath a pile of rotting bodies, but is saved by a couple of surviving soldiers who want to rescue their captured general. thus, mission "rescue general" is born! (they invade the pict base camp in true halo black ops mode)

the violence in this is pretty brutal, and sometimes it'll catch you off guard... lots of blood, guts, grossness, but it's a good action movie nonetheless! (this will remind you plenty of halo or splinter cell esp. the way these soldiers fight in the dark) olga kurylenko (the bond girl from quantum of solace) proves us yet again that she can't act b/c she got handed a non-speaking role as a mute pict warrior... i couldn't help myself, but compare this to gladiator but this falls far short because the battle sequence is so-so and the main antagonist (olga) is lame... however, it's good to see roman soldiers fighting in a different environment rather than in a collosium or somewhere in germany. or i guess it would be germania? ;)