Synopsis: In AD 117, a splinter group of Roman soldiers fight for their lives behind enemy lines after their legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack.If you're looking for originality or historical accuracy, this probably isn't for you. A similar tale has been told many times and I really couldn't tell you much about how accurate it is... and don't care. I can tell you it's got a lot of great action and battle sequences and is just loaded down with violence. I'd expect nothing less from writer/director Neil Marshall (Doomsday, The Descent, Dog Soldiers) and he delivers yet again and continues to be one of my favorites. The tagline is "fight or die" and that's pretty much all you need to know here.
The script and the dialog are nothing special but the acting is on par and with the awesome back drop of the Scottish mountains it feels a lot more epic that it is really. It's not on a scale like say Gladiator or Braveheart by any means and the entire budget was probably about what they spent just on food for either of those films, but it has a great feel to it and can stand with those movies on a relative scale. There's not much real character development nor a lot of chit-chat in general going on here, but oh there is bloodshed and a plethora of gory beat downs. I liked the ending as well.
It's a gritty, violent cat-and-mouse tale that happens to be set in a beautiful locale and an exciting time. It's an enjoyable action-adventure I thought. Not deep, not highly original and definitely not for the timid or queasy.
7/10
