The Worst Film Ever

the audience applauded

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Admirable film.

This is a fine as well as exciting production with enough budget , great sets and thundering battles during the Roman Empire . Ultraviolent historical/epic/action yarn with breathtaking battles including lots of blood and gore . In Roman-ruled Britain, during Antoninus Pius empire , who was emperor of Rome at the time this film is set , AD 140 ; his reign is considered one of the calmest in Rome's history , there a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father's memory by finding his lost legion's golden emblem . The picture deals with the destiny of a soldier Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) , the honour of a slave , Esca , (Jamie Bell) and the fate of an empire ; concerning historical facts about confrontation between Romans and Northern barbarians . The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt , Britain to Spain , and East as far as the Black Sea . The Year is A.D. 140 , and it has been 20 years since Rome's legendary Ninth Legion marched north into Caledonia -modern Scotland- to gain control over all of Britain . But in northern Britain , the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy : the savage and terrifying Celts and Picts who were generally thought to not have worn any clothes . Aquila (it is the Latin word for "Eagle") is the son of the Legion's General , and determined to exonerate his father as well as to retrieve the Eagle banner . But his detachment is besieged and deadly attacked . After his legion is decimated in a devastating guerrilla attack , Marcus Flavius along with a slave crossing ¨the Hadrian Wall¨ and both of whom set out in pursuit a great dream : to seek to retrieve the ¨Eagle¨ . They fight for their lives behind enemy lines . As they attempt to destroy the Celt leader and face a desperate struggle to keep alive . Bloody version based on historical events about Roman conquests with overwhelming battles and great production values starred by Channing Tatum as the fictional Roman officer and Jamie Bell as slave , both of them are two battle-hardened warriors who try to defend themselves against a bunch of bloody barbarians led by a brutal enemy . Stunning battles scenes illuminate the full-blown feats with a plethora of engaging action set pieces on the combats in which the heads and limbs are slice off here and there . There are great action sequences including the gory battle in woods and the final confrontation at the climax of the film . Because of budgetary consideration , cast and crew had only one night to shoot the night battle scene , which gave it the disorganized, raggedy look they wanted . The movie has great action sequences well staged with stylish and vitality , thrills , and turns out to be pretty entertaining . Although is a little revisionist about characters , history and time when is developed the action in a dirty , gritty Roman Empire during its period in Britain . Several action scenes are outstanding with spectacular battle images and thrilling fights . Unfortunately, on small house screens much of the splendor will be lost . The film is well set with nice gowns , evocative weapons , appropriate attrezzo , adequate costumes ; however , production company decided to use stirrups, despite their being anachronistic, because there would have been issues getting insurance for the lead actors, especially as Jamie Bell had never ridden before and he had to learn on set. As the movie makes a big deal out of the supposedly deathly rivalry between Romans and Celts . German archaeologists have found evidence of the 9th Legion on the banks of the Rhine River and carbon-dated them long after these events took place, suggesting that rather than being wiped out , the reason that there is no evidence of the 9th Legion being in Scotland after these battles is that they moved to Germany . The working title for the film was "Ninth Legion" , the story goes that the Ninth Legion marched to Scotland from York with 3000 men and were never seen of again. Historians dispute what actually happened to them. Some believe that they were disbanded, while others believe that they were massacred . The picture results to be a crossover among : The 13th Warrior (1999) by John McTiernan , The Last Legion (2007) by Doug Lefler and Centurion (2010) by Neil Marshall . Support casting is frankly good , such as Donald Sutherland , Dakin Matthews , Tahar Rahim , Douglas Henshall , Denis O'Hare and Mark Strong . Impeccable and evocative cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle . Being shot on location in Lomond, Argyll and Bute, Summer Isles, Highland, Scotland, UK and Szentendre, Pest, Budapest, Hungary . Filmmaker and his director of photography Mantle spent long time discussing the look of the film before making it , one thing they were adamant about was that it should be shot on location and nowhere near a green screen . Magnificent and stirring musical score by Atli Örvarsson . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Kevin MacDonald (State of play , The Last King of Scotland , How I Live Now ,Touching the void). Kevin shot the film in such hard conditions that some cast members suffered health problems . Rating : Good , it's a nice historical extravaganza well set in ancient Rome , done in great scale and praised for its action sequences .

The Eagle (2011): Dir: Kevin MacDonald / Cast: Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, Mark Strong, Tahar Rahim: Mediocre medieval film about this sacred eagle idol that must be recovered. Channing Tatum plays the young commander of the Roman garrison who leads the battle against the Celtic tribesmen. He is honorably discharged when injured in battle. His task is to claim the eagle statue for which they are represented as well as learn what became of his father when it went missing. He is joined by a slave whom he saved from certain execution. These idol quest are becoming a joke. Why not just carve out another one and save yourself a lot of agony. Director Kevin MacDonald is backed by fine production and fast pace action battle scenes but the screenplay is a joke. Tatum survives the material and strides onward despite injury but the concluding battle is far predictable. Jamie Bell does well as the slave whom is never quite centred in terms of his intentions and that is what makes him effective. Some of his actions are predictable while others are a guessing game. Donald Sutherland is underused as Tatum's uncle who oversees his recovery. Mark Strong steals his moments as a survivor of Tatum's father's army. He tells of the battle and how fleeing seems only logical. Tahar Rahim has the laughable title of Prince of the Seal People, which sounds about as stupid as calling himself Flipper. The film is well made but way too familiar and corny. It is like going on a quest to find a rare Christmas ornament that will make little difference to the overall holiday. All in all, this film never flies. Score: 3 ½ / 10

You probably saw Centurion and figured this might be a nice movie as well. I have read on the Internet that this is the better movie as it was more realistic. I, being immersed in the study of the Roman empire, ignored IMDb's average score of 6.2 and had a go at it.The Eagle (Aquila) is one of the standards a legion carries with them during war. Losing the Aquila, even dropping it, would bring a huge shame upon the unit. Legend has it that an entire legion full of fear hesitated to leave their ships. The bearer of the standard (Aquilifer) left his ship to march forward on his own. Now the legion decided to make haste as they didn't want to abandon the Aquila.In this movie the (in)famous Ninth Legion lost the Aquila, probably because they lost a battle. The son of this Legion's commander, a Centurion himself tries to undue the shame his father induced by retrieving The Eagle. How he knows the Eagle was dropped is not explained in the movie as the entire Ninth disappeared.This movie builds on the mysterious reasons for the disappearance of the Ninth. Losing the Aquila was the catalyst to get the story going.A centurion enters a base in Northern England to take over command. The monologues and dialogs are pretty bland from the get-go, but I gave it a chance as the scenery wasn't bad at all. A bit like in the movie Centurion, without blue screens and pretty unspoilt. Sadly enough bland conversations turned out to be the standard for this movie throughout.After having been introduced to the usual tropes and stereotyping, we're thrown into battle quite soon. Here my second major gripe enters: shaky cam à la handicam. It was almost unwatchable and headache inducing.We are introduced to historical inaccuracies quite soon. First of all the "Tetsudo Formaton" used was inappropriate. Then the enemies (Picts) rushed at the Romans like madmen, but none of the legionnaires thought of spearing them. The Picts even crawled on top of the formation. Funny but idiotic. Also the transverse crest on the Centurion's helmet was incorrectly worn: it was worn only during ceremonies, not in battle. Finally the Picts is in this movie wore plenty of clothes: in reality they were almost fully naked. Once again the lesson is not to assume a movie is accurate no matter how convincing it looks.Our hero, who fought bravely off-course, gets wounded, passes out and wakes up elsewhere in a safe Roman community. He is relieved of his duties due to his wounds. Soon our hero Centurion heals enough to undertake a tough journey which includes running, fast horseback riding in rugged terrain and fighting. He healed 100%, who are we kidding. The movie writer needed an excuse to detach him from his legion.But then again, this entire movie is full of it. The "Seal People". They are the main antagonists. When the movie likes it, they catch up with running horses and whatnot. The usual tropes and errors, you know the drill.We are looking at history the way (main stream) movies like it: toe cringing sentiments with sword fighting in between them. Again the shaky-cam; horrible. It was used during fights, but also when emotions ran high. It didn't add anything.And the ending was outright ridiculous. In the end I was left with the question "why?". I know it comes from a book written a few decades ago, but why this cheapskate implementation? For example the fights had potential, therefore the shaky-cam was unnecessary. And why being sentimental the corny way? There's also the blandness. Could it be that the actors are simply overrated? Surely it's not the budget I'll tell you that; The natural approach, low on computer-based special effects, was the charm of this movie. Nor did this installment require A-list actors.I think the truth is that this product was just a standard-issue money-making cash cow, leaning on the relative success of the movie "Centurion".I rated it 4/10. It could easily reach at least two notches extra by (1) removing the shaky-cam, (2) less bland emotions and finally (3) implementing an ending worth while. The executive producers know, but they don't care. To them this was project "Easy Money".

This isn't a bad film. It has some nice photography, action scenes and some good scenes. But overall it doesn't rise above average. While the acting isn't bad, Tatum just doesn't have the dynamic ability to make Marcus deep or completely relatable. But that's not a huge deal. It's the story which is the biggest obstacle. The problem is: the story does everything you think it will before you even watch it (they go to look for the Eagle, they fight some people and they find it). It doesn't go in any unexpected directions, and it doesn't do anything unique (plus the final battle was too clichéd for my taste). If you're looking for something to kill a few hours, this might be for you. But don't expect to be blown away.