The plot's pretty thin -- even for a gladiator movie. Fortunately, when it comes to crunchy impalings and messy arterial geysers, Marshall's a maestro.
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What are critics saying?
A gritty, brutal chase movie that's more about swords (and spears, and axes) than sandals - although it could have done with a lot more character-meat on those bones.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Marshall, who helmed the underrated horror film, "The Descent," has a flair for the visual. Some of the mountainscapes, captured by use of a helicopter, are nothing short of spectacular.
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Centurion delivers some large-scale action but plays almost like a Roman-era Western in its depiction of a few soldiers trying to get home alive after the slaughter of their comrades.
It's prime B-movie material put through the Ridley Scott Cuisinart.
"Doomsday," horror-trained British helmer Neil Marshall flexes strong action muscles and carves copious flesh here, creating the sort of broadsword-based bedlam that will thrill fans of ancient martial movies.
If you're like me, and you find yourself retreating to a safe place in your mind whenever human beings are being graphically decapitated on screen, you'll spend the majority of Centurion, horror maestro (The Descent) Neil Marshall's Roman bloodbath, on psychological lockdown.
Centurion offers little beyond viscera for its own sake, without anything like the bold abstraction of "Valhalla Rising."
The profanity is delightful. And the general atmosphere is grim. The movie just isn't terribly inspired.