I will not yield

Today would make it 2 weeks since I started working. This after 8 months of sleeping in, doing whatever I want, when I want. Needless to say there is a transition period between this incredibly lax lifestyle and the structured existence of a working individual.

I, of course, did something foolish. After work on Wednesday I decided to check out a movie at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. I thought I had made the transition and could handle the little extra time out of the house. I was very, very wrong.

I wake up at 6:30 in the morning and after going to the movie, getting something to eat, and traveling home I didn’t make it home until around midnight. That is a hell of a long day. I spent the next day at my desk in a dense fog. I was sleepy and physically tired. Also when I am in this state my body loves to torture me and my face was hurting, literally. Like I got punched or something. I was not impressed. But I did survive and it was all worth it cuz the movie was good.

Centurion is about Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), a Roman soldier who was captured by the Pictish when his base was destroyed in a raid. After he survived being tortured he escapes and meets a Roman legion sent to take out their foes. He joins with them only to be led into a trap where they are decimated in a guerrilla style attack. Quintus survives again with a small band of soldier far behind enemy lines. They are relentlessly hunted as they try to make it back home through some very unforgiving terrain.

The movie was written and directed by Neil Marshall so I was prepared for the gritty atmosphere and bloody battle scenes depicted in the film. But I was pleasantly surprised how complete the story was. I have to admit I didn’t see The Descent but I have watched Dog Soldiers, which I really liked, and Doomsday, which was enjoyable but really 3 movies haphazardly linked together to make one film. The latter really had me worried that this movie would not flow or be complete.

The battle scenes were epic and bloody. There was tons of sword play, heads being cut in 2, loss of limbs, and spraying of blood. Even though a lot of the spatter was obviously digitized in post production it didn’t really detract from the overall effect.

The movie was filmed in the UK and Marshall utilized the landscape well. He used many long sweeping shots of snow covered hills and fields, the lush greens of the forest, and rocky terrain to emphasis the loneliness of these few soldiers and the vastness of their journey. There was nothing new about this technique but it was done well.

The acting was good. The actors were all gruff, loud, and believable as warriors and soldiers. Olga Kurylenko played Etain, a female warrior sent after these man. In many movies where a woman is placed into battle, a softer, more feminine side is shown at some point. In this she was brutal to the core and believable as a savage. Except for Dominic West I haven’t heard of any of the actors in the movie. The Lead, Fassbender, was apparently in 300 and Inglorious Basterds but the rest did work mostly in England and Europe that I don’t know much about.

The script was fun. Amongst the morale building speeches and poignant words a lot of humour was interjected into the movie. It lightened the overall dark survival mood but not in an inappropriate obtrusive way. Even though movies like Gladiator are good their serious tone can be overwhelming.

Overall Centurion is a good movie. It has a pretty good script and storyline with some solid acting and good directing with a few laughs thrown in there. It is worth seeing on the big screen so you get the full force of the battle scenes and the sweeping landscapes.

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