The Last Legion (2007)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie moves us to the year 476, the beginning of the dark years and the end of the Old Age. A historical and interesting event with little protagonism in the cinema. Do not expect history lessons. Nor is it fundamental because the vast majority of works in this genre pass the historical fact as far as I know, and yet almost all are entertained. But .... What problem has the cinema with the Goths and in general with all the peoples called barbarians ?. I suppose until they prove that there were also gay hot springs in Germania we will always be offered so rough. The last legion is bad with balls, a rehash of Braveheart, Gladiator and Lord of the rings. Many of the actors feel sorry and the only one with name (Ben Kingsley) interprets to an old flamenco dancer. Action scents distil scent of cardboard. The whole part in the castle of Capri is to start trembling, and eye that is the longest. Already in the final part I believe to have seen actors in plane laughing at the shame of others that transmitted the speech to William Wallace before the battle. The evil of the mask is a mad man, and the final battle is an anticlimax. I do not find anything positive and what I do not understand after all this, is that it has become very short and I have seen it without any pause, so I put a 5. What happens to me, doctor?

This film has the kind of cast that most directors can only dream of including Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley. So how it turned into such a car crash is a mystery. The result is a complete mess. Roman history and the King Arthur legend do not fit together. The film King Arthur starring Clive Owen proved that. Somewhere in this film is a good plot. However, you'll need a good compass to find it.

Most people behind this film are Italians, and you can tell that from the design: theatrical almost operatic story, colorful staging, great imagination, playful development of characters and story, florid fabulation and great joy of epic story-telling - most of the production names are De Laurentiis. All this makes up for not a bad movie at all. In fact, the story is not incredible, although utterly untruthful, and both Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth make credible characters and performances enough. Focus is though on the boy, who is the only thoroughly splendid character, both as an invention, the type and his development and acting. What actually happened is unknown, but both Odovakar and Romulus are historical figures. In the film the events of Romulus' abdication occur in 460 after having been emperor for no more than a year, while it actually happened in 476 but is historically correct. No one knows what happened to Romulus, however - his fate is lost in history, and his young character and mystery is like made for legends. Odovakar did not remain king of Rome very long, being soon overthrown by Theoderic the Great of the Ostrogoths. Vortigern, the awful villain of the film, did exist but remains a rather doubtful character - in the film he is grossly exaggerated to fit the role of a supreme villain, a tyrant of great paranoia and cruelty, while some sources name him the discoverer of Merlin. A great epic adventure film made on a great epic story, in brief, a worthwhile entertainment with the positive consequence that it must raise your interest in the darkest medieval history.

Really, really awful. I was stupid enough to expect some kind of adult drama and instead got the kind of sword and sorcery schlock that was old hat in 1986. Good god, what were Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth doing in this rubbish? Were they both between jobs in the same fortnight?I could list the sins this film committed but I'll focus on just one: the female character. Oh dear, have we not yet had enough of female characters who are stronger, braver and more resourceful than any man ever was since the beginning of the world; who enter the film disguised as a man with face covered and are later discovered bathing naked in the local stream? Please, scriptwriters of the world--mercy! I hate to point this out, but not only is there a dearth of women in history noted for their sword fighting prowess but, dare I say it, women simply do not have the upper body strength of men and cannot outfight hulky villains non-stop for hours at a time. It's ridiculous, it's impossible-- please stop. And if by chance there were such women, whom history somehow overlooked, I'm sure they didn't look like highly made-up models with skimpy outfits and contemporary hairstyles that never get mussed in even the most violent encounters. Even by the standards of your typical teenage movie--and that's sinking pretty low--this is just impermissible.