The Last Legion
(PG)- Release Date: 30th August 2007 (Showtimes)
- Language: English
- Running Time: 100 mins
- Genre: Drama / Action
- Director: Doug Lefler
- Cast: Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Matthew Fox, George Clooney, Preston Whitmore. (Full Cast)
- Local Distributor: Shaw Organization
It's AD 476 and the Roman Empire is threatened after being a mighty force for almost 500 years. The Barbarians have taken over the city of Rome. Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster), heir of the Roman Emperor, escapes to join a small band of legionnaires led by Aurelius (Colin Firth), a warrior and loyal servant of Rome, along with Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley), the shaman who is a mentor and tutor to Romulus. There is also a mysterious and beautiful warrior named Mira (Aishwarya Rai) joining them in their search of Rome's ultimate legion.
Latest Review
Not quite the epic for a big screen, maybe TV.
Old-fashioned family entertainment that tries to bridge some historical gaps between the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the British Empire. It comes across more like a Hallmark adventure movie than a big screen epic. The Last Legion attempts to give an origin of the Arthurian legend, particularly around the sword Excalibur (known as the sword of Ceaser in the movie), or at least that’s according to press releases and the trailer. Somewhere along the line during making the film, they must have forgotten about that because when the sword puts in its appearance, it’s history isn’t quite revealed (or even how it got to where it was in the first place). All we know is that whoever has the sword would be the true ruler of Britain. Not much different from the actual legend. With the fall of the Roman empire, the last boy ceaser Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster), flees Rome for Britainnia where a Legion had been posted. The hope was that this legion of soldiers would help to reclaim the glory of Rome, except that they felt they had been forgotten and began leading new lives as farmers. Aided by General Aurelius (Firth) and his men, his mentor and tutor Ambrosinus (Kingsley), and a warrior maiden Mira (Rai), the Legion take up their arms to defend their outpost of Britainnia from the hordes of Vatrenus (Owen Teale). There’s really nothing else much to it. Director Doug Lefler had been working with Sam Raimi, mostly on the Hercules and Xena series (although he was a second unit director on Spider-Man 2), and it shows here. The environments and actions do seem like they’ve come off from those two particular TV series, but adapted and enhanced for the big screen. He does try to maintain a sense of an epic scope but a lot of the scenes have a feeling of being staged (particularly the fight scenes) with the camera locked down on particular sets and scenes. Like The Seeker, there is also a sense that the budget may not have been large enough to cater to the desires of the movie. Not that a lack of special effects or spectacular visual effects should have been an issue, but it is comendable that the director does what he can to not rely on those effects. Even done cheaply, such effects would only distract and call attention to itself than serve the movie in any capacity. In all, the game cast do their part and give a little credibility to the movie with their performances. It could have been better but there also have been worse (Scorpion King anyone?). For that, we have a movie that does its part to entertain, albiet in an old-fashioned way, being far better than most would give it credit for trying. After all, it is somewhat of an independent production rather than some US Studio backed production. It would probably do well enough on DVD or satelite TV but moviegoers would probably expect more.
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4