Britain, A.D. 117. Quintus Dias, the sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon.
Marshall shows off the breathtaking landscape, but with interiors, he populates the ale houses and encampments with cliches.
– Joe Neumaier,
New York Daily News,
27 Aug 2010
fresh:
The film has a resigned bitterness, hard to shake off, that feels right for the experience of tough guys, from whatever period of history, who find themselves at the tattered edge of what they take to be civilization.
– Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
30 Aug 2010
rotten:
Marshall is big on desaturated imagery, which imparts to the film's copious amounts of hemoglobin the look of squid ink.
– Peter Rainer,
Christian Science Monitor,
2 Sep 2010
rotten:
Centurion wraps itself in talk of duty and honor, but really it's just another cinematic death-trip.
– Ann Hornaday,
Washington Post,
3 Sep 2010
fresh:
Auteur cinema of a very narrow stripe, this personalizes a familiar genre to advance a singularly pessimistic view of humanity.