To Arms
Centurion stars Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, and Olga Kurylenko. The film begins with General Virilus, leader of the Ninth legion, eagerly awaiting new orders from Roman leaders. He is told to take his men into the fog and kill Gorlacon, a Pict leader, so that the Roman Empire can continue spreading its power.
Unfortunately for them, the Picts, experienced with the land and in guerrilla tactics, have it out for the Romans. Etain, played by Olga, is particularly interested in revenge against the Romans after they not only killed her parents, but also cut out her tongue. Despite not having a spoken word in the film, her role is a very important one and is well performed. The situation only escalates with the Ninth Legion is responsible for killing the son of the Pict leader.
Seven Romans manage to escape and most of the film is about this desperate attempt to reach a safe zone. Action is blended with some dramatic elements that alter characters and change (or create) relationships. Overall it’s a fun ride, but not one that may hold on to you and urge you to watch it again.
Invading Blu-ray
Centurion is a gorgeous film. The vivid and beautiful landscape is captured wonderfully on Blu-ray. I loved the landscape, costumes, and the color usage, too. It’s a very visually impressive and enjoyable movie. The DTS 7.1 audio is there too for those fortunate enough to have such a setup. It sounded great on my 5.1 configuration. My only complaint with the presentation was the color scheme used on the menu; I actually found it hard to navigate because it was hard to tell what item in the menu I was currently ‘hovering’ over because the color used to highlight an item matched the background color so well.
Centurion on Blu-ray certainly packs a nice visual and aural punch, but it also has a lot of extra features. These include:
-Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Neil Marshall and Crew
-Blood, Fire, & Fury: Behind the Scenes of Centurion (26m, SD)
-Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary (8m, SD) – Six deleted scenes
-Outtakes (6m, SD)
-Interviews with Cast & Crew (25m, HD) – Six interview segments with different cast and crew.
-Behind the Scenes Footage (11m, HD)
-Photo Gallery – A few dozen photos that play in a four minute long slideshow.
-HDNet: A Look At Centurion (5m, HD) – A short promo about the film.
With that, let’s get to the summary…