I went to the local cinema last night to watch 'The Eagle' with my friend Luke, we both tend to like sword and sandals stuff so I sat down hoping it was going to be a winner. Although I can't say its a bad film I can say it really didn't work for me either.
The film stars Channing Tatum who Luke had warned me several months ago wasn't the best of actors, he was right, although looking the hero part he did come across as very wooden and certainly lacked any charisma, so from the outset I really didn't warm to his character or root for him. There was some interesting opening action though the first set of characters just didn't feel very Roman, sorry but in my view Brits make more convincing Romans than American actors, John Hannah in the recent Spartacus series for example, Brits just seem to convey that Roman aloof character much better me thinks!
So after an initial skirmish in the Hadrians wall area our hero is transported 200 miles back to Calleva which was a Roman town west of London in now what is Berkshire. Except if we take say a suggested journey from the Hadrians wall area say Carlisle to Calleva (modern day Silchester) then we are talking a journey of 310 miles. Back in the day such a journey with a wagon would have taken a fair old time of which our hero Marcus Aquila seems to have been out of it the whole journey. I knew from being a history buff Calleva had been probably sacked about 60AD by Boudica's rampaging army at the time, though the settlement did get back on its feet in later years. The film makes Calleva look picturesque but I suspect it would have looked more military camp than idyllic backwater.
Anyway, back on with the blog. Our hero acquires a slave by the name of 'Esca' acted very well by Jamie Bell I might add, who acts Mr Tatum under the table, not that it was hard or Bell acted out of his skin either. The pair from an unlikely 'Master & slave' duo and head north to recapture the Eagle standard of the 9th Legion which was lost in Caledonia (Scotland) by Aquila's father in the film. Donald Sutherland plays an elderly relative of Aquila and is just there for a quiet interlude in the film and an easy pay check, shame as he is an awesome actor and none of the other characters really stand out. The movie lacks character building on all accounts, good and bad guys included and in the end I didn't really care if Tatum who miraculously comes back from deaths door gets the eagle home or not.
Last years Centurion movie did the same style of story better with good casting, characters, tension and visuals. If you wanted to watch a similar movie with plenty of action I'd go for Colin Firth in 'The Last Legion'.
As we walked home my friend Luke raised a very good point which was 'if you are going to do this type of movie, you have to do it right' and I think that statement summed this movie up for me.
The film stars Channing Tatum who Luke had warned me several months ago wasn't the best of actors, he was right, although looking the hero part he did come across as very wooden and certainly lacked any charisma, so from the outset I really didn't warm to his character or root for him. There was some interesting opening action though the first set of characters just didn't feel very Roman, sorry but in my view Brits make more convincing Romans than American actors, John Hannah in the recent Spartacus series for example, Brits just seem to convey that Roman aloof character much better me thinks!
So after an initial skirmish in the Hadrians wall area our hero is transported 200 miles back to Calleva which was a Roman town west of London in now what is Berkshire. Except if we take say a suggested journey from the Hadrians wall area say Carlisle to Calleva (modern day Silchester) then we are talking a journey of 310 miles. Back in the day such a journey with a wagon would have taken a fair old time of which our hero Marcus Aquila seems to have been out of it the whole journey. I knew from being a history buff Calleva had been probably sacked about 60AD by Boudica's rampaging army at the time, though the settlement did get back on its feet in later years. The film makes Calleva look picturesque but I suspect it would have looked more military camp than idyllic backwater.
Anyway, back on with the blog. Our hero acquires a slave by the name of 'Esca' acted very well by Jamie Bell I might add, who acts Mr Tatum under the table, not that it was hard or Bell acted out of his skin either. The pair from an unlikely 'Master & slave' duo and head north to recapture the Eagle standard of the 9th Legion which was lost in Caledonia (Scotland) by Aquila's father in the film. Donald Sutherland plays an elderly relative of Aquila and is just there for a quiet interlude in the film and an easy pay check, shame as he is an awesome actor and none of the other characters really stand out. The movie lacks character building on all accounts, good and bad guys included and in the end I didn't really care if Tatum who miraculously comes back from deaths door gets the eagle home or not.
Last years Centurion movie did the same style of story better with good casting, characters, tension and visuals. If you wanted to watch a similar movie with plenty of action I'd go for Colin Firth in 'The Last Legion'.
As we walked home my friend Luke raised a very good point which was 'if you are going to do this type of movie, you have to do it right' and I think that statement summed this movie up for me.
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