The Last Legion (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

Italy, United Kingdom, Tunisia, France, Slovak 2006
Director: Doug Lefler
Cast: Thomas Sangster, Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Peter Mullan, John Hannah
Release Date: April 6th 2007
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour 37 mins 32 secs

The Movie Review

The Last Legion film still 1


THE LAST LEGION
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

There aren't too many epic movies being released on theater nowadays and the number is shrinking if we compare their quality with the bombastic epic movie 300. After viewing several Thai colossal films, several days ago I decided to go to a cinema to check out some new ones. To my surprise there were 2 epic movies in Jakarta which were already released several years ago. One of them was even labeled Midnight! Those two were Nomad The Warrior and The Last Legion. Even though relatively new messy flicks like The Final Destination and the disappointing Horsemen were available to watch (and hopefully about to be taken down soon). And so while I've already reviewed Nomad, this time I will review The Last Legion for moviegoers (in this case in Jakarta) to better decide which epic film to see.

Being released worldwide around August-October 2007, The Last Legion is another epic movie which roots its story on the famous story of King Arthur. The movie opens with a new caesar being crowned. The caesar is a naive but bold 10-year old boy named Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster). On one unfortunate night, the Goths who used to be Roman's ally, betray the treaty and attack the city with full power leaving Rome being sacked to the ground and Romulus' father and mother being killed in front of his eyes which instantly making Romulus as the sole captive of the Goth's king Odoacer (Peter Mullan). Lucky for Romulus, his teacher and counselor, Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley) arrives on time and is able to persuade Odoacer to send them to an isolated Capri island instead of killing the boy.

Meanwhile the brave general of Rome, Aurelius (Colin Firth) gathers his troops and with the aid of a skillful warrior maiden, Mira (Aishwarya Rai) they set sail to the island to free Romulus and Ambrosinus. Will they succeed in doing so? And even if they do where would they go to build another loyal legion to fight for Rome?

The Beauty and the Beast(s)

As you can see on the note above, this epic film was produced by several countries minus Hollywood. This should've given The Last Legion a rather eccentric taste. Especially... with the presence of Aishwarya Rai the former 1994 Miss World from India as the warrior-slash-eye candy, this movie should really be something right? Well, not quite. Because speaking from the actors/actresses acting quality, they are definitely not bad, but we have seen this type of acting so many times before in TV series like Hercules or Xena and stuff. And Aishwarya Rai is too 'polite' to be the eye candy, although others may see it as a strong woman with a character but her performance is not convincing enough to fit her character. While Ben Kingsley and Collin Firth are just a ok. No surprise that The Last Legion somehow feels like a TV movie, Doug Lefler the director is known to have directed several episodes of Hercules and Xena before.

As en epic movie, there is nothing particularly extravagant with the battle scenes. It's tamer than the battles in King Arthur (2004), thankfully the one-with-many battle scenes which include Mira, Aurelius and the others could be considered entertaining. The biggest upside of this film however is the storyline. Although some scenes are confusing, but the basic storyline is interesting, that is of course if you already know a little bit of King Arthur and his Arthurian Legend. How the writers of The Last Legion unraveled the story and giving a very well-connected link give the audience a clear new-perspective on the Arthurian Legend. This story is much better than the one in King Arthur.

And so special note for Jakarta moviegoers, if Nomad and The Last Legion are finally available to watch on cinema, I'll say choose this movie if you're interested in Arthurian Legend, and choose Nomad if you want another epic movie that isn't always about Europe. The Last Legion contains more light-humor (very light) than Nomad, but it's also more TV-like than Cinema-like compared to Nomad.