"Centurion" Movie Trailer Review

"Centurion"

Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Joel Crabtree

Leave it to Neil Marshall, the writer-director of “The Descent,” “Dog Soldiers” and “Doomsday” to create a universe that has all the macho camaraderie of “300” or “Black Hawk Down,” while also turning the idea of gender roles on its head.

Finally, a film that the “bros” and feminists can agree on.

“Centurion,” the latest film from Marshall, follows The Ninth Legion in 117 A.D. Roman Britain on a quest to destroy the rebellious tribe known as the Picts. An attack (more accurately, a massacre) from the Picts leaves only a handful of Roman survivors behind enemy lines and severely undermanned.

Quintis Dias (Michael Fassbender) is given the reins as leader of the troop with one simple purpose: get the remaining soldiers home.

The director’s fingerprints are all over the trailer, the most obvious of which are the “Doomsday”-inspired Picts. Marshall adds a nice touch to the film by making the tribe of warriors mixed-gender, with women willingly taking up arms against the Romans -- including the lead huntress Etain (Olga Kurylenko). The idea of Pictish women as formal soldiers has been entertained and debated by historians, but by embracing it Marshall creates an alternate universe of historical fiction all his own.

From the trailer, it appears as if Marshall also treats The Ninth Legion massacre more like a scene from a horror film than a battle in war, lending “Centurion” a genre touch that most writers and directors wouldn’t have considered. With that in mind -- and with the teaming of Marshall and Fassbender -- the film should find a vast audience in its release.

“Centurion” premiers on video-on-demand July 30, and hits theaters Aug. 27, 2010.

Below is the trailer.  What are your thoughts on “Centurion”?