The Last Legion (2007)
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 55
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 46
With miscast leads and unoriginal, uninspired dialogue, The Last Legion pales in comparison to the recent cinematic epics it invokes.
Average Rating: 3.9/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 14
With miscast leads and unoriginal, uninspired dialogue, The Last Legion pales in comparison to the recent cinematic epics it invokes.
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Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 94,337
Movie Info
Co-adapted by Tom Butterworth and Jez Butterworth from Valerio Massimo Manfredi's best-selling historical adventure novel, Doug Lefler's period epic The Last Legion unfurls in 470 A.D., just prior to the fall of the colossal Roman Empire. As the most recent in a long line of caesars, a young Roman child, Romulus (Thomas Sangster), is poised to inherit the throne -- until Germanic forces invade, lay siege to the city, and brutally murder his parents. At the last second, with his life hanging by a
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Cast
-
Colin Firth
Aurelius -
Ben Kingsley
Ambrosinus -
Aishwarya Rai
Mira -
Peter Mullan
Odoacer -
Kevin Mckidd
Wulfilla -
John Hannah
Nestor -
Thomas Sangster
Romulus -
Iain Glen
Orestes -
James Cosmo
Hrothgar -
Harry Van Gorkum
Vortgyn -
Alexander Siddig
Theodorus Andronikus -
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All Critics (58) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (46) | DVD (5)
There are, after all, aimed at young audiences plenty of movies more mean-spirited, indiscriminate and obnoxious than The Last Legion. But at the same time there are plenty that are, alas, less frustrating.
Top CriticCrudely mangling Arthurian legend into Roman history, this creaky swords 'n' sandals romper trundles forward like a hurriedly upholstered TV movie.
Every once in a while, though, Firth's eyebrow hints, Can you believe I'm wearing this dorky leather breastplate?
I have too much respect for Kingsley and Firth to believe they did this for anything other than the money, and to their credit, they give their best efforts.
Despite the occasional gleam of wit, very little is to be taken seriously -- not the story, not the acting and certainly not the history.
The movie rarely feels fresh. Even an absurd cage-match like 300 cared enough to be both rousing and handsome. There's no fun to be had here.
As the Roman Empire crumbles, undemanding escapist entertainment with wonderful production design and a cast.
No twist is too farfetched for this Dino De Laurentiis epic.
A good cast wallow about in a story you can't believe for a moment.
Colin Firth is not an actor who projects sparkling joie de vivre at the best of times, and The Last Legion, a cod-Roman reimagining of Arthurian myth, is very much not the best of times.
Tosh, but disarmingly sincere.
A hunk of old Brie, left all day in the glove compartment in a car on a hot summer's day, could not smell more ripe than this absurd sword'n'sandal Roman movie.
Silly and camp.
A novel hybrid of swords, sandals, horned helmets and furs, this really is a load of old rubbish, but there's some fun to be had, especially for boys who like to have mock sword fights with wooden sticks.
Paper-thin characters, stilted conversations and abrupt editing mean this is hard to get involved with, and its link with Arthurian legend feels contrived and clichéd.
The action sequences are handled well enough but the CGI isn't up to snuff in a tale that barely merits the retelling.
This attempt at reimagining the Arthurian legend fails to raise the pulse due to some leaden dialogue and unconvincing performances.
A wannabe sword-and-sandals saga.
...makes a hash of history, but...just think of it as a nifty adventure dreamed by an imaginative boy who dozed off in his grandfather's library.
Here's a strange concept: A goofy, Indiana-Jones-type spin on the pre-Arthur legend.
While it's almost certainly guaranteed to be a box office bomb, I'm suspecting this goofy little adventure will earn a few bemused fans once it hits DVD.
A passably entertaining hodgepodge of sword-and-sandal film clichés and Arthurian romance.
This take on the Arthurian legend is flawed but watchable.
Audience Reviews for The Last Legion
What starts out passably reasonable turns silly once the "seige" on Capri begins - the baddie Goths running around a south mediterrenean island wearing furs and viking helmets - hilarious!!!
Some of the fight scenes are nicely done, but as there are so many of them it just seems redundant (even Colin Firth kind of shrugs as yet another group of extras comes after him).
There's a few nice touches once the group gets to Brittania (Ben Kingsley gathering the young folk around to tell the tale of the forging of the sword) - but even the climatic battle scene gets silly with young Romulus running around like he has a force field around him.
There is the potential for a truly good baddie in the man in the gold mask, but then his demise in a battle with Kingsley is way too abrupt and short on drama (not to mention that when Kingsley calls out from the top of the ridge that he has vanquished the tyrant, everyone in the pitch of battle seems to hear him clearly - uh, don't think so!
The final surprise twist is done fairly well, but I can't help thinking of the film Excaliber which dealt with the Arthurian legend about a gazillion times better.
Super Reviewer
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- Ambrosinus: We need heroes, don't we?
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Movie: ID: 680650974 Title: The Last Legion Release Date: 2007-08-17 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 3 Status: 1
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The plot is twisty and has many people dotting in n out which doesn't help with the constant mindless fighting going on between everybody and anybody, and the fighting is your usual one man army killing groups of baddies single handed type affair *groan*
To be honest it's all rather silly apart from one or too reasonable performances, Sangster and Kingsley mainly, with the realistic historic backdrop attempt that reminds me allot of the old BBC series 'Robin Hood' with Michael Praed.
Could of been great if it had been serious.