This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Action, Fantasy Adventure, L, Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
The Last Legion (2007) **
Director: Doug Lefler
Starring: Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Sangster, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd,
I hate to think that this is the best role that Ben Kingsley is being offered these days. This rather disappointing effort reminded me of Eragon as another fantasy film that has translated poorly from its literary roots because of a poor script. While better than Eragon, which was a complete wreck of a movie, this one teeters between poor and mediocre. It features pretty good fight scenes, though some will be disappointed by the complete absence of gore, but its story is a muddled mix of Arthurian legend and Roman history. The characters are wooden and the dialog is stale and unimaginative. There is an out-of-place add-on romantic subplot and the acting, even from the experienced names, ranges from poor to average.
Young Thomas Sangster plays Romulus Augustus Caesar, the young heir to the throne of the Roman Empire, who soon finds himself on the run with a handful of supporters, when his empire is snatched by an ugly and evil army of Goths. His surviving guard is led by Aurelius (Colin Firth), who is joined by the boy’s teacher, a mysterious traveler named Ambrosinus (Kingsley) and a curious warrior played by Aishwarya Rai, a well-known Asian star in what appears to be her first North American film appearance as the best chick with a blade since Kill Bill.
There are undiscriminating fans of this genre that will enjoy this film. They go in with few expectations of story or original well-constructed characters. Many of them will be disappointed in the lack of effects and low budget production values and will not be won over. As for the rest of us, this is just another release hoping to cash in on new fantasy fans created by the Lord of the Rings Trilogy that will be on video before you know it and forgotten soon after.
