Written by Fumo Verde
In the final days of the Roman Empire the last of Julius Caesar’s bloodline is fleeing for his life to the Empire’s northern-most stronghold in hopes of securing the alliance of a legion to support the boy Emperor. Director Lefler takes these ending moments of antiquity and weaves a tale into the next mark on the timeline of this human race, the Dark Ages. The fall of Flavius Romulus Augustus Caesar was considered the end of the Western Roman Empire and after his capture by Odoacer, the Germanic-Goth leader, the boy Caesar was never mentioned in history again. This DVD is fantasy mixed with history, or as I call it “histasy,” and Lefler stretches it into the story of King Arthur.
Colin Firth plays Aurelius the Legion Commander who has come back to Rome to serve as the Emperor’s special guard. He is loyal to Flavius, Rome, and his Eagle (the Legion Standard). While not really happy with this duty, he understands that Rome’s enemies are at the gates and are ready to over take the city and kill off the Emperor. With help from his most trusted soldiers and a secret weapon from Constantinople, Mira (Aishwarya Rai) a beautiful but deadly fighter. As Aurelius prepares to protect the young leader, the Goths attack and take the boy prisoner.
Flavius has luck on his side in Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley), who is the boy’s teacher and mentor, and seems to be kind of a mystic. Ambrosinus is taken with Flavius to an old Roman island fort. Once imprisoned on this remote island Ambrosinus realizes their jailhouse actually holds a magic sword made for Julius Caesar back in the day. The sword has great power and has a prophecy that anyone who controls it rules the world. Grabbing the sword and escaping with the help of Aurelius and Mira, the small band make their way to Britain in the hope that the 9th Legion will still hold their loyalty to Flavius.
There are things I liked about this film and things I didn’t. Likeable was Firth who made his role believable in subtle ways, such as being faced with overwhelming odds and giving a look of “you’ve got to be kidding me” rather than the standard Hollywood Hero’s “I like the odds” look. The fight scenes moved too fast for any complexity like in 300 and they weren’t unbelievable. Kingsley’s character at one point looks as if he is throwing fireballs at the enemy, when in reality catapults are launching them. A little comedy comes through here. This movie gave a sense of reality to the story with little things like this. I also fell in love with the beauty and acting of Aishwarya Rai who I hope to see a lot more of.
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Article comments
1 - Ashley
this movie was ok..could have been a whole lot better. ben and colin did absolutely nothing for me. the only person that made this movie worthwhile was Ash...seriously...she amazed me! i swear it looks like the woman is a natural sword fighter...she is sooo incredible! very very impressive...and good lord..the only thing more deadly that her and that sword is her and that face! my God! absolute perfection! she really did do a great job
2 - Jeff
"The Last Legion" is a kinda of a movie which is based on the book by an italian writer, Valerio Massimo Manfredi. About the movie, I think I like the whole Rome falling Arthur kinda theme. The movie is entertaining, the music was heroic, the characters interesting and the actors fitting their roles well. In a word, the cast is pretty nice and the movie itself is enjoyable. I have to say I started to be a big fan of Colin Firth just because of this movie. I think Colin Firth really did a fantastic job here. And his performance in it is more wonderful than his other recent work. [Edited]. I think if you like this guy, this movie is a MUST SEE one.