Talkie Tuesday: The Last Legion

"Hail, Caesar!"

Hello everyone!

To be perfectly honest, I seem to be bouncing back and forth between genres when watching movies and/or TV shows, because I wanted to actually do a different review today, one about Star Trek, because, hello, I watched Beyond this weekend and YES is all I can say! 

But sadly, I also finished reading a Roman-esque book today and I'm still pretty much under the sway of that particular influence, ergo I went back to find this Roman-inspired movie I had watched waaaay back. I think it was last summer, but in any event, who cares about the when, if I get to them at some point, right?

Anyway.

After finishing Simon Scarrow's Eagle book (number three, to be exact), I fell into the whole Roman craze and dug through my sheep notebook until I found the movie called The Last Legion.

Which, to be honest, I originally watched only because of a book I'd read of the same title, but in the end realised it wasn't even CLOSE, content-wise.

Well, it did have Colin Firth, if nothing else.

My first impression of the movie: holy S*** that's a lot of Game of Thrones characters in there!

My second: how is Colin Firth going to survive the muck of Rome?

Ahem.

A boy is crowned last Emperor in Rome, around the time when Odoacer betrays the empire and takes the boy-Emperor captive (this would be circa 460 AD).

Aurelius, the Emperor's bodyguard, survives the attack and (remembering that he had actually dunked the then future Emperor and thus feeling more than a little responsible), helped by an Eastern warrior, goes after his men first, freeing them from the slavers, so the lot of them can then go after Romulus (Emperor) to get him out of the prison he's in, which is the island of Capri.

The Eastern warrior turns out to be a woman, Mira (Aishwarya Ray), who shares an instant attraction with Aurelius, but they have a job to do, so they scale the Capri walls and rescue Romulus, his tutor, and the sword of Julius Caesar.

Note: the fabled leader had apparently stored his sword there for future generations to use.

They then decide to head to Britannia, which, as far removed as it is from the central Empire, might still be loyal to Rome and its Emperor.

More specifically, they want the Ninth Legion, which is yet free of Odoacer's rule.

But once there, they find a land ravaged by a tyrant named Wortigan, who desperately seeks the very sword Romulus now owns, and who will stop at nothing to get it, including launching an attack against Aurelius.

After pleading with the Ninth to help, and being rebuked because most of the men had turned farmers and married the native women, Aurelius and his men (and Mira) decide to make a last stand at Hadrian's Wall, or what remains of it. Romulus gifts his sword, or Caesar's sword, to Aurelius, after having grown close to both the abrassive man and Mira, who take turns to watch out for the young boy.

The battle begins, and would have gone VERY badly if not for the VERY timely arrival of the Ninth Legion, because, once a legionary, always a legionary, and they will always obey the call to Rome.

At the same time, the tutor has pursued Wortigan to the Druid's Keep, where he has defeated the tyrant, revealing that Wortigan has enslaved Britannia and that the tutor has fought, from boyhood, to retrieve the freedom his people always wanted.

On the battlefield, Aurelius is deadly wounded, but Romulus commands him to live, which he in fact does.

The sword is then seen as taken by Romulus, and thrown into the air, before it lands in a stone.

The story then forwards to the future, where it is being told by Merlin (the tutor, cue gasp!) to a young Arthur - Aurelius married Mira and they raised Romulus together, until he grew up into Pendragon (son of the dragon, as Aurelius fought like one and the Ninth Legion's symbol was a dragon), and eventually married Ygraine, a girl we meet earlier in the movie.

The last we see of the legend, the sword is still in the stone, with only certain letters visible in the original inscription upon it: EXCALIBUR.

It's an intriguing take on the Arthurian legend, but hey, it was entertaining, if some shots could have been much better. It was nice enough to watch on a summer's evening though!

Plus, well, I'm a sucker for Rome and King Arthur.

xx

*images and video not mine