Neil Marshall's Centurion features a commitment to craft that helps overcome issues of storytelling by providing a visceral, violent experience designed to get you in your gut and bones more than in your heart or head. This is a brutal film about people determined to fight for their own cause, even if they're not completely clear on the purpose or inception of said cause. Unlike the cold experience of something like 300 or the trippy journey of a film like Valhalla Rising, Centurion strives for that rare feeling of realism in a period action/adventure with only a few stylish flourishes. With a very talented cast, Marshall returns to the form displayed by The Descent after the relative failure of the misstep of Doomsday and reminds us why he's been such a buzzed-about director in the first place.

In 117 A.D., the Roman Empire was on the fast track to take over the entire planet. A group of Roman Centurions was advancing through Britain and when they reached the northern edge of what would become the United Kingdom they stumbled upon a group of inhabitants known as the Picts. These violent warriors stood their ground and the legend goes that the Ninth Legion disappeared into the mist. Marshall uses this legend to draw characters within the myth starting with Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender of Hunger and Inglourious Basterds) and the leader Virilus (Dominic West of The Wire) on the side of the Romans and the deadly Etain (Olga Kurylenko) on the side of the Picts. Character development is minimal as location and battle were clearly the production priority but the great Fassbender and Kurylenko find a way to make an impact despite being sketchily written. Marshall's wife Axelle Carolyn and the rising star Imogen Poots (Solitary Man) are also memorable in small roles.

When I think of Centurion I think of dirt and blood.

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