Channing Tatum is not as horribly miscast as you might expect in the role of a Roman soldier who ventures north of Hadrian's Wall into anarchic Scotland. Based on a book, The Eagle of the Ninth, that also spawned the 1977 UK miniseries, this movie has problems unrelated to the acting—its pacing and storytelling simply don't work onscreen.
The Bigger Picture: Having made a movie set in Uganda entitled The Last King of Scotland, director Kevin Macdonald returns to the actual Scotland, in an era of monarchies and empires, for this new adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliff's novel.
Much of the director's filmography has been documentaries, and the period detail here at least feels authentic. Perhaps, given this background, he felt an obligation to be true to the book above all else, but not everything in novels works the same way when presented visually. Notably, it takes forever for the hero's primary journey to start, and it involves a whole lot of talking and explanation once it does.
Tatum is Marcus Aquila, son of a soldier whose reputation has been tarnished by the fact that he failed to come back from Scotland alive with the gold eagle emblem of his regiment. Early on, we see Aquila go into battle against several Braveheart types from the north, and acquit himself well, but he still has something to prove. So after he saves the life of a slave named Esca (Jamie Bell) in the local gladiator arena, he persuades the poor sucker to accompany him north to find the shiny bird, and maybe learn of his father's fate.
Source; eoline
Posted in: Movie Reviews
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