The Last Legion

Being a sucker for historical fiction and fantasy films, I went out to see The Last Legion the other night. For those unfamiliar with it, The Last Legion stars Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth and chronicles the legend of Excalibur, the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of King Arthur.

To be honest, I didn't know a lot about the movie, so I didn't have horribly high expectations.

Most of The Last Legion was incredibly predictable, and therefor hard to enjoy. The film also features some extremely cheesy moments, many of which surround the female member of the legion. This character tried very poorly to hide her sexuality and was surrounded with several awful cliches. First off, it's pretty cliche to have an attractive female character pop in and join your party for no reason. Secondly, this female character was also the best fighter of the group, which the film makers seemed to think was really creative. The third cliche is that this single female character ended up becoming the love interest of the hero, despite no chemistry between them.

Anyway, the acting is also poor and the story takes quite a while to pick up. When it does get moving, though, there are a handful of neat fighting sequences. And, if you're like me, you'll appreciate a new King Arthur and Excalibur related tale.

In short, The Last Legion isn't awful, but it's not really worth a trip to the movies unless you're a sucker like me. Otherwise, avoid it altogether or just wait for a rental. If you haven't seen it, King Arthur, starring Clive Owen, is a similar and superior flick.