REVIEW: ‘The Last Legion’ (2007)

Italian author Valerio Manfredi’s fictional retelling of Britain’s Pendragon myth, imaginatively merged with the destruction of the Roman Empire, provides the loose basis for legendary independent producer Dino De Laurentiis’ sword-and-sandal actioner THE LAST LEGION. With HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS veteran Doug Lefler at the helm, the film is a lightweight adventure where a solid list of talent in front of and behind the camera is mismanaged with lackluster results.

As a fan of ancient British and Roman history, I found the plot intriguing if farfetched even by fictional standards. Manfredi’s novel presents a “what if” scenario suggesting that Romulus Augustus, the boy emperor of the Western Roman Empire, who only reigned for a few short months before being deposed by the barbarian general Odoacer in 476, escapes imprisonment and travels to Britain where he eventually becomes the father of King Arthur and the bearer of the legendary sword Excalibur. Colin Firth plays Aurelius, a battle-hardened Roman general who swears loyalty to protect the young emperor along with a small band of followers and Mira (Aishwarya Rai), a fierce warrior woman sent from Constantinople. Merlin appears in the guise of Ambrosinus (Sir Ben Kingsley), a Celtic druid who helps guide Augustus towards his destiny.

The film’s title refers to members of the Ninth Legion, once charged with defending the northern-most reaches of the Roman Empire at Hadrian’s Wall which divided Britain between north and south. This is where Aurelius leads his party in hopes of rallying what remains of the Roman military. Meanwhile, Visigoth barbarians intent on snatching the boy back for fear that he might one day threaten their new hold on Rome, arrive in Britain and align themselves with Vortgyn (Harry Van Gorkum), a golden-masked Saxon warlord and enemy of Ambrosinus with ambitions to rule over the local Celts.

THE LAST LEGION plays fast and loose with history and legend both while trying to put the emphasis on spirited adventure. Despite Lefler’s experience with Sam Raimi projects ARMY OF DARKNESS, HERCULES, and XENA, the film is not as intentionally low brow corny and instead aims closer to the GLADIATOR and Troy arena, sans excessive digital effects. While it never reaches this level, the film has rock solid ingredients in play with decent production design from Carmelo Agate (IMPERIUM: AUGUSTUS), a full orchestral score from Patrick Doyle (HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE) and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, and very good action choreography from sword master Richard Ryan (TROY) and Steve Griffin (THE DESCENT). Fine cinematography overall is provided by Marco Pontecorvo, son of famed Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo. Pontecorvo the elder directed THE BATTLE ALGIERS (1966) which is quite simply one of the finest war films ever made. I wish I could say the same thing about THE LAST LEGION, as far as adventure films go.

On this project, Lefler is simply out of his league as a filmmaker, something he has little experience at anyway. I would imagine it would be a challenge for anyone who started out as a storyboard artist for television cartoons like TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE. From there he went on to some truly awful B-movies before getting on board ARMY OF DARKNESS. The thing is, THE LAST LEGION isn’t a disaster. Worse, it’s mediocre. It has brief, possibly accidental moments of brilliance and the other 90 percent is one wasted opportunity after another.

The casting is full of potential. I’m not too familiar with Collin Firth but he has tremendous presence, no doubt honed by his theatrical experience like so many of his British peers. Yet I get the impression that attempts to keep him from becoming a Russell Crowe clone only resulted in him becoming nothing. This lack of character depth doesn’t stop here. The rest of the cast is directed the same way. This includes Kingsley, the beautiful East Indian actress Aishwarya Rai and precocious child actor Thomas Sangster. The one actor to emerge seemingly unscathed by Lefler’s misdirection is Scottish actor Peter Mullan. As the shrewd Visigoth warlord Odoacer he oozes convincing menace. His role is way to short but it wouldn’t have helped with no one else able to match him onscreen.

Firth’s battle mates are completely undeveloped stereotypes. It may not be entirely accurate but I can easily spot what looks like a poor attempt to blend the battle camaraderie in KING ARTHUR (2004) with empty shades of Keira Knightley’s role in KING ARTHUR, Morgan Freeman in ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991), and perhaps even Kirk Douglas and friends in THE VIKINGS (1958). That might actually be giving Lefler and the screenwriting team of Jez and Tom Butterworth too much credit for doing their filmic homework and making credible facsimiles of similar historical screen characters.

A good indicator that Lefler has really failed is to listen to his audio commentary to the film, available on The Weinstein Company’s DVD release. He describes his intent behind various aspects of the production. They are sound and suggest that he understands the language yet when you look at the film the intent often cannot be seen because it was poorly filmed and storyboarded. As example, he points out how the emperor’s throne that Augustus briefly sits in during his coronation was built to intentionally leave the boy’s feet dangling above the floor as a visual indicator that he’s still a child in a man’s world. But I couldn’t tell because the camera shot the scene too wide. Symbolism is wasted when the viewer can’t see it properly. At other times, the little visual gimmicks are shot so over-the-top that it is nearly impossible to accept it, as when Augustus tosses his mythic sword away and it miraculously lands perfectly embedded vertically in stone. This late scene in particular is unfortunate because the filmmakers try hard to keep the King Arthur elements grounded somewhat in reality. One of the film’s really effective visual moments is when Kingsley’s character, appears from the perspective of attacking Saxons, to throw fireballs at them.

The action scenes are mostly well choreographed, distinctive and varied. Rai’s character stands out with her inverted sword handling and fluid movements. She basically has all the cool fight scenes and although lacking experience, she performs most of the stunt work herself. As a woman warrior in the ancient world, Mira is given an excuse for being capable of taking on five or six hulking barbarian males at a time. She is highly trained in the art of Kalaripayattu, a 3000-year-old combat system from India that predates Shaolin kung fu and provided the foundation for it. One of the film’s highlights is a duel between the agile Rai with twin short swords and the massive, aged James Cosmo wielding a two-handed battle hammer.

Another memorable action scene is when remnants of the Ninth Legion appear in full battle dress and proceed to break into the classic tortoise shield formation made famous by Rome’s crack Legionnaires to repel Saxon arrows. A Slovak stunt team also provides a few slick horse-related stunts. Yet even these quality action scenes are tempered by a few goofy HERCULES-style moments as when Kingsley’s character unnecessarily swaps places with a heavy statue while dangling from a rope or when Aurelius uses an overly sophisticated grappling hook gun or crossbow to scale a wall. To their credit, the filmmakers intentionally keep CGI additions to the film and it definitely has a positive effect on the action sequences. I’m not as happy with how some of the action is shot. Lefler is able to produce some nice visuals but doesn’t have an eye adding necessary punctuation for today’s screen fighting. It has the feel of a TV production in this sense and that’s a problem a lot of professionals have when they move from television to feature film.

Aside from a few bloody moments that show an impaling or a disfigured face, THE LAST LEGION is a fairly tame period actioner that would be suitable for typical family viewing, unlike the sexed up and gruesome mainstream sword-and-sandal epics that have appeared in theaters in recent years. There’s some light romance, comedy and lots of mixed gender swashbuckling action as its biggest attraction. With mostly flat acting performances, poor direction and a highly implausible story, the film is impossible to accept as serious entertainment and it will likely bore avid action fans who like their screen fighting and characters with more bite. It’s a movie for one of those lazy, sick or no-brainer days when interest and expectations are lower than usual but you still need something to help pass the time.