Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Jackson Booth-Millard
I knew this film was set during a time period full of men in armour with swords, but that's about it really, I was up for giving it a go, directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland). Basically in Roman Britain in the year AD 140, during the time of Hadrian's Wall, it has been twenty years since the unexplained disappearance of the centurion army the Ninth Spanish Legion in the mountains of Scotland. Young centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, who disappeared with the army, along with the eagle standard of the ill-fated legion. Following his career in the army being cut short, and his father's name still in disrepute, Marcus hears rumours that the eagle standard has been seen in the north of Britain, he decides to recover it, ignoring the warning of his Uncle Aquila (Donald Sutherland) and his fellow Romans that believe that no Roman can survive north of Hadrian's Wall, he is accompanied only by his slave Esca (Jamie Bell). Marcus and Esca travel into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia, confronting savage tribes along the way, Marcus makes peace with his father's memory, and he does eventually retrieve the lost golden emblem. Warriors try to stop them when they journey back, but they thwart their enemies and deliver the eagle to the astonished governor in Londinium, there is talk of the Ninth Legion being reformed and Marcus being its commander, but Marcus leaves the decision with Esca, he says "you decide". Also starring Mark Strong as Guern, Tahar Rahim as Seal Prince, Denis O'Hare as Lutorius, Paul Ritter as Galba, Douglas Henshall as Cradoc and Dickensian's Ned Dennehy as Seal Chief / The Horned One. Tatum does a good English accent and has brawn, Bell is okay as the freed slave, their relationship is a little contrived but alright, I will admit I could follow every moment of the story, the political stuff especially, I mainly stayed with it because of the fight sequences and seeing how the mission turns out, all together it is a reasonable epic historical action adventure drama. Worth watching!
Python Hyena
The Eagle (2011): Dir: Kevin MacDonald / Cast: Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, Mark Strong, Tahar Rahim: Mediocre medieval film about this sacred eagle idol that must be recovered. Channing Tatum plays the young commander of the Roman garrison who leads the battle against the Celtic tribesmen. He is honorably discharged when injured in battle. His task is to claim the eagle statue for which they are represented as well as learn what became of his father when it went missing. He is joined by a slave whom he saved from certain execution. These idol quest are becoming a joke. Why not just carve out another one and save yourself a lot of agony. Director Kevin MacDonald is backed by fine production and fast pace action battle scenes but the screenplay is a joke. Tatum survives the material and strides onward despite injury but the concluding battle is far predictable. Jamie Bell does well as the slave whom is never quite centred in terms of his intentions and that is what makes him effective. Some of his actions are predictable while others are a guessing game. Donald Sutherland is underused as Tatum's uncle who oversees his recovery. Mark Strong steals his moments as a survivor of Tatum's father's army. He tells of the battle and how fleeing seems only logical. Tahar Rahim has the laughable title of Prince of the Seal People, which sounds about as stupid as calling himself Flipper. The film is well made but way too familiar and corny. It is like going on a quest to find a rare Christmas ornament that will make little difference to the overall holiday. All in all, this film never flies. Score: 3 ½ / 10
dahlswede
The Eagle (2011) offers an interesting presentation of an historical action movie. It will probably appeal to history buffs, especially those interested in movies with a strong emphasis upon Pictish/Celtic or ancient Roman themes.Although certainly too violent for children to watch, this film offers adult audiences almost non-stop action strongly rooted in powerful characterizations. Set during the period of the Roman occupation of the British Isles, it also provides beautifully photographed re-creations of Roman and Pitctish/Celtic culture during the ancient period.The story follows the career in Gaul of a brave young Roman officer whose father perished several years earlier during the massacre of a Roman Legion in Scotland. The well written script offers audiences an opportunity to develop empathy with both the occupying Romans, and the indigenous population. Just as the central characters grow and evolve over the course of the film, as a friendship develops between the Roman, Marcus Aquila and a British servant, in symbolic terms the movie could depict the amalgamation of Roman and Celtic values which contributed to the development of the British Isles.The impressive acting, directing and photography contribute to the overall entertaining quality of this movie. The film offers many beautiful natural outdoor settings as well, without losing any of the qualities of tension viewers appreciate in action films. Although The Eagle does contain many horribly violent scenes, these incidents stem directly from the plot.
U. H. S.
Warning - contains spoilers concerning the original book and the movie plot:I loved and still love the book of Rosemary Sutcliff, because its details of the plots:the introduction-plot of how Aquila was even quite deeply befriended with the British people around the Roman fort, how the situation was able to change so that they became enemies in fight... how he found the former friend's family dead after a fight and how sad that was for him... etc.the frame-plot about Cottia and Esca and Wolf- how watching Cottia had a main influence why Aquila himself decided to buy Esca, how Esca was important for getting the wolf cub named Wolf - then the part, how the connection between Aquila and Cottia started by the help of the wolf cub ... and after the return of Aquila it started to blossom the main story - the story about the Eagle, the idea of the mission, the main idea that Aquila would travel as Medic for Eyes so that he would be welcome - and how he even got working medicine by the aid of the medic who was a friend of the uncle... How Aquila decided to let Esca free BEFORE they left so that Esca joined him as equal man, not as slave ... etc. etc.And then I had to watch the movie:All important parts except the action-parts cut away or changed completely - and even the action parts changed so much that it all completely changed the drawn characters of Esca and Aquila and even other persons - it nearly made a kind of Rambo out of out of Aquila... and so of course this movie as well perverted the story plot in the North - nearly all natives constructed as evil monsters - far different than in the book where the ambivalence was a main point.Therefore - this could have become a great story of a movie, but it was perverted into a flat Action-C-Movie at the cost of all important side- plots and even at the cost of main aspects of the main plot:Even the end was changed into the complete opposite: Whilst in the book the eagle's wings had to stay at the northern tribe and therefore it was pointed out as impossible to re-establish the Ninth with an eagle-torso which had lost its wings, but nevertheless Aquila AND Esca get rewarded both (but secretly) - Well, in the movie of course the War-Heroes rescued the eagle COMPLETELY and then they even openly babble about rebuilding the Ninth Legion - robbing the story the last aspect of its real historical context... WHAT THE ****?-> I was close to give 2 points, but it went worse and worse... so only 1 point possible.
