If I can describe what I thought about the action flick The Eagle, shortened from its source material novel The Eagle of the Ninth, in one sentence, it is this: the best part was the end because it was over. For a longer summation of what I thought of it, read on.
Our hero, Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum), is a Roman Centurion who gets command of his first post in Britain, but is quickly, honorably discharged after getting wounded in battle with the natives. Before then, his name’s been legendary for all the wrong reasons; his father commanded the long-lost Ninth Spanish Legion, whose symbol was a golden eagle.
He rescues a slave named Esca (Jamie Bell) from the gladiator games, and together, the two head off to explore what lies beyond the ominous Hadrian’s Wall. The plan is to find the Eagle, bring it back to Rome, and find out about the last days of the Ninth Legion. Or something.
It may be a bit under two hours, but it sure felt longer than that. Stuff happens in this movie, and unfortunately, not a lot of it is interesting. The editing of the fight scenes is choppy, particularly in the fight scenes, which look like they’ve been obviously censored for its PG-13 rating. Whatever meaningful messages it tried to say was just lost in dull city.
The Eagle has landed, and by landed, I mean crash landed. Hopefully, everyone involved, particularly director Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) will walk away just fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment