Saturday 14 May 2011

Angry Movie Lurker Review 37: The Eagle (3 STARS).







In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.


The Eagle I believe is based on Rosemary Sutcliff's historical adventure novelThe Eagle of the Ninth (1954)


I like Roman movies especially set around the time of early imperial Rome (between 25BC and 193AD) as I used to game this period of Roman warfare, the action at the beginning is good between legionaries and British tribesmen as Marcus takes command of a garrison. Marcus is all brooding and a bit moody (not the best choice for this role), the action then crosses Hadrian's wall in pursuit of the lost eagle, the movie is then the relationship between Marcus and his slave Esca ( who he saved at a gladiator bout and was then presented to him by his uncle and played well by Bell) as they search for the eagle in the North but will Esca's secret, lost ninth legionaries and a slightly dodgy ending ruin the search?, no by this stage you will stay the course because you've watched it this far but it's worth the watch especially if you like a bit of a Roman action romp (it also has Mark Strong and Donald Sutherland doing their brief best aswell) but it's no Centurion or something you might rewatch. 

42 comments:

  1. Cool - thanks for the review. I recently read The Eagle Of The Ninth (which was really good btw) and I wondered how the movie would compare.

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  2. Interesting, I think I have seen or heard of something similar before, this could be a good movie to check out.

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  3. woot thanks for sharing, been watching spartacus series lately so i am into that kind of movies..it's on my list to see!

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  4. There seems to be a lot of roman type films out recently ( recently for me has an open meaning being the age i am and I can still remeber when it was all trees and fields around here)
    I´m going to save all these films up and have a Roman weekend of film watching. Sling my Toga on, a pint or two of wine and my trusty bavarian pipe...:-D
    Cheers
    paul

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  5. Good review. I like nearly all "historical period piece" films, so I may go ahead and put this on my "to-watch" list.

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  6. Great review! Stumbled across your blog from a friend's blog, following now :)

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  7. I haven't seen this but I do like Channing Tatum

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  8. I love epic films so I must check this out!

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  9. Wow this still sounds pretty nice...
    Did not even know this movie existed :D

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  10. looks kickass, I saw the commercials ages ago, never went to see it though.

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  11. Is it better than Centurion? Also have you seen The 13th Warrior? It's Vikings not Romans but as these kind of films go it's one of the better ones.

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  12. Like Paul said, there seems to be a lot of Roman/Military movies and knock-offs as of late.

    3 stars? That means I should not mind the money involved or the people involved. WE WILL SEE.

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  13. hmm haven't seen this one!

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  14. Saw it. It was pretty decent. I expected less and got more.

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  15. I thought Centurion was an excellent film so when I heard that Eagle was coming out, I was very interested given that it is almost a "sequel" to the events portrayed in Centurion.

    A 3 Stars from Fran is good enough for me to give it a go

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  16. So this is a movie to see on a sunday evening when your bored as hell. Will do tomorrow

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  17. I do love roman war movies, so this is definitely going on my to-watch list :D

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  18. i've seen this movie; it's enjoyable enough. :)

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  19. lol how do i not know about any of these movies u review

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  20. No longer will I ever see another movie with Channing Tandum... Not after Dear John... >:P

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  21. Love these type of films, I have heard bad reviews about this one, but I will still give it a watch...heres hoping.

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  22. somewhat of a let down this one

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  23. Awesome review man, will check this out! ;D

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  24. Anything with Donald Sutherland can't be all bad, and this sounds like it would be good. Did a whole legion really disappear up there, and if so, what happened to them?

    We know two legions did disappear around where Paul lives, but they were stabbed and chopped by the Germans, no mystery.

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  25. I was wondering how this compared with "Centurion," which I thoroughly enjoyed, so thas
    nks for you review.

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  26. i've seen this movie, i wasn't that keen on it

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  27. I watched it with my wife the other day. she's not the military type (far from it), but a real history freak. We both liked the first part... But then came the second part... We had time to do the dishes and then coma back... Still not arrived? Ok, let's do something else... And the end, well... It seemed to us to predictable. So, We were both disappointed.

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  28. I am intrigued by this time period, so I'd like to see this movie some time.

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  29. Pretty cool..I love the weaponry that romans used.

    Sky Stock Analysis

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  30. Sounds pretty homoerotic, but most films from the genre do. I'll check it out.

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  31. Thanks for the review mate - on the basis of your blog I gave it a watch and concur with your opinion. A good bit of fun with some great scenes at the beginning, and the gladiator scene gave me some modelling ideas for an arena project I've got bubbling away at the back of my mind.

    Thanks buddy!

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  32. i saw this movie not too long ago. I have to say it was very cliche that the whole aspect of "honor" and "glory" was played out once again in a very "different" but bland story line

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  33. Love any reason to watch warfare from this era... Ill take your 3 stars and my love of action as a positive review ;0

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  34. I just came back from Rome... I HAVE to watch this!

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  35. I just want to see this movie in the hopes that I'll get to see Channing Tatum's ass like I saw Brad Pitt's in Troy!

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  36. yep, it's true, the film was weaker than CENTURION. but since there are so little epics and historical films out there, I tend to like all of them afraid that a bad criticism might stop Hollywood from making them again :(

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  37. Hahaha, that's awesome, I just watched this movie like 2 weeks ago, great review, I would probably give it about the same, maybe 3.5 just cause I really liked the cinematography

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