Die letzte Legion

Bad. The low budget shows more than it should, and the actors all look like they were there by mistake. The director can't compose action scenes, the writers can't write normal dialogue, and the whole thing is too cheap and stupid to even be taken seriously. But the makers of The Last Legion clearly didn't understand that. (04.11.2007)

The director cannot hide his past experience on series like Xena. In fact, this looks exactly like a feature-length episode of that kind of low-budget fantasy series. That’s why the very beginning is such a pleasant surprise, making this look like it might not be a complete waste of time. Unfortunately, the longer the movie goes on, the deeper The Last Legion sinks into B-grade waters. And it doesn’t stop there, and by the end it has sunk even deeper. With every scene it moves gradually from good scenes, through bearable scenes and stops at the level of unintentionally hilarious scenes. Uninspiring battles, TV-standard production design and actors either awful and over-acting heavily, or at best bored and standing around doing nothing. Perhaps only the music has anything to it. (18.06.2007)

In the reviews for The Last Legion, it is very clear what film fans consider most essential in the fantasy genre - the visual spectacle. The Last Legion is a cheaper affair, but that personally doesn't bother me. The problem lies with the script, which recycles motifs that have been seen many times before and dully uses some typical genre clichés. This is a case of so-called historical fantasy, which tries to place its story in a specific historical era and uses specific historical characters, unfortunately in a very superficial way. The only bright spot is the A-list actors, who may have ended up in this film more by mistake, but who deliver a decent standard and, truth be told, easily outshine many well-known fantasy characters from the past (such as Conan). However, when a slim, beautiful Indian warrior appears, effortlessly taking down twelve heavily armed brutes who are experienced warriors, while also suggesting she has had time to knit a sweater, I can only shrug and say that this kind of fairy tale simply is not for me. Overall impression: 35%. (02.01.2009)

Als Abenteuer-Koproduktion mit vielen interessanten Gesichtern ist dieser Film durchaus in Ordnung. Die Pointe ist jedoch ziemlich gewagt. Außerdem ist dies der vierte englischsprachige Film mit Aish Rai Bachchan und gleichzeitig eine Herzensangelegenheit des Xenaverse-Regisseurs Doug Lefler. Ganz zu schweigen von der Verbindung zu John Hannah. (25.01.2009)

Die letzte Legion ist für mich etwas Ähnliches wie der Film King Arthur. Ich weiß, dass der Streifen nicht perfekt ist. Er ist aber so unterhaltsam, dass ich ihm eine überdurchschnittliche Bewertung geben muss. Die letzte Legion darf man nicht mit Filmen wie Gladiator oder Königreich der Himmel vergleichen, die in die erste Liga gehören. Es ist ein purer Popcorn-Film mit guten Schauspieler*innen (bei Firth hatte ich am Anfang ein bisschen Angst, was sich aber schließlich als überflüssig herausgestellt hat; Kingsley hat mich damit überrascht, wie sympathisch er war), einer tollen Musik von Patrick Doyle, einem Drehbuch, das zwar nicht besonders einfallsreich ist, aber Schwung hat und ab und zu sogar (absichtlich!) witzig ist, und einer sensationellen Pointe am Ende. Ich war überrascht, wie schnell die 98 Minuten vergangen sind. 3,75 Sterne. (15.08.2010)