La Dernière Légion

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)

This film is perfectly fine as an adventure co-production with many interesting faces. However, the point of the film is quite bold. Moreover, this is the fourth English-language film with Aish Rai Bachchan and it is also the love of Xenaverse director Doug Lefler. And that’s not even mentioning the John Hannah connection. (25/01/2009)

I'm in the same boat with The Last Legion as I am with King Arthur. I know it's not perfect, but it's so much fun that I just have to give it an above average rating. The film can’t be compared to first-rate stuff like Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and the like. It's a pure popcorn flick with good actors (I was a bit scared of Firth at the beginning, but unnecessarily so, Kingsley surprised me by how likable he was), great music by Patrick Doyle, a script that is not very imaginative, but moves fast and is (intentionally!) funny here and there, and a sensational final point. The hour and a half went by so fast that I was amazed. Three and three-quarters. (15/08/2010)