The Eagle Movie Blurb by Shale February 11, 2011 This was the first movie that piqued my interest in a couple of weeks. Always up for a period costume drama about Second Century Romans in Britain. We get a prologue about the disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Northern Britain in 140 AD, which prompted Emperor Hadrian to build his wall and call it the end of the world. Then we move to the arrival of Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) the new leader of an outpost in Britain. Marcus comes to Britain We find out that young Marcus is the son of the leader of the ill-fated IX Legion and his family bears some shame for the complete loss of 5K Roman Legionnaires complete with their standard, a golden eagle (Aha! the movie's name). When Marcus gets wounded fighting a valiant battle, he spends time recuperating at his uncle's (Donald Sutherland) villa. Marcus & Uncle While attending a local arena event where a trained Gladiator is to fight an armed but ill-trained slave, Marcus admires the Brit slave's courage and saves him from the inevitable. Uncle acquires Esca (Jamie Bell) the slave to assist Marcus. Marcus is still plagued by the disappearance of his father and the loss of the IX Legion Standard. He enlists his slave and they go past Hadrian's wall into the part of Britain where Rome has no control Slave & Master on Quest Here is where much of the drama occurs, as we aren't sure of the loyalty of Esca to his "master" once they are in Esca's domain and out of that of Rome, especially when Esca has to do the talking with people who hate the Romans. They do encounter hostile forces in their quest and there are some battle scenes - about what we would expect. In fact they are at the mercy of the Seal People who have allied with Esca's tribe of Britons in fighting the Romans. Picti & Marcus I enjoyed the movie as a diversion but it wasn't all that good. Channing Tatum didn't really put any great emotion into his character, unlike Jamie Bell who really showed the conflict of his character. But, like I say, always up for a period costume drama.
Thanks for the review Shale, you saved me from seeing this on me and my fiance's anniversary. He was really wanting to see this and I made him read your review. =D We ended up seeing the King's Speech which was AMAZING. Anyway, when a good torrent comes out for this movie I'll probably grab it instead of paying money to see it in the theater... And your right about Channing Tatum, he lacks a lot of depth in pretty much everything he's in, thank god he's so freaking pretty to look at! =D That'll keep some of us watching. =D
