Jason Widgington

What starts out as a promisingly violent and giddily gory historical epic quickly devolves into scene after scene of navel-gazing philosophical ruminations that are more akin to the most confusing episodes of Lost than they are to the Scandinavian battle scenes of films like Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf and John McTiernan's The 13th Warrior.

What starts out as a promisingly violent and giddily gory historical epic quickly devolves into scene after scene of navel-gazing philosophical ruminations that are more akin to the most confusing episodes of Lost than they are to the Scandinavian battle scenes of films like Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf and John McTiernan's The 13th Warrior.

Centurion is a perfectly passable historical adventure film, with the battles and tension and grandiose cinematic visuals that go along with it. It's just that Marshall's two best films were his first two. Perhaps he should re-visit his horror roots soon and give his legion of fans what they really want.

Centurion is a perfectly passable historical adventure film, with the battles and tension and grandiose cinematic visuals that go along with it. It's just that Marshall's two best films were his first two. Perhaps he should re-visit his horror roots soon and give his legion of fans what they really want.

Agora truly is a technical achievement. But the story itself, with two seemingly disparate narratives that seem to fight for screen time but ultimately tie in together, is somehow lacking; the film suffers because of its dual personality.