Bing, bing, bing...It's official! We have the winner of the most under-rated movie of the year. What the hell are you people thinkin'? I need advance warning of a movie as good as this so I can see it on a big screen. I
almost let this gem pass between my toes like yet another piece of common gravel.
The Last Legion is magnificent storytelling! It's right up there with the best of the many great myths which informed our ancestors' hearts around the campfire for eons. Anyone who looks for historical truth in a sword & sandals film proves themselves a fool before they enter the theatre. No! This is an old school, old school B-movie, where the "B" stands for
best. The creators and producers make the best of their many limitations to convincingly unspool their tale. This ain't no
highest budget/lowest common denominator crap like so much of what we've been shown all year - - this is just the opposite. A movie that transcends it's origins and soars into the very history of cinema itself. This is a movie that will be remembered both for how poorly the initial reviewers fared when presented with a minor masterpiece of mythology in the year 2007, and also for it's inherent perfection.
Anyone who claims to be a fanboy of
LOTR,
and NO, I don't mean that recent pale wraith of a film adaptation - - I am speaking of the 20th century's one true literary masterpiece of the fantasy genre:
The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - - surely must see the same epic roots springing forth in this fine, fine film.
All the leads are solid as one might imagine from the likes of Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley, both such professionals, that they never give less than their best performance. But the secret to casting such a small film as this is in the supporting cast. Aishwarya Rai does a good job here, but it is the unknown or lesser known journeymen actors who's underlying shine gives this movie it's authentic glow. I single out Thomas Sangster amongst them, who's work as Romulus Augustus soothed any remaining doubts I fostered in this movie's veracity. (No surprise given the quality of his previous work in
Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, and
Tristan + Isolde - - the boy knows how to brandish a sword and burnish a heart!
I know that there are those amongst you that mock my film rating system. I also know that there are several true fans of the
Patented Bradley Witherberry Grading System (PBWGS).
As I was just forced to remind certain naysayers in a
recent thread:
Bradley Witherberry wrote:
On this crazy board in which
POTC3 is rated as top ten material by many, I feel comfortable living within my
idiosyncratic, inflationary, impressionistically rated little world. If I followed you lot, I'd be aimlessly wandering about the cinema landscape, jibbering on about crap like
Once...
Witherberry is the future!
This movie is so good, so under-rated, that I herewith bestow upon it my highest rating yet for any film:
23 out of 5.
Addendum Primorus Gravis:I tell thee true - - get thee to a theatre and see this
one on the big screen, before it is swept from view by the modern day Vortgyn's running our pitiful world. Ultimately, the true heroes will regain the surface and champion these buried cinematic symbols of the true human spirit.
Be amongst that vanguard!
