Last year I watched a movie called Centurion, which told what (apparently) happened to the ill-fated 9th Legion when they disappeared beyond Hadrian's Wall into the depths of primitive Scotland. The Eagle tells a different story - Marcus, invalided out of the Roman army with a leg wound, nips off beyond Hardian's Wall into the depths of primitive Scotland to find out what (apparently) happened to the ill-fated 9th Legion. Not the same at all.
To be fair, although both are drawn from the same basic source material, the two stories are not the same - Marcus' journey as far more of a Roman buddy movie, although "buddy" is perhaps straining things a bit. Marcus (Channing Tatum) is accompanied by his slave Eska (Jamie Bell), and there is a subtext of honour, obligation, and trust running through the film as the two of them go into the wilds to try to recover the lost Eagle of the 9th, and find out what happened to Marcus' father..
The Eagle is filmed on location in Scotland (which looks very Scottish) and Hungary (which often doesn't). Though it isn't as bleak as Centurion, it still looks pretty cold and wet and miserable much of the time. There's lots of action, much of it bloody, a couple of other well-known faces (Mark Strong, who isn't in it very much, and who sports an incongruous American accent, for instance), and vast numbers of Hungarians in supporting roles and as extras. The script isn't bad, and it's quite entertaining.
To be fair, although both are drawn from the same basic source material, the two stories are not the same - Marcus' journey as far more of a Roman buddy movie, although "buddy" is perhaps straining things a bit. Marcus (Channing Tatum) is accompanied by his slave Eska (Jamie Bell), and there is a subtext of honour, obligation, and trust running through the film as the two of them go into the wilds to try to recover the lost Eagle of the 9th, and find out what happened to Marcus' father..
The Eagle is filmed on location in Scotland (which looks very Scottish) and Hungary (which often doesn't). Though it isn't as bleak as Centurion, it still looks pretty cold and wet and miserable much of the time. There's lots of action, much of it bloody, a couple of other well-known faces (Mark Strong, who isn't in it very much, and who sports an incongruous American accent, for instance), and vast numbers of Hungarians in supporting roles and as extras. The script isn't bad, and it's quite entertaining.