100 movies: The Eagle

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100 movies of 2012

Every year I set myself a target, usually of about 100, of films to watch. These are new films. Not new, new films. But films that are new to me. Any time I’ve seen a new one, I post a bit of a brain dump of my thoughts on the film here. Enjoy!

My choice of film of late has been odd. Here’s my admission that recently, all I’ve been craving, are mindless ‘easy’ films to watch. Nothing more. I’ve got plenty of the good stuff sitting on my Sky box waiting to be seen. But I just haven’t felt like watching them. Hoping to get out of the ‘mindless’ film frame of mind soon!

The EagleThe Eagle (10/03/12)

In Roman-ruled Britain, a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father’s memory by finding his lost legion’s golden emblem.

I had a big problem with this film. A big problem which made it hard for me to sympathise with the leading character. Very hard. My problem was the Romans. The Romans being those people who, in my history lessons, were intent on ruling as much of the world as they could and doing whatever they could to do that. For all the good that they did for the world (a lot) they were still, in essence, the bad guys. Well, in my mind. Here in The Eagle I’m meant to get behind a Roman character who needs to get back a symbol of the Roman civilisation from the indigenous people where it was left.

Perhaps thinking too much into it. In fact, I know I am. This is just a film. But I couldn’t get behind Marcus’ reasoning for doing what he thought he needed to do. Also those Scottish tribes were a bit too Native American for me. I can accept the fact that the Scottish Highlands had tribes. But like that? I feel like I need to do some research.

The Eagle is a fair enough film. Channing Tatum’s not a great actor, but he did a good enough job here. Jamie Bell’s a very good actor and him and Tatum played off each other very well. The relationship between Marcus and Esca was pretty compelling to watch. I just found it too hard to get on the side of Marcus’ plight. It just felt very weak. Very weak. There could have been more time spent on Marcus and Esca’s relationship. The scenes with just those two were among my favourite.
Rating: 2/5

Read on to see all the films watched this year…

19 Films so far this year

  1. The Tourist 1/5 (02/01/12)
  2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 5/5 (03/01/12)
  3. World’s Greatest Dad 2/5 (14/01/12)
  4. Haywire 3/5 (19/01/12)
  5. Dead Snow 3/5 (20/01/12)
  6. The Artist 5/5 (21/01/12)
  7. Priest 2/5 (05/02/12)
  8. The Muppets 5/5 (15/02/12)
  9. Faster 4/5 (19/02/12)
  10. Chronicle 4/5 (22/02/12)
  11. Safe House 4/5 (24/02/12)
  12. Reservoir Dogs 4/5 (25/02/12)
  13. This Means War 4/5 (02/03/12)
  14. The Royal Tenenbaums 3/5 (03/03/12)
  15. Reign of Fire 3/5 (04/03/12)
  16. Dear John 2/5 (04/03/12)
  17. Road to Perdition 5/5 (05/03/12)
  18. The Three Musketeers 3/5 (06/03/12)
  19. The Eagle 2/5 (10/03/12)

2 Comments

  1. I’m not particularly fond of Tatum or swords and sandals films for that matter. Thanks for the review Jaina, perhaps I’ll give this one a miss.

    • I dont mind a good swords and sandals film. Unfortunately this was not it. Definitely not worth it if you’re not a fan of the genre. Though, I give it credit for being pretty CG free.

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