[The Last Legion 1080p Tamil Dubbed Movie
Melvin Amey
The Last Legion is a 2007 historical action adventure film directed by Doug Lefler and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. It is based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It stars Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd, John Hannah, and Iain Glen. It premiered in Abu Dhabi on 6 April 2007.
The film is loosely inspired by the events of 5th-century European history, notably the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. This is coupled with other facts and legends from the history of Britain and fantastic elements from the legend of King Arthur to provide a basis for the Arthurian legend.
Ambrosinus, a Druid and member of a secret brotherhood protecting the sword of Julius Caesar, becomes tutor to the young newly crowned Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus. As Emperor, Romulus and his father Orestes refuse to give the Gothic warlord Odoacer a third of Italy. On the same day, Romulus meets the general of the Nova Invicta Legion, Aurelius.
Sometime after the coronation, Rome is attacked by the Goths. Most soldiers of the Nova Invicta legion are killed while Aurelius is stunned and left for dead. Orestes and his wife are killed by Odoacer's lieutenant, Wulfila, who captures Romulus. The next day, Odoacer, now the ruler of the Western Empire, plans to have Romulus killed. At Ambrosinus' urging, Odoacer spares and exiles Romulus to Capri instead, along with Ambrosinus himself while Wulfila and his men are sent to guard them. With Ambrosinus' help, Romulus enters a villa built during the reign of Emperor Tiberius and he discovers a hidden chamber there. Inside, Romulus finds a statue of Julius Caesar holding his sword, forged by a Chalybian smith during his invasion of Britain. Below the statue, Romulus reads a dais which states that the sword is made for "he who is destined to rule". This is interpreted as a prophecy and Romulus keeps the weapon.
Ambrosinus and Romulus are soon rescued by Aurelius and his surviving soldiers Vatrenus, Batiatus and Demetrius, accompanied by Mira, an Indian agent of the Eastern Empire. They take Romulus to a seaport where the Eastern Emperor has promised Romulus safe passage to Constantinople. They barely escape after they learn that the Eastern Empire has actually betrayed them and sided with Odoacer. Ambrosinus persuades Romulus to seek refuge in Britain, where the lost Roman legion may remain loyal. They are eventually followed by Goths under Wulfila, who covets Caesar's sword after learning of the prophecy. After crossing the Alps and the English Channel, the party reaches Britain and they travel to Hadrian's Wall. In there, they meet a man, revealed to be the legion's former commanding general, who tells the group that the legion had decided to disband and settle as farmers following the Empire's withdrawal. However, they all live in fear of a tyrannical warlord named Vortgyn, who is actually an old enemy of Ambrosinus. The group takes shelter in a small village where Romulus befriends a young girl named Igraine.
Meanwhile, Vortgyn teams up with Wulfila and the Goths in an attempt to get Caesar's sword so he can consolidate his position as ruler of Britain. Vortgyn attacks a number of settlements, including Igraine's village, in an attempt to force the villagers to surrender Romulus. Aurelius, wielding Caesar's sword, and Romulus mobilize an army at Hadrian's Wall to confront Vortgyn. In the ensuing battle, Vortgyn confronts Ambrosinus in his old sanctuary while Wulfila's army quickly overwhelm Ambrosinus and Romulus' forces until the mobilized Ninth Legion arrives to help. The battle's tide is turned when Ambrosinus, who has killed Vortgyn, returns holding his golden mask. After severely injuring Aurelius in a fierce duel, Wulfila is killed by Romulus using Caesar's sword. Repulsed by the deaths in the battle, Romulus disposes of his sword, lodging it in a large stone.
Many years later, Ambrosinus, now known by his Druid name Merlin, takes a young boy to the battlefield where he tells him of the events following the battle; Aurelius married Mira and the two raised Romulus as their son, and Romulus became a wise ruler under the name "Pendragon" with Igraine as his wife. The boy recognises Romulus as his father and Igraine as his mother. In a final scene, Caesar's sword is shown embedded in the stone, with moss covering the original Latin inscription, now only reading "E S CALIBVR".
The film's producers include Dino De Laurentiis, Martha, his second wife, and Raffaella, his daughter by his first wife. Raffaella suggested director Doug Lefler due to his work on Dragonheart: A New Beginning, which she produced. Filming took place in Tunisia and at Spiš Castle in eastern Slovakia in 2005.[4]
Valerio Massimo Manfredi helped adapt his novel to the screen. In an interview, he states at least four hours of footage was shot but ultimately shortened or cut, including scenes of the heroes' journey through the Alps and the English Channel.[5]
For the role of Aurelius, executive producer Harvey Weinstein suggested Colin Firth, known for playing Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1995) and more recently, Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones films. Firth accepted the role due to the story, which he liked, and that it was very different from previous roles.[4]
Sir Ben Kingsley was cast as Ambrosinus/Merlin after one meeting with Lefler. Kingsley was drawn to the mystique of the character, whom Lefler describes as a "warrior shaman". Kingsley also found the story interesting.[4]
Aishwarya Rai was cast as Mira after the filmmakers decided "somebody that had a rare beauty... who could move very well", in Lefler's words, was ideal for the role. Lefler touted Rai's training in dance as an asset for her fight scenes. Like Firth, Rai took the role as a change of pace from her previous work.[4]
Lefler wanted each character to have a unique fighting style. Richard Ryan served as the film's sword master, helping him plan the fight scenes; he had worked on Troy and would work on Stardust as such.[4]
As of June 2020[update], the film had an average score of 37 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 12 reviews.[6] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 15% approval rating, based on 55 reviews with an average rating of 4.02/10. The site's consensus reads, "With miscast leads and unoriginal, uninspired dialogue, The Last Legion pales in comparison to the recent cinematic epics it invokes."[7]
Compared to grandiose digital epics like 300, The Last Legion seems downright small and quaint. There's nothing wrong with that in theory, and in a way, its simplicity is somewhat charming. All the same, I had a hard time getting enthralled with the story it tried to tell. A lot of this most likely has to do with the past works of director Doug Lefler, who has worked mainly with television. A story like this needs to be big and grand, but Lefler still seems to be shooting for the small screen. While not unwatchable, The Last Legion nonetheless disappoints.
The latest descendant of the Caesar bloodline, a young boy by the name of Romulus (Thomas Sangster from Nanny McPhee), has just taken the throne as Rome's Emperor. Not long after he accepts the title, Rome is attacked and overthrown by an army of invading forces. After watching his parents slain in battle, Romulus is captured along with his personal teacher Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley), and sent to an island prison. It doesn't take long for the Captain of the Roman Guard, Aurelius (Colin Firth), and his few surviving soldiers from the initial raid to rescue the two with the help of a female warrior named Mira (Aishwarya Rai). Now in the possession of a powerful sword that belonged to one of his ancestors discovered deep underneath the prison, the young Emperor Romulus and his protectors must make a perilous journey to Britain, where the last remaining soldiers who still support Rome are located. However, not only do his former captors follow him, but the brave band discover that the entire land is under the rule of a tyrannical man who is seeking both the legendary sword and Ambrosinus.
Based loosely on the novel by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, The Last Legion tries to tie the legend of King Arthur with Roman history in detailing how the famed sword Excalibur was forged, and found its way into the hands of the future King. The movie is pretty loose with its historical accuracy, and the decision to cast all the Roman characters with British actors is a bit odd to say the least, but I can live with all that if the movie is entertaining. While not a complete success, the movie does have a certain sense of innocence to it. The filmmakers were trying to create an old fashioned adventure yarn in the tradition of the great 50s and 60s B-movie epics that used to be shown on weekend afternoons when I was growing up. You constantly see potential all around. There's a great cast who may not be giving their best performance of their careers, but at least are making an effort and don't seem to be sleepwalking through their roles. The story has some interesting ideas, as well, particularly during the last moments of the film when they tie everything into the Arthur legend. For all of the effort and the feelings of nostalgia this film brought forth, the one thing it could not truly do is make me care about the characters or what was going on up on the screen. This is where The Last Legion begins to falter despite its very good intentions.
There are some battle sequences and vast landscape shots that are supposed to invoke feelings in the audience of past adventure epics such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And yet, the movie keeps on contradicting itself with its overall small and minor tone that it keeps throughout. The battles are instantly forgettable, and though competently filmed, seem to be over in a blink of an eye. The attack and conquering of Rome that happens about 20 minutes into the movie seems to be over in all of five minutes, if even that. We see a lot of swords clanging and bodies falling, but the movie treats it almost as if it doesn't matter. It just wants to move right along, and get to the next scene. This is just the wrong way to do it. If you're going to do a scene detailing the fall of one of the great Empires of its time, you don't just gloss right over it and skip to the aftermath. Not only does this rob us of the spectacle we came to see, but it also cheapens the rest of the film, since the heroes are supposed to be traveling and fighting to protect the young Emperor who saw his parents killed in battle. All of the film's major action sequences seem to suffer the same problem, and don't last long enough to make much of an impression. The only action sequence that the movie does seem to take some decent amount of time depicting (the escape from the island prison) is made somewhat laughable due to the incredible ease with which the heroes discover this fabled legendary sword that has been lost for years, yet the heroes stumble upon in about three minutes, and find the sword lying out in the open.
Unlike most recent historical adventure epics, The Last Legion is fairly short and keeps things well under two hours. This is both a blessing and a curse, as this means the film never drags for too long, but at the same time we also don't get to know the characters as well as we should. The movie moves along with the pace of an action video game, zipping from one battle and major sequence to the next, seldom giving us time for the characters to slow down. The young Emperor Romulus barely has time to mourn over the death of his parents, nor does he seem that troubled by it in the first place, before he is whisked away on an adventure where his situation is seldom ever mentioned again, nor is he ever given more than one line of dialogue at a time. This child is supposed to be the element drives the story, but he often comes across as a prop that the adult actors are dragging along with them, since he never plays much of a role in the story itself other than a walking plot device. The adult lead characters, played by Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley, are equally underdeveloped. Firth plays Aurelius as being somewhat bland and emotionless, which is a shame, since he's supposed to be the romantic lead in this movie as he develops a relationship with the female warrior Mira. (Their relationship seems to come out of nowhere, and is severely underdeveloped.) Ben Kingsley seems to be channeling both Obi-Wan and Gandalf in his performance as the wise old personal teacher of Romulus who has hidden magical abilities. Compared to some of his other recent performances in films like Bloodrayne and Thunderbirds, this is an improvement, but it is still nowhere near the level of what he is capable of.
The best word that I can think of to describe The Last Legion is mediocre. This is a mediocre film through and through, never quite being good while never quite sinking to the depths to be awful. Children in the early double digits might find some enjoyment in this movie, but anyone older has seen it all before and has seen it done much better. Still, in the end, this is not as bad of a movie as one would expect given the fact that the film has been sitting on the studio's shelf for over a year. According to the film's press notes, the filmmakers spent six years working on this script. You'd think with all that effort, we'd have something that's a little bit better than just being average.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!