Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Last Legion

There be spoilers ahead, matey. Beware....

"The Last Legion" was a movie I saw yesterday and i must say it was quite good. Not very good and not that good, but good nonetheless. Good story, good acting, and this is one of those rare movies in which there's romance but without kissing whatsoever.
The movie starts out being narrated by a man named Ambrosinus, a Britain, who knows and searches for a legendary sword hidden from the world. Year ago, the boy king Romulus is crowned Caesar of the great empire of Rome. Ambrosinus is his tutor, who sometimes does "magic" which actually are only tricks. Odoacer, commander of the Goths allied to Rome, demmanded land form Romulus's father but he refuses. Romulus also meets Aurelius, a general.
That same night, Rome is conquered by the Goths. Aurelius's men are killed except for him and Romulus is taken prisoner.
Odoacer plans to kill Romulus, but Ambrosinus convinces him to keep him alive and Amborsinus and the boy are taken to an island as prisoners. On the island, Ambrosinus realizes that the place might be where the sword is hidden and he - being tied up - leads Romulus to find the sword, the sword for the one "destined to rule."
Ambrisinus and Romulus are rescued by the loyal Aurelius along with three of his men and an Indian female warrior, Mira. They then take the boy-king to a port where he would be transported to Constantinople. However, the Eastern Empire has betrayed them and sent men to kill Romulus. They are, however, unsuccessful. The group then travels to Britain to seek help from the Ninth Legion, or the "Dragon Legion", to see if they remain loyal to the emperor.
Traveling to Hadrian's wall, they realize that the legion has abandoned their posts to become farmers because of fear that the ruler of Anglia, Vortgyn, would attack them.
Ironically enough, Vortgyn wants the sword for his own. He sends the men of Odacer who he has teamed up with to kill the sons of the Blacksmith of the town Romulus was staying in. The people then find out Romulus is the king and they banish him and those with him.
Aurelius and some of his gathered men then take a stand from an attack from Vortgyn. The battle seemed hopeless, until the Ninth Legion took up their arms again and helped them. The battle is won when Ambrosinus kills Vortgyn and Romulus kills the henchman of Odacer who killed his parents.
In the end, Romulus tells the soldiers that there will be no more wars and he throws away the sword, which amazingly pierces a rock and gets lodged in it.
Years later, we see Ambrosinus telling the whole tale to a young boy. Amborsinus then says the Aurelius and Mira married and took Romulus as their own son. Romulus took a Celtic name, meaning son of the dragon: Pendragon. He married the girl he met at the town, Ygraine, and had a son: the boy Ambrosinus was talking to right now, Arthur. Ambrosinus also changed his name to Merlin and now served as Arthur's tutor.
At the ending, the camera pans to the rock with the sword lodged in it. Partially covered by moss, we see the blade with the words "ESCALIBVR" engraved upon it. We then discover that this is the legendary Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur.
Great movie, watch it!

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