The Lost Legion

Going through a phase of watching "End of the Roman Empire" movies ("The Last Legion", "The Standard") and so gave this one a go as well. After a slow-motion fight sequence (not very well handled) at the very beginning, the thing descends into non-stop copulation plus the lead participants in this (the masters/mistresses of the performing slaves) talking endlessly of plots, intrigues, machinations and political manoeuvrings. After a solid half hour of this, I could feel myself going comatose and did something I very rarely do once I have started to watch a movie; gave up and did something more constructive with my time. I am grateful for the hour or so I saved by not watching this tripe further, but resent having wasted the half hour spent watching the first third. Do ANYTHING (rearrange your sock drawer, sort your desktop paper clips according to size, polish all your shoes etc.) rather than making the same mistake! (Makes the two other (moderately good) films mentioned look like "Gladiator" or "Ben Hur" in comparison!)

Would have liked more action scenes but what is present is very well done but more needed. Like the various slow mo and speed up in action sequences. Performances by all major characters is excellent. Missing some sound fx in what I saw, so is empty in places which is a shame, because it wrecks some important scenes, I find it almost distracting. Would enjoy seeing more of these characters, as they are very interesting although should have been shorter overall, it's too slow in places A TV series would be excellent idea as there are a number of intricate plots in work here that would really work into numerous segments of TV series. Michelle Lukes is especially a good villainess. Tom McKay has much appeal as the hero, and Brian Caspe is evil defined on the verge of madness, yet just holding back from that edge. Overall quite enjoyable.

I happen to have spent a lot of time in present day Bohemia and was very happy to see something of the history from here that is not so well known. Very few people are aware of just how far the Roman legion established outposts in the 5th century. They had outposts in southern Bohemia and were constantly under threat from the Amal Goths and other barbarian tribes and were really cut off from their usual help. I would like to have seen more action, more fights but do think this is an interesting take on Roman legions and for that I give it extra stars instead of sticking to the same stories with same 2 characters everyone else portrays, a number of characters in this film are from history and have very interesting stories behind them I wish we could see better developed. Tom McKay's performance is great, he makes for an interesting hero, likewise the other performances are quite excellent.

Just to make things clear, have no prejudice against low-budget films despite how my recent reviews as part of my low-budget film quest implies. There are actually good ones out there that may not be the most visually accomplished but surmount that with doing other components well. There are also really lame and often even worse ones out there.

'The Lost Legion' is not one of the worst examples out there or of the ones seen recently by me. There is a huge amount wrong with it and the flaws are major, quite a lot of it is amateurish, but 'The Lost Legion' at least didn't insult my intelligence as much as other films that were part of the quest and there was a little effort put into a couple, emphasis on couple, of elements that they didn't have.

Its least bad elements are that the costumes don't look as ugly fancy dress/shoe-string budget as one would fear.

Also Brian Caspe's performance is fun to watch, because he not only tries but he enjoys himself too.

Nothing else good going on here sadly. The acting elsewhere lacks any kind of passion or emotion, even skill or direction, with an uncharismatic central performance and a bland and charmless female lead. Only Caspe comes out unscathed.

'The Lost Legion's' uncharismatic, wimpy and annoying character writing and writing that is far too excessively ridiculous to be guilty pleasure cheese and too awkward and dull to be tongue in cheek works against them. As well as non-existent direction.

Direction that fails to convey any urgency, tension, fun, suspense or emotion in the numerous scenes that need them. The action-oriented scenes, the few there are any, are the complete anti-thesis of exciting, are poorly filmed and looks so awkward in the choreography. The whole story is just lifeless, completely fails to make any sense at all and on the wrong side of daft that it's insultingly ridiculous. Nothing suspenseful or fun here and the lack of attention to visual and historical detail does annoy.

Visually, 'The Lost Legion' looks cheap as sin, with an overuse of truly risible effects that never gels with the setting or looks real, dizzying camera work and editing and shoe-string budget production design. The music is ill-fitting and not appealing on the ear.

In summation, nothing glorious and very chaotic. 2/10 Bethany Cox

This film was a bit ploddy .It does entertain in places but not very convincing.