Synopsis
In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca, Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.
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Cast
- Channing TatumMarcus Aquila
- Mark StrongGuern
- Jamie BellEsca
- Donald SutherlandAquila
- Denis O'HareLotorius
- Tahar RahimSeal Prince
- Dakin MatthewsClaudius Marcellus
- Douglas HenshallCradoc
- Paul RitterGalba
- Pip CarterServius Placidus
Recommendations
- 83
Entertainment Weekly
The story and setting may be ancient, but under the direction of Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), and with a nicely textured screenplay by Macdonald's Scotland coscreenwriter Jeremy Brock, the vigor is fully modern. - 80
Village Voice
The Eagle is full of action and fleet of foot-it's a movie of smoky, lowering battlefields and trippy, space-bending flashbacks, pausing only for admiring location shots of Scotland's wild, craggy vistas. - 80
Time Out
Do you like movies about gladiators? Well, lend me your ears: The Eagle will more than gratify your sword-and-sandal cravings. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
The Eagle is an engaging, if straightforward and one-dimensional. - 70
Variety
While the movie doesn't wholly succeed, there's enough to like here -- including Channing Tatum's credible performance as a tradition-bound Roman soldier. - 67
Tampa Bay Times
Yes, The Eagle is as bad as it sounds but also entertaining, in a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" sort of way that Macdonald didn't intend. - 60
The New Yorker
Much of Sutcliff's most charged material - the chariot scene, a wolf cub that Marcus rears - is omitted from the movie, and once he and Esca embark on their quest the sense of action grows listless, and our heroes start to seem anxious, wet, and bored. [14 & 21 Feb. 2011, p. 138] - 60
Arizona Republic
The many battle sequences, though carefully detailed, are lacking in energy and originality. There is some ambition here, but the results fall short.
