Sadly this is not a group of LARPers but a legitimate attempt to cash in on the success of Lord of the Rings-style sword-and-sorcery epics
Excalibur’s origins amount to a bargain-basement 300
With films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and 300 reviewing well and making gobs of money at the box office while they’re at it Hollywood is pretty receptive to quasi-mythical war fantasies these days. Of course when producers sign off on projects based more on their similarity to other movies than their quality some questionable films are given the go-ahead. One of the earliest examples of Hollywood using an inferior product to try to satisfy audiences’ desire to see burly men with long hair hack at each other is The Last Legion by director Doug Lefler (Dragonheart: A New Beginning) a film more suited for the direct-to-video route than a major theatrical release. Acting as a prequel of sorts to the tale of King Arthur Merlin and Excalibur The Last Legion tells the story of how the legendary blade made it to Britain in the first place. After having his empire overthrown the young Caesar Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster) and his teacher Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley) are sent into exile. Fortunately a small rescue party led by Aurelius (Colin Firth) is dispatched. After freeing the young emperor and stumbling upon Excalibur the party sets off for Britain where the ninth or last legion of the Roman Empire is stationed. Once they arrive they quickly forget about their desire to reclaim Rome and busy themselves dealing with the fifth century equivalent of Doctor Doom who is terrorizing the English countryside for reasons that begin and end with him being evil. The Last Legion is a far cry from high literature but its normally strong cast and relation to a famous tale should still be enough to make it entertaining. Sadly this is not the case. Though the actors aren’t given much to work with by writers Jez and Tom Butterworth they issue uniformly poor performances endlessly furrowing their brows at each other and gazing sternly into the camera. This is no doubt an attempt to sell the gravity the script lacks but just comes across as comical. On top of the poor writing and acting the special effects are noticeably shoddy and the battle scenes — the whole reason the film exists — are content to merely swipe the cool parts from their bigger budget brothers. When the movie ends with several painfully obvious revelations it becomes irrevocably clear that The Last Legion deserves the spot it will occupy at the bottom of the rental rack where it may catch the eye of kids whose parents won’t let them rent 300. By giving The Last Legion a theatrical release the producers are plainly trying to capitalize on the medieval warfare boom hoping audiences will forget about a little thing called quality long enough for a quick buck to be made.
