I went into this movie not knowing what to expect, and in the end I was rather pleased with it. Beautiful cinematography, great fight scenes, an interesting story . . . The movie also pays incredible attention to detail and is not afraid of a little dirt; one small thing that stood out to me is when they're eating dinner at the uncle's house, and it's kind of dark in there. Movies are always trying to convince us that a few candles light a house just as well as modern electric lights, but this one reminds us that no, they're candles. It's little things like that I found compelling: the characters acquire dirt and grime as they travel, the costumes and buildings are quite detailed, the Britons up in the north speak Gaelic and nothing but Gaelic. Often in movies with foreign languages, the characters will speak that foreign language for a few lines then switch into English. But the Britons keep up their Gaelic, and they speak it smoothly and fluently, too.
I really liked Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell, too. Tatum seems to be trying to speak very properly and it's rather odd, but he's good as a stoic young man who wants to be honorable and is tired of spending his entire life being chastised for a mistake that he did not make. Jamie Bell is rather fantastic as the slave who has every reason to hate Rome except for his growing respect for his Roman master; he's unpredictable and tortured and terribly interesting to watch.
It's not a perfect movie--sometimes I wasn't sure that it knew what message it was trying to convey--but generally I liked it. I will probably purchase it when it comes out.
