* AdaptationDisplacement: The novel did sell well in Italy when it came out and was translated in other languages, but the film is most known worldwide.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: The film stomps on history in countless points, but surprisingly as it may be, an Indian warrior woman is not one of them. At the time, and since the times of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, it was a tradition among Indian rulers to train women to serve as royal guards, as they believed women were less inclined to betrayal than men.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Whatever opinion you have of the movie, its musical score by Music/PatrickDoyle is definitely great. Especially the main theme.
* ClicheStorm: Definitely right up there, what with the ActionGirl [[AllAmazonsWantHercules pairing off with the]] ''deliberately mentioned'' single lead, the boy they'd adopted turning out to be King Arthur's ancestor, among other things.
* CompleteMonster:
** [[AxCrazy Wulfila]] is the right hand of chieftain Odoacer. Leading an attack on the Roman villa, Wulfila has everyone within massacred to the last save the young Emperor Romulus, whom [[WouldHurtAChild he encourages Odoacer to kill]]. Hunting Romulus and the sorcerer Ambrosinus, Wulfila has designs on overthrowing Odoacer while assisting Vortgyn in [[RapePillageAndBurn slaughtering his way over Britannia]], and finally tries to kill young Romulus as well as every living thing in the area.
** [[EvilOverlord Vortgyn]] is a brutal [[TheWarlord warlord]] and Ambrosinus's ArchEnemy. Desiring the sword of Caesar, Vortgyn scarred Ambrosinus with his medallion when he wouldn't tell him its whereabouts. Decades later, Vortgyn now terrorizes Britannia, [[RapePillageAndBurn wiping out villages and killing dozens of innocents]]. Allying himself with the Goths, Vortgyn threatens a village harboring Ambrosinus and a young Romulus, killing the blacksmith's family, [[WouldHurtAChild including his children]]. Vortgyn then sends his army to wipe out everyone at Hadrian's Wall. In the bloodshed that ensues, Vortgyn tries to kill Ambrosinus moments before suffering a fiery demise. Ruthless and tyrannical, Vortgyn desired nothing but power and the annihilation of anyone who resisted him.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Ben Kingsley as Ambrosinus/Merlin, Kevin [=McKidd=] as Wulfila, John Hannah as Nestor, Ian Glen as Orestes, Creator/NonsoAnozie as Batiatus, Owen Teale as Vatrenus, Robert Pugh as Kustenin and Ferdinand Kingsley as Young Ambrosinus.
* GeniusBonus: Merlin is also known as "Ambrosius" according to legend, which makes the twist about Ambrosinus [[TheUntwist pretty obvious]] if you know that. Which is pretty basic if you're taking Arthurian literature in college or something since it's in the earlier texts.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: There's something utterly adorable about the absolute wonder in Aurelius' eyes as [[spoiler:Mira comes to join him in bed the night before the final battle]]. Indeed, TheyDo.
* HilariousInHindsight: The ''Series/GameOfThrones'' alumni listed below should really include all those crows that appear.
* {{Narm}}: Aurelius's war cry about being "Roman soldiers with Roman swords" is a tad silly by itself, but even more if we know that Roman swords were always models borrowed from other cultures: their first one was the Greek ''xiphos'', the second and most famous was the Spanish ''gladius'', and the third one, which Aurelius and the rest use, was the Celtic ''spatha''. Truly, all the three lands mentioned would end up becoming Rome, but it doesn't make it any less farfetched as a creed.
* NarmCharm: While not being [[SoBadItsGood explicitly bad,]] the film is extremely [[ClicheStorm cliché]] and pretty silly altogether. Having said that, its heavy dose of RuleOfCool, all the names in the cast and [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously the serious effort by those]] make it a good choice for a lone evening timekiller.
* QuestionableCasting: [[Creator/BenKingsley Gandhi]] playing Merlin. However, given Ben Kingsley's ambiguous features and Shakespearean background, you can forget about any questionable casting and be in awe of Ben Kingsley's pure awesomeness as none other than the wizard of wizards himself.
* RetroactiveRecognition: There are quite a few ''Series/GameOfThrones'' characters in this movie:
** The new Roman Emperor is Jojen Reed and his father is Jorah Mormont.
** Alliser Thorne and Xaro Xhoan Daxos are Roman soldiers.
** Craster is [[spoiler:the head of The Ninth Legion]].
** Creator/FerdinandKingsley plays the younger version of Ambrosinus. He would later become known for his roles in ''Series/{{Victoria}}'' and ''Series/TheSandman2022''.
* SoOkayItsAverage: It has a low Rotten score on Website/RottenTomatoes, but the actual review average grade is split down the middle, and the reviews are more "meh" than outright terrible.
* TheUntwist:
** Julius Caesar's sword has the inscription Caliburnus. Surprise, it's Excalibur! You don't even have to know that Caliburnus was indeed an earlier spelling.
** Heck, once "Britannia" is mentioned, you should see the Merlin and Excalibur twists coming.
* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: As several reviews noted, Ben Kingsley appears to be somehow mixing four different accents into one.
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