YMMV / The Last Legion

• Adaptation Displacement: The novel did sell well in Italy when it came out and was translated in other languages, but the film is most known worldwide.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: 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.
• Awesome Music: Whatever opinion you have of the movie, its musical score by Patrick Doyle is definitely great. Especially the main theme.
• Cliché Storm: Definitely right up there, what with the Action Girl pairing off with the deliberately mentioned single lead, the boy they'd adopted turning out to be King Arthur's ancestor, among other things.
• Complete Monster:
  • 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 he encourages Odoacer to kill. Hunting Romulus and the sorcerer Ambrosinus, Wulfila has designs on overthrowing Odoacer while assisting Vortgyn in slaughtering his way over Britannia, and finally tries to kill young Romulus as well as every living thing in the area.
  • Vortgyn is a brutal warlord and Ambrosinus's Arch-Enemy. 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, 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, 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.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ben Kingsley as Ambrosinus/Merlin, Kevin McKidd as Wulfila, John Hannah as Nestor, Ian Glen as Orestes, Nonso Anozie as Batiatus, Owen Teale as Vatrenus, Robert Pugh as Kustenin and Ferdinand Kingsley as Young Ambrosinus.
• Genius Bonus: Merlin is also known as "Ambrosius" according to legend, which makes the twist about Ambrosinus 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.
• Heartwarming Moments: There's something utterly adorable about the absolute wonder in Aurelius' eyes as Mira comes to join him in bed the night before the final battle. Indeed, They Do.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Game of Thrones 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.
• Narm Charm: While not being explicitly bad, the film is extremely cliché and pretty silly altogether. Having said that, its heavy dose of Rule of Cool, all the names in the cast and the serious effort by those make it a good choice for a lone evening timekiller.
• Questionable Casting: 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.
• Retroactive Recognition: There are quite a few Game of Thrones 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 the head of The Ninth Legion.
  • Ferdinand Kingsley plays the younger version of Ambrosinus. He would later become known for his roles in Victoria and The Sandman (2022).
• So Okay, It's Average: It has a low Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the actual review average grade is split down the middle, and the reviews are more "meh" than outright terrible.
• The Un-Twist:
  • 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.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: As several reviews noted, Ben Kingsley appears to be somehow mixing four different accents into one.

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