The Last Legion

In A.D. 460, when Rome falls to the Goths, the last Caesar, 12-year-old Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster) flees, along with his mentor (Ben Kingsley), a faithful guard (Colin Firth), and an Indian warrior maiden (Aishwarya Rai) to far Britannia to make a last stand against the barbarians there. The script (by Carlo Carlei, Peter Rader, and Jez and Tom Butterworth, from Valerio Manfredi’s novel) makes a hash of history, but forget that—just think of it as a nifty adventure dreamed by an imaginative boy who dozed off in his grandfather’s library. From that angle, it’s a lot of fun, with an engaging mix of swordplay and martial arts. Director Doug Lefler lets the energy flag in the last act, and the final battle is clumsily edited, but it’s a sprightly entertainment with a convincing ancient-world look.