EXCLUSIVE: New Poster for 'The Last Legion'

Woah, wait!

The last Roman legions left Britain in 410 AD. The "Last Roman Emperor", Romulus Augustulus, was held in Rome not Britannia in 476 AD. He was deposed by the Ostrogothic King, Odoacer, because the pretense that the Empire survived in the West was just ludicrous by then. Romulus was not deemed even worthy of killing, he was given a pension instead.

There was no such thing as the Byzantine Empire back then; it was not until the 19th century that scholars started referring to the Eastern half of the Roman Empire as "The Byzantine Empire" because it was mostly Greek and ruled from the city of Constantinople, previously known as "Byzantium".

In the 600's the Eastern Roman Emperor, Justinian, even went so far as to attack the Ostrogoths and other barbarians to reconquer a big chunk of the lost Western half. Unfortunately, that war was so destructive that it left all of Roman civilization in the West in total ruins. Prior to that, the Ostrogoths in Italy had been living like they were Romans; with a Senate, baths, aqueducts and all the trappings of Ancient Rome.

The Eastern Romans would have continued pushing their way back into the West but right after Justinian, the Arabs invaded and the Eastern Romans lost all of North Africa and the Middle East.

This history lesson has been brought to you by an outraged movie fan who hates historical B.S. and weird anachronisms disguised as pseudo history. Sorry if anyone was bored.

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John - I share your frustrations with bad and inaccurate history passed off as fact, but you should know that this is based off of a novel by Italian author Valerio Manfredi.

I actually slogged through the book last year, and it, at least, is in general more accurate than Cinematical's post. Of course, it's still preposterous.

A few clarifications from the book:

- The boy emperor Romulus is captured by Odoacer after his family is murdered and held prisoner on the island of Capri

- Firth's character never forges an alliance with the Byzantine - or Eastern Roman - Empire. He is helped on his quest by a woman who, as a young girl, was one of the refugees who survived Attila's sack of Aquileia and fled to a chain of nearby islands (which, in time, became Venice)

- The Romans did leave Britain in 410. Firth and the others go there in a bid to elude Odoacer's henchman, Wulfila (played by Kevin McKidd from Rome), who has been tasked with hunting them down.

The Arthurian link is painful and forced, but the rest of the story is, well, pretty decent.

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FYI - Trailer is up:

http://www.filmpeek.net/the-last-legion-trailer/

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Thanks Doogs. At least I now know where this silly thing started.

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i'll be watching this movie for one reason and one reason only and that's Aishwarya Rai. she's positively radiant and perfect! best actress ever and cant wait to see her kick butt in this movie!

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I saw this online. . . it sucks. I love Roman history, and this is no Gladiator.

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i watched last legion in dvd three month ago... i thought the movie had already released and bought the dvd...colin firth is natural but this movie is no galdiator....aishwarya has tried very hard to be her dialogue delivery is better but i did not ENJOYED THE MOVIE ..its slow and boring

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So let me get this straight, they are implying that the last emperor in Rome was actually the future Arthur?, Ummm yeah and pigs can fly,lol. That trailer looked like a complete mess.

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