The movie starts off well.

We see both parties presented somewhat equally, we see heroism both from Marcus and local tribes, great battle scenes, curious display of the Roman military organisation.

All these things are fun to watch and the movie is supposedly praising things like honour and determination: Marcus wants to restore his father’s good name and find the Eagle of the legion he led into Scottish highlands.

However, with time the movie turns into blatant universalist propaganda. Basically the main subversive message is:

“The diverse global empire wins, it’s better, more modern, more free, prettier, and people side with it voluntarily. Distinct peoples get destroyed by the universalist entity”.

The scene where Marcus is alone, wounded, and holding the Eagle in the river is the point of no-return.

If the movie ended right there with Marcus dying heroically defending his eagle, it would’ve been exponentially better, more realistic, and logical.

But then Esca brings former Roman soldiers (who lived in Scotland for decades, had families, and some sort of a social standing), and they supposedly decided to die for something they had already once abandoned. This is an extremely weird stretch.

Esca is a typical global empire convert, like Janissaries in Ottoman Turkey or Mankurts in Turkmenistan – his family was slayed by the Romans yet he sides with Marcus against other local tribes.

The ending is insanely unrealistic and discouraging, and when Esca and Marcus walk away high fiving each other like two Marvel characters you feel the rug getting pulled from under you.

The “what’s next” phrase in the end is not just cheesy, it’s insulting. Everoyne walks away in a happy Disney-esque sequence.

This is very similar to 300 with “murica, fuk yeah” written all over it.

Paganfather score: 4/10