This film start with a man "Corbulo" talking about the Roman Legion, and the introduction of the character "Marcus" scene! As turnout, this film is about a man "Noreno" entrusted a mission by his commander to crossing mountains of Armenia to seek help! Entire film full of boring conversation, and annoying overuse scene! Such as, overuse of the narration scene, overuse of the running scene, overuse of the sleeping scene, overuse of the flashbacks scene, overuse of the dreaming scene, overuse of the blackout scene, and overuse of the close-up Emperor Nero's statue scene! Make the film unwatchable! All the action scene have blood at certain point, but overall portray by sideways, and messy! Make the film quite frustrated to watch! At the end, Corbulo order his men to marching! Noreno want get back to Armenia! That's it! Wasting time to watch!

First to say, for a very low budget no-name film, I was highly impressed by the attention to detail in terms of historical accuracy. Set in the early Roman Empire during the reign of Nero, it depicts a legion being trapped in enemy territory in Armenia.

The main character is a Roman auxiliary, Noreno, originally from Hispania and he is sent on a mission by general Paetus to get a message to Corbulo to send his own legion to try to break them out.

Noreno is accompanied by another Hispanian auxiliary. Noreno is played by an Irish guy with a thick Irish accent but apparently this is explained in him being raised in Britannia for a long while. His Hispanian companion speaks Spanish (modern spanish).

As well, the Armenians are described as having support from the Parthians, and a large number of Scythian mercenaries. Impressively to me, much of the "bad guys" hunting after Noreno, due to being played by very european looking guys, are dressed and described as being Scythian. One of them even calls his superior "Saka", a name for a steppe tribe neighboring to the Scythians.

This attention to cultural detail is rather amazing overall, and it feels bad just how thoroughly wasted it is on such a boring film.

The low budget shows pretty hard in the scenes involving the Roman generals, but the majority of the film takes place in vast empty woods and hills, filmed somewhere in Spain or something. It feels a lot like some 80% of this film consisted of a film crew filming some guys hiking and swordfighting in the Spanish mountains.

Mickey Rourke is so completely disconnected from the film that it genuinely feels like his role was added after the fact and filmed months or even a year after the rest of the film was completed.

He plays his role surprisingly well as a disgruntled grizzled old general. Unfortunately his role is almost entirely him droning on ranting and raving at a bust of Nero, telling old soldiers' tales and the like.

As well, somewhat humorously, he proceeds to constantly mispronounce various names, such as turning "Parthians" into "Parthinians" and "Paetus" into "Patitius" or something. The fact that literally every other character in the film who speaks these names pronounces them properly either means no one cared enough to stop him and correct him or they were otherwise intimidated for some reason.

Further adding to the sense of disconnect in Mickey Rourke's scenes, near the end of the film he is abruptly contradicting everything he was ranting and yelling at a bust of Nero about, before being talked out of his bad decision by his Yuezhi mistress, played by Bai Ling for all of about 4 minutes.

On top of being boring, the film at some points seems to have been badly edited. At one point we're shown Noreno on his own, escaping some Scythians hunting him, and he runs into another Roman auxiliary scout. The next scene shows him at a campfire with this other Roman, and with a previously unmentioned Hispanian auxiliary (the spanish speaking guy). He then has a flashback of the Roman auxiliary scout and the Hispanian guy being killed in battle, despite them being alive and at the campfire with him.

Then Noreno is off on his own, with absolutely no mention of these other two with him, or of any battle that took place between him escaping the Scythians and making camp.

On top of all this, the biggest insult is that in a movie called "The Legion", at no point do we ever get to see the legion in question.

Some movies are best seen on the big screen. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus pandemic prevented Spanish writer & director José Magán's Roman soldier on the run epic "The Legion" from illuminating the big screen during its release earlier this year. This robust survival of the fittest spectacle reminded me of a combination of the gritty British World War I epic "1917" (2019) and Cornel Wilde's classic South African survivalist saga "The Naked Prey" (1966). In "1917," a lone British soldier must stop an attack on German lines because Intelligence has learned the Germans plan to ambush them. Comparatively, angry native tribesmen stalk a white safari guide in "The Naked Prey" after they have stripped him of his firearms and abandoned him in the wilderness with nothing more than his own ingenuity and a loincloth. Imagine these two movies synthesized into something like Zack Snyder's classic movie "300" (2006),and you'll have an idea about what ensues on a smaller scale but in a bigger arena. Mickey Rourke, Joaquim de Almeida, Vladimir Kulich, and Asian actress Bai Ling cavort on the periphery of "The Legion" where they summarize the plot for us. Basically, they brief us on what has occurred in the forgotten Roman-Parthian War of 58-63 AD. They are the celebrity participants in an otherwise anonymous cast. Incidentally, Mickey Rourke bears a startling resemblance to the bust of the Roman General Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo that he portrays.

Newcomer Lee Partridge takes top billing as Noreno, an unrelenting Roman soldier who struggles against all odds to save his fellow Legionnaires after their Parthian enemy have surrounded them. Noreno's orders instruct him to contact Roman Army General Corbulo (Mickey Rourke of "The Expendables") on the Euphrates frontier and request Corbulo invade Armenia and rescue Roman General Lucius Caesennius Paetus' two legions. Initially, at his Syrian headquarters, Corbulo, awaiting word to mount a relief expedition, curses the Emperor Nero for having entrusted Paetus (Joaquim de Almeida of "Fast Five") with a military operation that Corbulo himself felt better qualified to 0rchestrate. Corbulo and Paetus are long-time political rivals. Furthermore, the popular Corbulo was an able commander. Historians attribute Paetus' incompetence to his dispersal of his manpower and his lack of vigilance. Moreover, Paetus mislead the Senate about the doomed course of the war. Scenarists Carmen Ballesteros, Pedro Santamaría, Alberto Vázquez Figueroa, and C.J. Wells have drawn on these historical events in their screenplay that unfolds in Syria in 62 AD. "Inspired by true events" as it states in its prologue, "The Legion" ignores the aftermath of Noreno's valiant escapade. Basically, Corbulo waited too long to disembark, and Paetus surrendered before Corbulo arrived!

The first quarter hour of "The Legion" is a talkfest. Director José Magán and his writers apprise audiences about the consequences of historical events and what Paetus must do to survive the Parthian siege. Visually, Paetus' terrible predicament is rendered in one brilliant aerial sequence where the camera glides silently over the snowy Armenian landscape of mountains and forests and then descends into a wide-open plain to Paetus' encampment. Paetus bristles at the suggestion of his incompetence when his adjutant Marcus (Vladimir Kulich of "The Debt Collectors") and he ponder their plight. "Surrender is not an option," Paetus insists. Marcus raises a dubious eyebrow. The Parthians control the pass, and the Romans will die of starvation without relief. They cannot withstand a siege. Marcus suggests they try the unexpected and dispatch a handful of men to make a forced seven-day march to Syria to alert Corbulo. Paetus dismisses Marcus' last-ditch effort as "impossible." Marcus reminds him they have food for only two more days. "If the enemy doesn't kill us," Marcus contends, "the lack of food and the cold will." Marcus describes Noreno as a loyal soldier raised in the mountains of Northern Hispania where he acquired quite a reputation as an excellent climber. Later, when he bids him farewell, Marcus warns Noreno, "May the gods protect you. Go out from here and run as if Hades himself were pursuing you." Before this above-average, 96-minute sword and sandal movie concludes, Noreno will find his courage, his loyalty, and his stamina tested to the utmost. Despite two subplots featuring a bow & arrow babe who lives alone in the middle of nowhere and a Christian convert named Saul who helps him along his path, "The Legion" focuses primarily on Noreno's efforts to reach his destination. Several other Roman Legionnaires left on the journey with him, but the lupine villains whittle their number down until only Noreno remains.

Apart from our protagonist's extraordinary physical feats and its celebrity supporting cast, the real stars of "The Legion" are cinematographers Robert Reed Altman and Nacho Tundidor. The majestic scenery ranging from California to Spain and Morocco make this medieval melodrama a treat for the eyes. The spectacular scenery and their evocative camera work give "The Legion" a larger-than-life quality. The suspense when our desperate hero scales the face of a sheer cliff like a human fly is enough to rack your nerves. Indeed, if you still haven't gotten out much since the quarantine, the dazzling scenery without a trace of civilization in sight makes you feel like you're the last person on earth. The landscape plays an important part in this man versus nature narrative. Clearly, the filmmakers used drones to capture breathtaking aerial views of the sprawling mosaic of terrain that our hero crosses in this journey of hardship against his merciless adversaries. Meantime, Magán and his lensers never allow Noreno's flight to degenerate into a mere travelogue. Sometimes, Altman and Tundidor interpret the action with expressionistic camerawork. For example, our weary hero staggers erratically along a narrow wilderness trail, and the camera wobbles to impart his devastating sense of exhaustion. Lee Partridge wins our sympathy and support in his successive triumphs over adversity and the opponents with whom he tangles are a bloodthirsty bunch. "The Legion" ranks as a stirring tribute in one man's valor.