MovieChat Forums > The Last Legion (2007) Discussion > why did this bomb so badly?

why did this bomb so badly?

posted 14 years ago by sassyblackgirl
32 replies | jump to latest

i just watched this and found it mildly entertaining.
because it was on tv, i thought maybe it was an original tv miniseries,
although with a more stellar acting cast than one would typically find.
however, having looked up the title, i was surprised to see that this was a big-budget motion picture and one that ended up bombing badly at the box-office.
really, it would have been decent as a tv movie/miniseries because it looked like it had such low production values, i couldn't have seen where all the budget went (perhaps to the big-name actors)... like i said though, it just had such a television look/feel to it, and not just because there weren't many special effects (not really a fan of those movies anyway) but still it was entertaining and full of action/adventure. Don't know what reasons were given for why it bombed - was there no marketing, etc. or was it due to teh fact that there weren't enough special effects to draw anyone's interest?

[–] afhick 14 years ago

It's a mystery to me. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I liked this better than LOTR. It was fun!

"The Mountain Has Wings"

[–] berzelmayr 14 years ago

Better than LOTR? Ben Kingsley acted like a bad Gandalf-imiatation in this movie.

[–] uzidon 12 years ago

Better than LOTR?! Just brilliant! And then you say "It's a mystery to me", no wonder!

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

[–] a-bollinger 14 years ago

I watched it for the first time on TV - and I can understand very well why it was a flop. The storyline is thin, the props and settings are dreadful, the whole thing had a cheap sixties Italian "pseudohistorical" B-movie touch, the historical inaccuracies make you choke, and the actors just delivered their awful dialogue, without any chemistry (and, understandably, without any motivation), without any build-up of characters. Deadpan performances if ever I saw any. This is just complete dross, and all the PR of the movie world could not have prevented it to be box office poison. That movie deserved its fate.

[–] marsbetr 14 years ago

This came in as "Today's recommendation" on German TV yesterday night, so I sat down, but only to switch channels after 15-20 minutes. As far as I could tell, the directing of the movie is really bad, that bad it simply isn't fun to watch.

[–] a-bollinger 14 years ago

Hello marsbetr: Both of us saw it on the same German channel, obviously. Should have been a Sunday night treat. Far from it, unfortunately. By the way, no recommendation in the Swiss TV programmes lists. On the contrary, a warning: "Clumsy pseudo-history". Couldn't agree more. I started watching it anyway, first got an adrenaline rush owing to anger about the ridiculous, gross historical inaccuracies and the poor acting, later on fell peacefully asleep. Unfortunately I woke up in time to see the even more unconvincing and poorly performed ending.

[–] lacedemonians 14 years ago

If I see one more movie featuring a beautiful woman who weighs all of 105 lbs beating up on huge barbarians, I'll visit the local vomintarium where I will puke non-stop until I am dead, and I'll be happy for never having to see such crapola again.

"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." - A.E. Van Vogt

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Boxbest 14 years ago

Thomas Sangster gave a incredible performance. And Kingsley as well as Firth was amazing here.
But I think a film can be doomed alreeady before released. They had decided to make this film a box officie flop byt not market it enough or put it up on just a few screens.
Last Legion is a better film than the Clash of the Titans remake. But the latter was released to be big. That was the goal.

[–] lacedemonians 14 years ago

Last Legion might be better than the Clash of the Titans remake, but Last Legion is not nearly as good as a Capital One commercial.

"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." - A.E. Van Vogt

[–] Alex_de_large734 13 years ago

ha!, loved this, I may have to quote you on future conversations regarding this movie.
---
What in heaven's name are you talking about?

[–] Hagia_Sophia 13 years ago

I have to agree with this.
___________________________________________

"Outside of a dog, a book is Man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." --G. Marx

[–] Little_Korean 14 years ago

Perhaps because it was terrible?

"Hey, kids, did you know Dark Age Britain was ruled by a Sauron wannabe? And that the Byzantines had ninjas? From India." I mean, come the f___ on.

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

[–] mstanley-1 14 years ago

Are you familiar with Arthurian myth? Evidently not. Also, Byzantines employed all manner of mercenaries, from the Norse who formed the Varangian Guard, to female indian warriors who formed a maiden guard. Besides, what's historical? We know the bare bones of history. We can't say what every individual was up to, only the grand sweep of things and what info we have.

[–] Little_Korean 14 years ago

Sure, the Byzantines had a load of different peoples on their pay roll, like the Varangians, though I'm pretty sure this Indian maiden guard of yours didn't exist.

As for what's historical, while historical fiction can exercise a fair amount of creative license in fleshing out the bones of an otherwise unknown era, it has to stay rooted in some degree of plausibility. Having, say, Coptic warrior monks from Egypt in the Byzantine service would be one thing but ninjas from India, where the Byzantines never ruled or even had much contact with, stretched credibility to breaking point.

And it's still a terrible film.

When darkness overcomes the heart, Lil' Slugger appears...

[–] richimorton 12 years ago

Havn't watched it yet but it sounds hilarious ! Ninja's are from Japan by the way !

That which does not Kill me makes me Stranger

[–] bluerisk 9 years ago

They streched if from both sides...

Ich bin kein ausgeklügelt Buch, ich bin ein Mensch mit seinem Widerspruch.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

[–] ewfleming-616-650888 13 years ago

I came on here to see if anybody liked this movie. I thought it was AWFUL. Big waste of time. Terrible movie. Sorry not more articulate about my reasons but I don't want to waste anymore of my time on this. Bad movie. Bad.

[–] ladyoftheisland 13 years ago

It was much better than I expected but it is not a serious film, it is not a an action movie, it is a romp. I listened to the commentary and some dialogue that would have made it clearly not serious was cut, I think a huge mistake.

[–] dark_coffee 13 years ago

I just caught this on TV and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Perhaps I'm not being objective though, since I expected little more than turd from a movie that got unanimously negative reviews.

I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a knowledgeable guy as far as movie quality goes, so I'll refrain from making pedantic comments about the script or acting.

The only thing I can say is that I had fun watching this movie. I think some parts were a tad cheesy (for instance, I usually don't mind the warrior babe thing, but it felt more like a parody at times). Other than that I found the story interesting, I liked the characters and the action was neat. I'm pretty sure I could come up with several movies of the same "class" that were rated better than this yet didn't entertain me as much.

Overall, I think this movie is worth watching.

[–] Li-1 13 years ago

I thought it was terrible, probably the worst big-budget battle epic of the last twenty-plus years. Everyone in this film felt miscast (Kevin McKidd should have had Colin Firth's role), the poorly choreographed action scenes felt more like the over-the-top stuff we get from Xena, the attempts at humor were cringe-inducing, and the whole film just looked and felt so cheesy.

This film made King Arthur look like a masterpiece, and that one bombed at the box office, so there was no way this one was going to do anywhere near as well, especially with fewer box office draws in the cast.

[–] Raiyne388 13 years ago

I actually think, historically accurate or not, that the story was OK. the actors were fine. For me it was the way it was shot like a TV movie. If they had taken the same care with sets, cinematography etc. that was taken with Gladiator, the film would have been much better.

~When you came in, the air went out