Eagle, The – Special Edition

Posted May 25, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

After Centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila gets injured during a fight with barbarians in Rome-occupied Britain, the politicians decide to give him a medal and allow him to leave the service with honor.

Quite upset by this, Marcus decides to head back to Britain along with his slave Esca (who’s the son of a Brigantes clan leader) and go past Hadrian’s Wall and the edge of the known world (according to the Romans of that time) in order to find out what happened to the Ninth legion that disappeared years ago and was carrying Rome’s golden eagle, and redeem his family’s honor as after all it was Marcus’ father who’s believed to have lead the legion into its downfall.

Sound and Vision:
The image of The Eagle isn’t bad but sometimes comes over a bit too stylized and photography can be overblown resulting in loss of detail at times. There’s also some issues with noise and flat levels of black. Overall, however, the image is quite decent.

Where the image quality is a bit of a mixed bag at times, the soundtrack makes up for that very well. The dialogues are clear while the focus overall is mostly towards the front with the rears coming into action for subtle effects. The subwoofer truly shines in this soundtrack, providing some really terrific “oomph”.

Extras:
– Alternative Ending
– Deleted Scenes
– Making Of
– Audio Commentary

Conclusion:
Ever since Gladiator, hack&slash movies have been getting a second life but not all equally great. The Eagle, based on a novel by Rosemary Sutcliff fits in this category.

Where most sword-and-sandal features go for large armies and battle scenes, The Eagle focuses on the quest of two men going into unknown territory. As such this shouldn’t be a bad thing, but Channing Tatum clearly doesn’t manage to carry a movie, Jamie Bell does his best to make up for that but cannot quite succeed, and the script doesn’t really provide much improvement either.

Overall, The Eagle ends up as a rather mediocre action-adventure feature that rather excells in its photography of the Scottish highlands than being a great movie. Tatum doesn’t convince, the story where the Romans seem to care more about their beloved eagle than the disappearance of an entire legion is a bit shallow, and even at 114 minutes the movie seems to go on for too long.

If you enjoyed this film at the theatre, this Blu-ray release will provide you with decent enough image and sound quality, but the title “Special Edition” seems a bit over-the-top when you look at what’s included qua extras.

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