- 9
...a highly enjoyable action-adventure...
—F. X. Feeney LA Weekly
- 9
...a highly enjoyable action-adventure...
—F. X. Feeney Village Voice
- 8
Centurion has its moments of manly cornpone camaraderie and certainly isn't blazingly original, but it offers riveting storytelling, gorgeous cinematography and scenery, loads of gore, and a politically complicated history lesson.
—Andrew O'Hehir Salon
- 8
All in all, an old-fashioned swords and sandals saga that may be small in scale but is a lot of bloody fun.
—Betsy Sharkey Los Angeles Times
- 8
...horror-trained British helmer Neil Marshall flexes strong action muscles and carves copious flesh here, creating the sort of broadsword-based bedlam that will thrill fans of ancient martial movies.
—Leslie Felperin Variety
- 7
The plot's pretty thin -- even for a gladiator movie. Fortunately, when it comes to crunchy impalings and messy arterial geysers, [director] Marshall's a maestro.
—Chris Nashawaty Entertainment Weekly
- 7
A refreshing answer to filmmakers who believe any swords-and-sandals film must be epic or at least overwrought...
—Kirk Honeycutt Hollywood Reporter
- 6
The warriors in Centurion follow an unusually bloody path, but it's a path already well-trod.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 6
Most of the characters are so characterless that you can't tell who they are when they get impaled or beheaded, and you can't remember who they used to be after they're dispatched. Not that it matters. This leaves plenty of time for staring at spectacularly craggy landscapes in white, gray, blue and green, relieved by lovely splashes of bright red during the fighting and torture scenes, of which there are too few.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 6
If you thought 300 was one of the greatest films ever made, if slo-mo arrows piercing armored chests is your idea of a good time, by all means make haste to Centurion.
—Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor
- 6
...a galumphing, atavistic gorefest...
—Stephen Holden New York Times
- 5
Some of Centurion is fun in that recyclable, grab bag way ... and the showmanship from his [Neil Marshall's] previous movies remains. But Centurion, like Doomsday before it, ultimately seems more concerned with its excesses than its characters.
—Jesse Hassenger filmcritic.com
- 5
...a film that begs to be classified in the historical/epic category, or maybe the allegorical/self-important file, but actually belongs in the lawnmower/weedwhacker class.
—Kyle Smith New York Post
- 4
...doesn't engender any interest because the film itself shows no concern for creating characters worth caring about...
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine