This is not the first time we’ve taken a Roman legion out to Hadrian’s Wall–I personally remember when they did it with King Arthur–but this is one of the better romps we’ve seen, even if it’s a bit on the darker side. It’s called The Eagle, just released today, and it’s a real winner.

The Eagle follows a Roman legionnaire, Marcus Aquila, who finds himself suddenly discharged from the Legion while fending off an attack from Brits meaning to get their land back. Marcus is made a hero of Rome, but hanging over his head is the fate of his father, another legionnaire connected to the fabled Ninth Hispania Legion, who was lost north of Hadrian’s Wall along with their standard, a golden eagle. This is a huge blow both to Rome and to the Aquila family, so it’s not exactly a huge surprise when Marcus decides to set out after the eagle. He takes with him a recently-purchased British slave, who has a deeper connection to Marcus than either realizes, and sets out on a journey of corpses and general-quarters ass-kicking to recover the eagle and his family’s honor.

Honor is just a huge part of this movie. They will hammer it into you like lunatics, honor this, honor that, honor out the wazoo–but it’s actually pretty close to the kind of thing they thought at the time. It’s a very entertaining movie, it’s nicely put together, I didn’t even notice much in the way of plot holes, though trying to pick my way through the various British tribes wasn’t exactly easy–I’d never even heard of the “Seal People” before this, and I spent a good chunk of time wondering when the Celts would show up–and frankly, by current standards of moviegoing that’s going to make it worth your time and your ten bucks.

It’s an action flick, and an unusually dark one–there are enough human bones piled up in this thing, along with fresh corpses, to easily let it drift into horror in points–but there’s no denying that there’s plenty of primitive weaponry clanging together to make this an action flick. One part I really enjoyed, though, was this part toward the end in which the music abruptly shuts off and all we’re left with is clanging and clattering weaponry; it has this oddly stark quality that has a strange beauty all its own, and it’s a really inspired way to put up that “final boss” fight scene.

Yes, we’ve trod this ground before, you and I, but we haven’t done it quite this well in some time, nor have we had quite this much fun.

You want a fun action romp with a bit of a darker edge, then strap in for The Eagle. The Screenhead Ten Scale gives it what most fun movies of its kind get, a seven out of ten for having a few issues, but still being solid enough entertainment to pass a night.