Furious action propels 'The Eagle'

I know it sounds crazy, but I wanted to see what the two main characters in the ancient Roman adventure “The Eagle” were going to do after the movie instead of watching what they actually did in the movie.

A Roman soldier named Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) and his freed slave Esca (“Billy Elliot” star Jamie Bell) suddenly become liberated from all obligations, and are free to do whatever they want with their lives.

It's an amazing, uplifting scene filled with excitement and endless possibilities, almost like a defining moment for an ancient superhero and his loyal sidekick.

Instead of the Green Hornet and Kato, they're the Grim Roman and Esca. What will they do now?

Maybe we'll find out in “The Eagle 2,” if one comes along.

In the meantime, Kevin Macdonald's action-heavy “The Eagle” shows how the unlikely duo met in a ragtag story where the viewers must fill in most of the emotional gaps, and the confusing, strobe-edited battle scenes are like pulled punches in a PG-13 movie doing everything it can to avoid an R rating.

In 120 A.D., 5,000 soldiers in Rome's infamous Ninth Legion mysteriously vanished while on patrol in the northern part of Britain. Also lost: the treasured gold Eagle standard that led the legion.

The commander of the legion: Marcus' father.

Twenty years later or so, Marcus has become a humorless, driven Roman commander who wants to avenge his father, reclaim the Eagle and restore his family's good name.

He's appointed to command an outpost in Britain where they're under constant siege by the occupied Britons.

Marcus appears to be slightly clairvoyant, for he dreams visions of what might have happened to his father and the Ninth, and hears approaching enemies when no one else can.

After successfully repelling a Briton attack, a severely wounded Marcus returns to Rome to heal under the watchful eye of his uncle (Donald Sutherland).

One day Marcus ventures out to see the fights. He becomes impressed with a young slave's refusal to fight a trained gladiator. When the bloodthirsty spectators give him the thumbs-down, Marcus saves Esca's life by waging the mightiest war of thumbs since Roger Ebert battled Gene Siskel over “Blue Velvet.”

This sets up the quest portion of “The Eagle” in which Marcus volunteers to do what no Roman regiment dares: to venture north of Hadrian's Wall into the land where the Ninth mysteriously vanished.

“One man can hide where an army can't!” Marcus says, and his reasoning convinces his commanders to let him — and his now obedient slave Esca — attempt to find the Eagle.

British director Macdonald, a documentary maker who also gave us the Oscar-winning drama “The Last King of Scotland,” turns Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 novel into a periodically rousting adventure accented by violent mayhem.

Some of the action comes at us so quick and direct that it's a wonder “The Eagle” wasn't converted into 3-D.

A sinewy Bell does a masterful job of communicating Esca's internal conflict over serving a master whose peers have systemically killed and raped his people.

But it's Tatum's Stoic characterization of the honor-driven Marcus that ultimately gives “The Eagle” its dramatic wings.

<b>“The Eagle”</b>

★ ★

<b>Starring: </b>Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Denis O'Hare, Paul Ritter

<b>Directed by: </b>Kevin Macdonald

<b>Other: </b>A Focus Features release. Rated PG-13 for violence. 114 minutes.