Set in Roman times in which the Goths overrun Rome and a small band of loyal soldiers must protect the child Emperor young Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster), the film boasts “international stars” such as Colin Firth (Bridget Jones), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Bollywood megastar Aishwarya Rai last seen in Mistress of Spices.

Rai can't act at all, but it is fun to see her try at being an Angelina Jolie / Lara Croft style bad ass action heroine. (She's of course gorgeous to simply gawp at.) Kingsley - in laughable fake beard – is in “take the cheque and run” mode while Firth . . . well, Firth is as mediocre as the movie he's in, but there's a reason why Firth never made it to the A-list of Hollywood leading men.

While there is something low rent and cheesy about The Last Legion, the film's production values at least isn't of bottom-of-the-barrel straight-to-video quality. Instead the film's photography, special effects, costumes, scenery, soundtrack music, etc. don't come across as a complete waste of celluloid. In fact there are some decent locations (the best scenery is a Mediterranean island that serves as the setting for the film's best action sequence involving a daring rescue) and the CGI could have been a whole lot worse to be honest.

The film's other tangibles don't come off too well. The screenplay is tepid and predictable - the bits in-between action sequences are just plain dull. The action sequences themselves aren't too badly staged, but in the age of the fantastic battles in the Lord of the Rings movies they come across as tame and small scale.

Last Legion has its fair share of goofy elements – big hairy muscled guys with Viking helmets looking like either ‘Eighties metal band members or Wagner opera extras always have us chuckling appreciatively in our popcorn. What's not to like? However the sad truth is that the film never really truly embraces its own goofiness and keeps it at arm's length. The Last Legion never realises that it is a bad movie and suffers for it. A more energetic and over-the-top approach would have served the film better. The film's pacing and editing is simply too slow.

Instead we get a film that takes itself too seriously while we in the audience don't. One action sequence halfway through has a fair amount of fun, but in the end simply depresses one because it is an indication of how much more fun the film could have been. The endless hand-to-hand swordfights will have you looking at your watch as the film loses all momentum towards the end and grinds towards its predictable ending.