This movie acts as a prequel to the Sword in the Stone stories. With Rome’s government crumbling, unlikely heroes must step up and take risks to make sure that truth conquers all. Colin Firth is surprisingly good as a Roman general put in charge of the young Emperor’s safety. The film had a nice balance of action and story, with the characters being wholly believable. There was a bit of sorcery near the end of the film.

The Dove Foundation was unable to reward our Family-Approved Seal due to the amount of violence, and a scene in which an unmarried couple spend the night together. The battle and fighting scenes showed little blood but there was more blood on the characters after the battle and there was a lot of fighting. With surprising characters in surprising roles, the film held some nice surprises but unfortunately fell short of receiving our Dove Seal.