I think you have to go into The Eagle/Centurion with background information on the movies so you don't get a grandiose vision in your head like its going to be like Gladiator. The Eagle is based on a British novel written in the 1950s and tried to stay somewhat true to the novel. The Eagle was also produced for only 15 million dollars. Neither movie had a budget over 15 to my knowledge. I think Fassbender is a pretty good actor himself and if you switch out Tatum and Fassbender from Centurion to The Eagle I think The Eagle would have had a stronger acting presence. But being somewhat of an amateur Roman military historian the historical accuracy to The Eagle in the first half hour when Tatum is at his outpost was pretty impressive imo. Roman forts were designed exactly like that, ramparts, a huge ditch all the way around, sentry towers in the corners, legionnaires practiced for hours on their swordsmanship on wooden stakes constantly practicing thrusting and slicing. Then you see the Testudo infantry formation and the Orbis when Tatum leads his cohort to get the prisoners. Gladiators opening scene shows a massive battle scene but you really don't get an impression of the hardy discipline the legions fought with, it just ends up with two lines running into each other. The Eagle isn't a great movie by any means, but for 15 mil I thought it was decent...but maybe thats just the historian in me.