‘The Eagle’

3:34 PM PST 2/10/2011 by Todd McCarthy

Channing Tatum stars in a simple tale of honor redeemed amid the throes of the Roman Empire.

The Eagle is an engaging, if straightforward and one-dimensional, quest tale set in the wilds of northern Britain during Roman times. Based on a 1954 best-seller by the late Rosemary Sutcliff, one of the past century’s most popular English authors of books for young readers, this story of colliding cultures and lost honor regained is more intimate and less brutal than most period epics these days. But though this Eagle might fly in the U.K. and other international markets, prospects for the PG-13 rated Focus release look iffier domestically, where adult audiences might find it simplistic and teens might not sense enough fun or action to check it out.