Seeing “The Eagle” was a complete and utter waste of time.

I wish my eyes never had to experience watching this terrible mess of a movie, if you can even call it that.

“The Eagle” is a historical action-adventure film that gets it namesake from the Ninth Legion of Rome that disappeared in the mountains of Britain and loses its emblem of the golden eagle.

Flash forward 20 years to 120 A.D. and you’ll see Marcus Flavius Aquila, played by Channing Tatum, who was a young Roman centurion trying to avenge his father’s death and his family name. Marcus’ father was the lead commander of the Ninth Legion and was never heard from again after the Legion’s disappearance.

After being injured in a recent battle, Marcus leaves his uncle (Donald Sutherland) and decides to travel north of Hadrian’s Wall into Northern Britain with his slave Esca (Jamie Bell) who knows the native language. There the two must deal with native Seal People in hopes to save the lost eagle and to restore Marcus’s family’s name.

This movie is supposed to be an action-packed, on-the-edge-of-your-seat type of movie. However, it failed to make my adrenaline pump at all.

Throughout the first 45 minutes of the movie, I had no idea what it was about. It took a good hour for the plot to start moving and for the wheels to start turning in my head. And the only time my jaw dropped during this movie was during the sparse fighting sequences when interesting fighting tactics were used.

The plot failed to move me as well. The setup of the film is not original at all. A son trying to avenge his father’s death and restore honor to the family name?

Sounds pretty familiar to me.

The actorswere also unsuccessful at really getting into character and portraying people of that time.  Whenever Tatum tried to be all broody as Marcus, I couldn’t help but think he was channeling way too much of Brad Pitt from the movie “Troy.” Worst of all, I kept on thinking that Tatum would start break dancing from his role in the dance film “Step Up.”

Also, the acting from Sutherland was probably one of the worst acting jobs I had ever seen.

“The Eagle” was a flop of a film, and dare I say that failed to soar like an eagle.  Go watch an actual eagle fly because that would be more entertaining than watching two hours of Channing Tatum failing to portray a Roman centurion in “The Eagle.”

Maggie Cassidy is a Managing Editor for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com