Pompeii was a lively city in 79 A.D., but the ominous Mount Vesuvius always stood in the background waiting for the opportune time to cause total destruction. Former slave Milo (played by Kit Harington) is now a gladiator and his amazing skills have caught the attention of Cassia (played by Emily Browning), daughter of a wealthy merchant. It turns into another star-crossed lovers story as their social status and her betrothed (arranged by her father) get in the way. Her soon-to-be husband, Corvus (played by Kiefer Sutherland), is a corrupt senator, which complicates the situation even further. Once Mount Vesuvius erupts, Milo must do everything he can to save Cassia.
I’m a fan of John Snow (aka Kit Harrington), what can I say. That is what piqued my interest the most about this one. The story itself has spawned plenty of epic tales. And perhaps that is what contributed to the downfall of this one. They were simply out of ideas.
I am amazing at Paul W. S. Anderson’s ability to get the biggest bang for his bucks. He can have a modest production cost and make it look almost twice as expensive, case in point the Resident Evil films. This is probably one of those instances where he should have done more with less. With a production cost of $100 million big ones, I was honestly a little miffed about the expectations for this to make a decent profit. He probably could have made it look the same with half the money. It would need to make $200 million to be considered a success. Giving a February release to a type of movie with a summer blockbuster budget signals all types of red flags.
And after seeing it I could understand why. After seeing The Legend of Hercules earlier in the year there were similar feelings for me: bad acting, contrived moments, sub-par action, etc. I like Kit Harrington but he didn’t feel like leading man material. He’s given us stronger performances on Game of Thrones so perhaps that falls on the feet of the director.
The story was boring and I didn’t sense a lot of chemistry between Milo and Cassia to buy their love story. I’m a fan of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje so I was originally pleased to learn he had a prominent role as Atticus, but I don’t feel like the character reached enough potential.
Overall, the story of Pompeii is still one of my favorites, but I’d recommend you watch a History Channel special on it instead of this.