The story is set around Pompeii in 79 A.D. and follows Milo ("Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington), a slave turned Gladiator who finds himself smitten with Cassia, (Emily Browning) the daughter of a shipping tycoon (Jared Harris) and his wife (Carrie-Anne Moss). Cassia has returned to the future "forgotten city" after spending a year away in Rome.
Soon after, Roman Senator, and personal liaison for Emperor Titus, Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) arrives with the intent to take Cassia back to Rome and marry her. Milo finds himself facing death in the combat arena once the ruthless and corrupt Corvus discovers that Milo and Cassia have feelings for one another.
And then the ground begins shake beneath them as Mount Vesuvius erupts...
The script by Janet Scott Batchler Lee Batchler and Michael Robert Johnson is filled with one cliche after another where I imagine a five year old could have done a better job....Seriously.
I am a big fan of director Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil films and his 2011 stylized take on The Three Musketeers, here though his usual bag of tricks falls flat. Not even his trademark slow-mo can save this disaster of a movie.
The arena action is ok I suppose but you'll see better stuff in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator... I know that film is way above Pompeii--you get the point though.
The acting in the film is, for the most part, cheesy. The cast includes some truly talented folk who when saddled with a bad script can do little to save the film. Everyone seems miscast here. Unlike Leonardo DiCaprio Jack and Kate Winslet's Rose in Titanic, the two leads have zero chemistry in Pompeii making it really difficult to root for them, despite knowing how the film's gonna end. By the time the iceberg shows up in James Cameron's boat film you are fully invested in the star-crossed couple to make it off the sinking ship. Here I was rooting for the lava.
Sutherland's bad guy is hard to watch. The uppity-air Snidely Whiplash delivery gets old after some 5 minutes into his performance. Ugh!
By now you might be asking yourself "Tom, is there anything you liked about the movie?" Honestly the answer no. Save your money and yourselves. You can't get those 105 minutes back folks
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