POMPEII

A slave turned gladiator coincidentally runs into the Roman Senator responsible for slaughtering his entire village at a city that is about to be destroyed by a volcano. How convenient yet ironic for the gladiator. Every story must have conflict for it to be compelling but the plot of Pompeii is sheer absurdity. Why give the gladiator a chance for revenge if he won’t live long enough to bask in his glory? Why begin a love story, in which the gladiator saves the lady twice but the couple gets burnt to a crisp in the end? Why would the villain kidnap the lady who detests him without just focusing on saving his own life? Movies like Titanic (1997), Pearl Habor (2001) and Pompeii have one thing in common; the fictional story of the film precedes the factual disaster. But unlike Titanic, the love story in Pompeii is borderline delusional if you add up the actual time the couple is on screen together. The acting is en epic disaster in and of itself. Kit Harrington’s second foray into the film medium has produced a forgettable performance. Emily Browning’s oversized head in comparison to the size of her body is a constant distraction. Kiefer Sutherland’s ‘typical tyrannical Roman douchebag’ is overacting at its best. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays Atticus; one of only two likeable characters in the film, the other being Mount Vesuvius, the volcano. The computer-generated imagery looks like something you’d find at a garage sale; second-hand and cheap. Director Paul W. S. Anderson seems to pay more attention to the cinematography of his films than story development. The events of Pompeii the movie have nothing to do with the real incident, except for Mount Vesuvius erupting and deep frying the population. The characters are impossible to empathize with and the action scenes are heavily copied from other films. Even dialogue such as “those who are about to die, salute you” is wanton plagiarism. The story is essentially a cross between Gladiator (2000) and Roland Emmerich’s disaster film 2012 (2009). The father of the drawn-out Resident Evil series and other forgettable gems such as The Three Musketeers (2011) gives us yet another epic fail.

Thanks a bunch, Paul W.T.F. Anderson.

Rating: 3/10

S. V. Fernando