Pompeii

• Produced and Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
• February 18, 2014 (Buenos Aires) / February 21, 2014 (North America) / February 27, 2014 (Germany)

A slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save a woman that has been promised to a corrupt Roman Senator as Mount Vesuvius erupts. He barely knows her but risks death during an eruption.

Game of Thrones was still quite the thing at this time and I think just that everybody from that show got a starring role or major supporting role in one movie or another in the hopes of studios capitalizing upon that show’s success. Here it is Kit Harington as the gladiator Milo in this work of historical disaster fiction built around the very real events of 79 A.D. in Pompeii. 

Much like any disaster movie Pompeii is a collection of intersecting plotlines. Unlike others of the genre those intersecting plotlines do not get much play with the film keeping the story of Milo and his love as the focus. This is quite the expansive cast (as most disaster movies are) with them not doing much beyond being there to support the two attractive people.

Kiefer Sutherland is a fine actor, but he put on an on an accent unnecessarily as the mortal threat Senator Quintus Attius Corvus. He’s an American actor amongst a very British cast and I guess it was an effort for him to blend in a little more. His is more vaguely British rather than specifically British like the other actors. He has a fine natural speaking voice. Just give him some more lofty sounding dialogue and he would have blended in by default. Sutherland’s natural speaking voice would have served to set him apart as the villain.

Some of the characters are based on bodies uncovered in certain positions around ancient Pompeii. This is fanfiction of how they came to be in that place from the kissing lovers to the cowering man. How many people actually know of these things? I think most everybody knows that bodies were found in assorted possessions in Pompeii, but the specific ones they focus on are probably a bit of an unknown to the world at large.

Explaining how they came to be before they were discovered forces the narrative to do certain things. You can feel the story being coerced in certain directions rather than happening naturally. You can tell Paul W. S. Anderson is trying to move it to get characters into certain spots and it removes all the suspense and tension even if you don’t know about the discovered bodies he was inspired by.

It’s entertaining, but the attempt at a tragic romance and evil obsession don’t quite land. I don’t feel that Senator Quintus Attius Corvus genuinely wanted Cassia (Emily Browning) either physically or for social advancement. I would have even taken her desiring Cassia as a trophy. Convince me of something!Nor do I buy the romance with Milo and that girl. Then there is Milo’s buddy relationship with fellow gladiatorial slave Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). So much is placed on the screen while lacking even enough substance to get the viewer through the movie.

It stretches everything out to get it to its runtime but with some judicious editing it would’ve been shorter while also working better. Time is the enemy when you lack material. It developed none of the characters nor did it engage in any of the usual tropes which are associated with disaster movies. In some cases that can be good but when there’s nothing else to your movie it’s a bad move. 

The costuming is excellent. It’s much more ornate and complex than you might expect. We (the audience that is) know more about ancient clothing than when epics of old were made courtesy of the democratization of knowledge afforded by the internet. You could not get away with what you would in a movie like the original Clash of the Titans.

There are moments when the CGI is painfully obvious. I’m not faulting them on the volcano. The problem is when they try to make the sets they shot on in Canada look like more than what they are. The camera lingers too long, and what they did to make the streets look like they run into the distance looks kind of fake. I found it reminiscent of a bad matte painting before CGI was employed for backgrounds.

Nothing really comes together in Pompeii. It could’ve been something a lot more interesting than what we got. If you watch this I think you will eventually drift off and find yourself on your phone before the climax viewing cat videos or reels on Facebook. Don’t really bother seeking this one out.