I will make one thing explicitly clear about Pompeii, you CAN really enjoy yourself but you have to turn your brain off, sit back, get your popcorn ready and just have fun. Yes, its one of those movies. It isn't Gladiator, it isn't Titanic...its crazy, sappy, cheesy fun. My expectations for this were extremely high though the horde of bad reviews probably brought them down to a slightly more reasonable level. I kept trying to go see this and for one reason or another didn't get to so I was pretty excited to finally catch it on its last night at the local theatre. I didn't see it in 3D which is fine by me because 99.9% of the time I find this new 3D fad a complete waste though I can see in this film where they certainly made it a point to make sure it was 3D capable. As many other reviews have said, the film is a blend of ancient Roman gladiators and a disaster flick. Anyone who knows even the slightest bit of this story knows how its going to turn out. The story is decent, certainly entertaining enough, but so many of the characters and performances are downright cheesy. Fortunately sometimes campy can win you over and in this case I ended up enjoy it despite those performances or because of them in at least one case which I will mention shortly.
Kit Harington is a relative newcomer and someone I wasn't familiar with. The work he put into his physical performance cannot go unnoticed because he looks incredible and his body is ripped. Fortunately for him he actually turns in a pretty darn good performance too as our hero. The character in many ways is almost a carbon copy of Russell Crowe's hero in Gladiator but Harington pulls it off and keeps your attention and I don't think this film will do much for his career but I think we will see him in something big eventually. Emily Browning also gives a pretty solid performance as the girl that falls in love with him. Their romance is a little rushed and very Titanic-esque but it isn't too rushed and makes sense and their chemistry is very good. Its not epic but it works. This is actually one of the better performances I've seen from Browning, especially lately. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje seems to be the one thing from this film that comes out unscathed by poor reviews and for good reason. He is mesmerizing and fantastic as slave-champion Atticus. In fact, this would have been a whole different level of film had he been the star. He absolutely steals every scene and is literally magnificent in an otherwise "okay" movie. The relationship between him and Harington drives this story to new heights. I adore Kiefer Sutherland and was excited that he was in this. He is the aforementioned "terrible" performance that I loved. He is beyond campy in this. His fake (and poor British accent) and he just looks awkward and out of place and yet he was an astoundingly evil villain. It was like a cartoon villain but a great one complete with one-liners and truly evil like glaring and cackling. He would have made an awesome 80's action villain. The rest of the cast were mostly filler and some did better than others. Jared Harris was good in a small role as Browning's protective father whereas Carrie-Anne Moss was atrocious as her mother in a thankfully small role.
I am a big fan of the Resident Evil Series and there is no doubt that Paul WS Anderson loves to balance spectacular special effects and tons of action with a decent story. Some of his films are truly top notch in my books (The Three Musketeers, Resident Evil, Event Horizon.) It seems sometimes he focuses too much on the special effects and Pompeii is partly one of those projects. Some of the CGI is poor at best. Some IMDb reviewers rave about the Volcanic eruption scenes looked cartoony to me (perhaps because they were meant to be in 3D.) However, there are some strong scenes of CGI too. The build up in the film is to the apocalyptic eruption so I found myself waiting anxiously for it to happen and when it does, its a little bit of a letdown. Still I realized walking out of the film that I enjoyed myself. It was a little bit of mindless fun and certainly not meant to be a historical epic. I will watch it again and enjoy it for what it is. It won't change historical epics but have some fun! 7.5/10
Kit Harington is a relative newcomer and someone I wasn't familiar with. The work he put into his physical performance cannot go unnoticed because he looks incredible and his body is ripped. Fortunately for him he actually turns in a pretty darn good performance too as our hero. The character in many ways is almost a carbon copy of Russell Crowe's hero in Gladiator but Harington pulls it off and keeps your attention and I don't think this film will do much for his career but I think we will see him in something big eventually. Emily Browning also gives a pretty solid performance as the girl that falls in love with him. Their romance is a little rushed and very Titanic-esque but it isn't too rushed and makes sense and their chemistry is very good. Its not epic but it works. This is actually one of the better performances I've seen from Browning, especially lately. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje seems to be the one thing from this film that comes out unscathed by poor reviews and for good reason. He is mesmerizing and fantastic as slave-champion Atticus. In fact, this would have been a whole different level of film had he been the star. He absolutely steals every scene and is literally magnificent in an otherwise "okay" movie. The relationship between him and Harington drives this story to new heights. I adore Kiefer Sutherland and was excited that he was in this. He is the aforementioned "terrible" performance that I loved. He is beyond campy in this. His fake (and poor British accent) and he just looks awkward and out of place and yet he was an astoundingly evil villain. It was like a cartoon villain but a great one complete with one-liners and truly evil like glaring and cackling. He would have made an awesome 80's action villain. The rest of the cast were mostly filler and some did better than others. Jared Harris was good in a small role as Browning's protective father whereas Carrie-Anne Moss was atrocious as her mother in a thankfully small role.
I am a big fan of the Resident Evil Series and there is no doubt that Paul WS Anderson loves to balance spectacular special effects and tons of action with a decent story. Some of his films are truly top notch in my books (The Three Musketeers, Resident Evil, Event Horizon.) It seems sometimes he focuses too much on the special effects and Pompeii is partly one of those projects. Some of the CGI is poor at best. Some IMDb reviewers rave about the Volcanic eruption scenes looked cartoony to me (perhaps because they were meant to be in 3D.) However, there are some strong scenes of CGI too. The build up in the film is to the apocalyptic eruption so I found myself waiting anxiously for it to happen and when it does, its a little bit of a letdown. Still I realized walking out of the film that I enjoyed myself. It was a little bit of mindless fun and certainly not meant to be a historical epic. I will watch it again and enjoy it for what it is. It won't change historical epics but have some fun! 7.5/10