Pompeii (I) (2014) User Reviews

It all depends on your attitude

[kluseba · 7/10 · 6 March 2014]

You can take this movie from two different sides.

As somebody who is very much interested in history and geography and has studied both for many years, this movie is obviously full of mistakes and wrong stereotypes. It is almost as inaccurate as the "Spartacus" series. And this is never an original movie. We have all watched movies with very similar story lines about the evil Romans who want to control everything, the poor gladiators who stand up against them and the forbidden love between a rich young woman and a foreign slave. I can understand why many people are rating this film down. If you really want to watch a sophisticated movie about that time, go for the classic "Ben- Hur".

What I think is strange is that all these stereotypes were highly predictable from the trailers only. I am asking myself why people even went to watch this movie if they were going to hate it for the reasons mentioned above. Some people just want to bash a movie and seem to have a very sad life if they waste their time watching movie they dislike so much.

I went to watch the movie for something different. I wanted to watch a colourful movie with impressive sets and costumes and stunning 3D effects of an exploding volcano. I was eager to watch a fast pace flick with a lot of fighting scenes, some tension here and there and maybe a few love scenes with beautiful actresses. And I exactly got that.

In addition to this, the acting was just good enough and included a few interesting characters. I really liked Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Jessica Lucas in this film even though they played stereotypical characters and could have had more screening time. If you are going to watch this movie for Carrie-Anne Moss or Kiefer Sutherland, please do not. They have been much better in other movies in the past.

In the end, it all depends on you. If you want to watch an original and profound movie and learn something about the Roman Empire, just forget it. If you want to watch a effect ridden action adventure, you are going to like this. It is not the movie of the year but I surely had a great time watching it.

Underrated

[billybdargan · 7/10 · 22 November 2019]

While not a classic, Pompeii is actually a pretty enjoyable disaster/action flick that I couldn't wait to see back in 2014. I remember enjoying it in cinemas and have just watch it again for the 2nd time. I really need to get around to watching the 24 minutes of cut footage as I feel several characters were highly underused, especially Carrie Ann Moss and Jessica Lucas. While the ending still kinda annoys me, I really don't think it could've ended any other way.

It's fast paced, has some great action scenes and is an overall pretty decent. Nowhere near as bad as others are making out to be. I wish Emily Browning would make more big budget movies.

Enjoyable Eye Candy

[didonatope · 6/10 · 20 February 2014]

It's pretty much impossible to say that "Pompeii" is a flawless film. It's love story is clichéd and and its lighting at times leaves much to be desired. On the other hand, I believe the term "guilty pleasure" fits perfectly here, as I certainly enjoyed this movie enough to recommend it.

"Pompeii" tells the story of the legendary natural disaster that covered the Italian city of Pompeii and its residents in ashes, preserving their bodies for eternity. Like "Titanic," "Pompeii" mixes in a star-crossed lovers story into the disaster genre. Following the rich- girl-loves-poor-boy trope, a wealthy woman named Cassia (played by Emily Browning of "Sucker Punch") falls in love with an enslaved gladiator named Milo (played by Kit Harrington of "Game of Thrones"). When Pompeii's volcano erupts, it is up to Milo to save Cassia from being left to die in the eruption (there is more to the story but I don't want to give anything away).

Admittedly, the love story is by far less convincing than the one in Titanic. The two leads Cassia and Milo spend a bare minimum of time getting to know each other and their relationship lacks development. However, in a disaster movie that focuses more on providing audience- pleasing thrills, this is much less of a problem than it could have been.

On the contrary, Milo's relationship with a fellow slave named Atticus (played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje of "Thor: The Dark World") is surprisingly well developed throughout the film. In the first act, Milo learns that he must face Atticus, a man who has been promised freedom after one more battle. Several scenes of dialogue in a prison cell and action in the arena they are forced to fight in give the audience a good feel for who these characters are and give a good enough reason to root for them. Considering that this is a disaster movie made by Paul W.S. Anderson, both characters have a substantial amount of substance to them, and the actors give good enough performances to make their friendship believable.

On the subject of Mr. Anderson, I have never really been a fan of his work. "The Three Musketeers" was mediocre at best and his "Resident Evil" movies are absolutely dreadful. Here he seems to have improved his ability to tell a story, though there are a few flaws here and there that carry over from his other works. Much like "Alien vs. Predator," Anderson struggles to properly light a few nighttime scenes, casting what could have been a great looking shot into 50% blackness. In addition, his editing can occasionally be choppy, but compared to something like "I, Frankenstein," it's nowhere near as jarring.

To his credit, which I believe is often overlooked, Mr. Anderson certainly knows how to stage and take advantage of an action setpiece. One scene involving gladiators fighting soldiers chained to a spiked pillar made full use of its environment, and will likely have audiences entertained. Something else worth nothing are the special effects; they are very well done and it is clear that the VFX team put a lot of effort into bringing the legendary eruption of Mt. Vesuvias to the big screen. What's even better is the 3D; lately 3D has been sorely mediocre in Hollywood films, but in this case it is very effective. From volcanic ashes to falling beams of wood, "Pompeii" succeeds in taking full advantage of the 3D technology with stunning results.

The last act of the film is among one of the most thrilling disaster scenes I have ever scene in recent years. Fans of disaster movies will likely be pleased by all of the mindless carnage and destruction, and like "2012," the visual grandeur is seat-grippingly epic.

"Pompeii" is nowhere near a high-quality film, nor is it free from typical Hollywood clichés. However, this was not a film that left me feeling insulted or just jaded. Rather, this was actually a memorable disaster/action period piece that I could easily recommend taking some friends to see. The experience alone is pretty damn cool.

3D first, Movie second

[imwalt · 4/10 · 26 February 2014]

The movie Pompeii was obviously thought-up and directed around the 3D effects. The plot, acting, and script must have all been after-thoughts to the 3D fireballs shooting off the screen, 3D ashes floating in front of your eyes, and the 3D objects being hurled around by tidal waves.

It was watchable, but don't be expecting a fabulous plot that you haven't seen dozens of times in other better movies. The bad writing had most of the actors come off sounding like lifeless wooden statues that would say and do very unbelievable things just to keep the story going. Everything was very predictable. So predictable, in fact, there were a couple of moments I could have sworn I did see it before!

This was a good example why I typically do no like 3D movies. Having some good 3D effects is not a valid excuse for making a bad movie!! This definitely could have been much better!

Pompeii

[0U · 4 March 2020]

Let's start with the positive: the movie looks great, the visuals and effects really work. Little else does, though. The cast acts wooden, the story is predictable and boring, borrowing many elements from Gladiator and the end is cheesy as hell. Overall a real waste of time.

Wasn't bad but not great

[erinouellette · 6/10 · 7 April 2016]

When I saw that Kit Harington ( Jon Snow in Game of Thrones ) was going to be in this I immediately had to go see it! What I saw however was somewhat disappointing.

I know the movie is based on the disaster at Pompeii but I found the plot a little generic and the screen writing made the actors sound really wooden.

The action scenes, visual effects and delicious eye candy that is Kit Harington made up a little for the very stiff acting and predictable plot but still it could've been way better had they developed the plot and characters more!

Horrible movie, full of clichés.

[mbabaev · 3/10 · 19 February 2014]

This was a complete waste fo time. Here are the main reasons:

1. The performance by the main characters was very poor and artificial. 2. The director did a bad job, as did the editor. 3. The main story is weak and uninspired. There are clichés all over the place. Dialogue is poor and boring. The whole story is completely dubious and it is hard to take the movie seriously. 4. Historically speaking, the film sacrifices the real events that occurred for the sake of extra special effects. The fact that two cities were destroyed before anything got to Pompeii is ignored completely. The 'fire rain' on Pompeii also never happened, as did the tsunami. It simply made no sense to add everything but the kitchen sink into this movie. 'The Gladiator' was fictional, but it never claimed to be anything else. This film claims to be based on real events, when it clearly isn't in the most important aspects of what happened that day. In Pompeii, people died because they inhaled the smoke, not because fire rained down on them or tsunamis washed them away. The arena (stadium) was never destroyed by the earhquake and it still stands in Pompeii to this day. Dubious to the extreme.

Overall very very poor.

Minor flaws throughout, but otherwise a solid thrill...

[edwardanthony9 · 7/10 · 20 February 2014]

I would want to say that this film feels different, yet somehow it felt familiar. The film felt different thanks to the climactic volcanic eruption, which added an extra dimension to the final act, yet in every other minor plot detail, it felt as if I've seen the act many times before. Overall, though, it is a joy to watch, despite the minor flaws throughout the film. One strong point in which I enjoy the film were the action sequences, which mostly are very practical sword fights, that turns out to be quite fun and enjoyable with the fast & swift hits. And then throughout the end, the suspense of the danger can be felt, which I attribute mostly to the decent soundtrack. Soundtracks which are supportive towards the appropriate situation is always a great thing to have. And while the visual effects were not perfect, it didn't really matter in terms of the overall experience. Yet the film is dragged down by minor flaws along the way. There was no humour in the mix, and while there is no deep emotional drama as well, at least I can still feel for the character. There are times where I felt that the scenes were not supposed to happen yet, although in the end, I could at least care about what's going to happen to these characters. And the closing scenes were too abrupt, where they could instead have added some finishing lines/quotes or maybe give some aftermath/future scenes. These minor details kind of let down what would otherwise be a solid thrilling disaster film. VERDICT: Good: Great action sequences, Decent soundtrack & suspense Bad: No humour, Lack of emotional touches, Abrupt ending, (Minor flaws) SCORE: 7.0

Waste of time

[g_caletti · 3/10 · 1 March 2014]

What a piece of crap wannabe blockbuster . If it was not by the fact I got free tickets for the premiere, I would be p***ed off to waste my money in vain. Well, my time was wasted anyway...

The plot is the epitome of stupidity: shallow characters and a predictable story made me wonder what the director was thinking. The history of Pompeii and its fate was completely ignored (I have visited Pompeii myself) - the tsunami scene was only one of the non sense historical goofs. The movie end is absolutely stupid and I was relieved it finally ended.

If you want to waste your time, this is the perfect opportunity.

Romance and Tragedy

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 29 June 2014]

In 79 A.D., a Celtic tribe of horsemen is slaughtered by the Roman Senator Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland), his right-hand man Proculus (Sasha Roiz) and their army. The boy Milo is the only survivor that is captured later and sold as slave. Seventeen years later, the slave Milo (Kit Harington) turns into an invincible gladiator in a province and is brought to Pompeii to participate in the games in the arena. While walking to Pompeii, the noble Cassia (Emily Browning) and her chaperone Ariadne (Jessica Lucas) cross with the path of the slaves and Cassia is fascinated by Milo. He shares the cell of Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye- Agbaje), who is near to get his freedom depending on winning his last fight. Meanwhile Cassia meets her parents Severus (Jared Harris) and Aurelia (Carrie-Anne Moss) and learns that she has been betrothed to the corrupt Senator Corvus that is pressing her parents to marry her. During the games, the Mount Vesuvius erupts and Milos and his friend Atticus succeed to escape from the arena. But Milo wants to save his beloved Cassia in the middle of the chaos and the Romans.

"Pompeii" is a full of action and dull romance in the tragic environment of the last days of Pompeii. Disaster movies were popular in the 70's ("Airport", "The Towering Inferno", and "Earthquake" among others) and Paul W.S. Anderson returns to the genre after "Titanic". The entertaining story is silly with poor lines and dialogs, but never boring. Kit Harington, the "Jon Snow" from "Games of Thrones", makes it worth to see at least on DVD. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Pompeia" ("Pompeii")

Awful, awful movie

[hywel-9 · 1/10 · 19 February 2014]

Princess Bride, but played straight, with no self-awareness or humour. "My name is Milo. You killed my father. Prepare to die!".

Avoid. The fight scenes are entertaining, but so prolonged that one is taken out of the movie to think "Yeah, but there's no way he'd be able to *keep* fighting for this long".

The whole audience (in Paris) laughed at the final utterly ridiculous frames. This was meant to be poignant/heartbreaking - like Titanic. The audience by then just wanted it to be over.

There are a few wooden performances, but I suspect it's hard not to be with this script and direction. Even so, Sutherland should be ashamed of his showing in this. He must just have been counting his pay the whole time.

Also: 'Milo' the Celt ?? How about using Celtic name?

Why DID I like this film?

[davidagnino · 8/10 · 24 April 2014]

Many people are out there saying it's "historically inaccurate", it's "a remade of gladiator WITH A VOLCANO!" and a very cliché film. but I'm saying it is a really good movie on it's own, considering that this IS A DISASTER MOVIE. And in many aspects this is better than 2012, Volcano, or other movies like these. For starters, there is an actual plot to the movie before the volcano erupts.

Other things I liked:

• The gladiatorial theme is well presented. You can see people who hate being a gladiator, people who are just waiting for their freedom, people who believe they are gods in the arena, and so on, and you can watch how the majority of Romans loved these shows, but some didn't. You can make yourself an idea of the weather of that theme.

• The romance is believable. I mean, it happens very fast, but it's not Disney's "Real Love" They are just two people who LIKE each other caught in the massive chaos of a volcano, not much more.

• the special effects are plain awesome! Not only the gigantic explosion and lava bombs, and tsunamis. Also the small things, like the views of the city in the background, and the aerial shots.

• The city was amazing. People complain "Pompeii is not a port city" Well, actually it WAS, but the eruption changed the shape of the coastline. And the fact that THAT city shown in the movie WAS Pompeii. They actually shoot in place and then recreated the city out of the remainings using CGI. So the grid shape, the walls and everything is in place just as it was 2000 years ago. Archaeologists have in fact praised the director for his recreation of the city

• the volcano. It's the star of the movie without a doubt. It seems to have almost a personality. The way the eruption happened was very close to what actually happened. Some artistic liberties were made for the sake of entertaining. You won't be seeing any clichéd lava river because Mount Vesubius doesn't work that way.

• The ending. It was amazing. I can't spoil it for you, but making it in any other way would have damaged the quality of the film.

• The acting. It was really good for what I was expecting. Milo surprised me a lot, because I could really believe him as a lead man. The girl also. She seemed so plain in photos, but once the movie started I could say she nailed the part perfectly and was by no means just "miss fanservice", as girls in these kinds of movies tend to be. The real surprise was Atticus. The actor totally stealed the movie for himself in every scene, something that was perfect for an invicted champion in the peak of his gladiatorial career.

What didn't I like? The fact that the other famous city in the vicinity of Vesubius(Herculaeum, I think it's called) wasn't showed in the aerial shots. I mean, obviously the movie would be to complicated if we include it in the plot, but an aerial cameo of this other city would have been a fine addition to the movie, and would have improved the accuracy of it.

Should be awful but it works...for the most part

[Robert_duder · 7/10 · 16 March 2014]

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

What drivel

[k-thomas · 1/10 · 20 April 2014]

This is one of the worst films i have ever seen. A rehash of Conan and Gladiator. Good guy Celts are slaughtered by bad guy Romans led by Bad Actor Kiefer Sutherland. A little boy is the lone survivor. Taken to Londonium [ London ] and trained to become a Gladiator. Conan. He is so good, he is sent to Pompeii to fight in the arena. On the way he comes across a damsel in distress and helps her with her wounded horse. Love at first sight. A Roman legion arrives led by guess who? yes bad guy Kiefer Sutherland. Good guy Gladiator wants revenge. Bad guy Kiefer Sutherland has his eye on the damsel in distress, who happens to be the daughter of the headman of Pompeii, but she is in love with good guy Gladiator. Gladiators in Pompeii were the celebrities of the period. Not held in dungeons like in this movie. Also the citizens of Pompeii were Romans themselves,also unlike in this movie. I won't continue with the rest of the story, as i think you should see for yourselves. The acting was terrible, especially by Sutherland. He started with an American accent and then later an English accent. The bad guy characters were like something from an English school Pantomime. As for the disaster itself. Even with the 3d effects, it was not edge of the seat stuff. Unlike Titanic. The story in Titanic was a romance around a disaster, but without the 3d effects, you were glued to the screen. All you see as soon as the eruption comes burning rocks raining down, nothing else. Also it shows people panicking straight away, which is nonsense, because as i was told by the guide, when i visited Pompei, the populace had no idea of what was happening and just stood and watched until the lava started to flow down and even then, they tried to save their belongings. That is why so many perished and also why Versuvius was mistaken for a mountain and there is no word for Vulcanoe in Latin. Also once the smoke connected to to the sky, light pebbles rained down on the city. So for a while, they thought there was no danger. Hollywood has gone downhill in the last 20 years. They blame DVDs for people not going to the cinema, so they make more films in 3d.The standard of acting has gone downhill. There are no stories to their films any more, so they put all these effects in to compensate for this. If you want to see a good DVD about Pompei buy the DVD BBC documentary drama with Tim Piggot Smith called Pompeii The Last Day. On with it is the story about the Colosseum, called Colosseum A Gladiators Story.If you want to see a good fictional story centering around the disaster, get the TV Miniseries The Last Days Of Pompeii starring Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Quayle, Ernest Borgnine, Barbera Carrera and a host of others. I hope i have not bored you with this review, but i don't like to waste money and i am sure you don't.

Outside of some effects - just bad.

[westsideschl · 2/10 · 2 June 2014]

Dialogue & acting - repackaged as old English (18th century) by Hollywood for it's lyrical movieness (and to fit Hollywood stereotyping). Acting was daytime soap TV level.

Characters - noncreative, plug and play characters e.g. gladiators (one black & soon to become friends with adversary - been done before); other gladiator sees parents die at Roman hands and is now old enough for revenge - also been done before; really bad Romans acting badly; aristocratic pretty daughter (still has 21st century make up, eye liner, etc.) falls for slave gladiator (of course).

Action scenes - good gladiators defeat dozens of Romans as brunch (I was waiting for one hand tied behind the back and blindfolded but the writers copped out).

CGI - flashes of CGI volcano every 5 to 10 minutes to remind us of what the movie is about. Familiar scenes of water rushing over the city - already used in many tsunami movies and is getting old. Looked like the same wave used in several Indian Ocean tsunami films recently, but not as well done as say in "The Impossible". Fireballs came off as comical fireworks effects.

Not the disaster you may have heard the movie to be, this uneven mix of a disaster movie and a 'Gladiator' action-romance is great on the former and terrible on the latter

[moviexclusive · 20 February 2014]

Paul W.S. Anderson has never been a director of story or character; instead, as he had demonstrated with five chapters of the 'Resident Evil' franchise, it's all about giving his audience the most bang for their buck with pure action spectacle. And just as he did with zombies previously, Anderson spares nothing in recreating the destruction of the ancient Italian city laid to waste by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 72, so rest assured that it does deliver genuine spectacle as it promises.

The only catch? The volcano only erupts an hour into the movie, which also means that Anderson has to grapple with his twin Achilles' heels of story and character for that same duration. We won't kid you - the wait till fire and ash rains down from the legendary mountain is quite literally a slog. The fault isn't entirely Anderson's; though the leaden direction is to blame for the cliché-ridden melodrama, it is the screenwriters Michael Robert Johnson (Sherlock Holmes), Janet Scott Batchler and Lee Batchler (Batman Forever) who are responsible for the utterly pedestrian script and some truly cringe-worthy dialogue.

What they have done essentially is to take a gladiator drama and throw in a 'rich girl/ poor boy' romance in the vein of 'Titanic' as a pretext for the inevitable eruption, with the former relatively more fleshed out than the latter. To set the stage, we see a young Celtic boy watching his parents being murdered by the ruthless Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) and his top soldier Proculus (Sasha Roiz), both Roman guards whom you know the same older boy will come face to face with later on. Fast forward to seventeen years later and the boy named Milo has developed into a strapping gladiator known as 'The Celt', picked out amidst a grubby Londinium arena for the big league in Pompeii.

Milo's meet-cute with his romantic interest Cassia (Emily Browning) happens en route to Pompeii, when the latter's carriage becomes stuck in the mud and causes one of her horses to suffer a severe fall. In an act of kindness, Milo kills the horse with his bare hands to put him out of its misery, and immediately earns Cassia's fondness. Back in Pompeii, Cassia's father Severus (Jared Harris) and mother (Carrie Anne-Moss) play host to Corvus and his Roman entourage, whose favour they depend on to fund their plan to revitalise the city by building aqueducts. Turns out however that Corvus is only doing so to force Cassia's hand in marriage, whom he unsuccessfully courted while the latter was still back in Rome.

In the meantime, Milo forges an acquaintance with Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), one of the fiercest fighters who is according to the law just one fight away from earning his freedom. Needless to say, Atticus soon finds that his masters have no intention of honouring the law, and instead of being opponents, Milo and Atticus team up to rebel against their captors. All this culminates in a nicely shot showdown in the town's coliseum, where Milo and Atticus take on an entire Roman battalion in order to simulate Corvus' invasion of the Celtic homeland.

From that time on, Anderson's best instincts as a filmmaker take over, injecting the moribund proceedings with a much-needed shot of life that immediately jolts his viewer out of his seat. The sight of Vesuvius starting to boil over is a truly humbling one, even more so when it starts to rain fire, rock and lava down on the hapless citizens of Pompeii, not excluding our protagonists. Anderson skilfully cuts between wide shots offering birds-eye views of the scale of the devastation and close-ups of the disaster from the point of view of its victims, and it is to his credit - as well as that of his cinematographer Glen MacPherson and VFX supervisor Dennis Berardi - that we are simply and surely transfixed.

Lest you think it's all about the volcano, well the calamity turns out to be much more multi-faceted. Besides watching out for fire and rock from above, those looking for a way out of Pompeii are also either swallowed into the ground as the earth underneath them collapses or are swept away by an enormous tsunami precipitated by the tectonic forces causing the same eruption. As if that weren't enough, our star-crossed lovers also have to contend with Corvus' relentless pursuit, while Atticus proves a more than worthy ally against Proculus. Anderson channels his best inner Roland Emmerich to ensure that his disaster movie never has a boring moment once nature's tragedy strikes, and let's just say the last 45 mins is tense and exciting stuff.

Even so, Anderson threatens to be undone by a perennially weak link in his movie, and that is the quality of the acting. 'Game of Thrones' star Kit Harrington is no less wooden than he was in the HBO miniseries, and there is almost zero chemistry between him and 'Sucker Punch' actress Emily Browning. Though '24' star Kiefer Sutherland looks out of place in a sword and scandal epic like this, he proves more entertaining than our leads in a borderline campy manner. The best of the lot is without a doubt Adewale, who brings unexpected dignity and gravitas to his role in a movie that generally demands much less from its performers.

But really, one should not expect differently from 'Pompeii', which as we said at the beginning is no more than an opportunity for Anderson to leverage on historical events to deliver an action-filled disaster movie packed with visual spectacle. As long as you can get past that first hour, the prolonged cataclysmic climax will grip, astound and awe you - and since this is meant to be a disaster movie first and an action- romance second, the priorities are just right.

Impressive and shallow

[cinematic_aficionado · 6/10 · 2 May 2014]

Hollywood deals with an ancient catastrophe.

The above phrase contains all one needs to be aware with regards to Pompeii. Brilliant and breathtaking spectacle marred by superficial storyline.

We live the last days of Pompeii leading to the eruption of Vesuvius. A slave arrives in town in order to fight for his life as part of a spectacle for a senator from Rome. He befriends another gladiator and the daughter of the town's governor falls for him.

On the one hand, a great job has been done to escalate the audiences tension as we await for Armageddon to hit and the visual climax does not disappoint. The effects are spectacular and the destruction is displayed to its full core.

Sadly, whilst these men who were treated like animals and were an object of sport for their slave owners had a chance to escape they put everything to jeopardy for a girl crush who was also part of the system that oppressed them. Had this been presented from the angle of a friendship between two men that were to fight one another to death it would have some resonance but for some cheesy romance it proved a major anticlimax in the otherwise impressive high point leading to sheer indifference as to whether any of them survived or not.

Waste of time

[vladp6 · 1/10 · 23 February 2014]

This is my first review at IMDb, and I cannot withstand from warning the people reading the reviews: this movie is very bad. If I could give a zero, I'd do that. I've read so many reviews that really helped me a lot to choose the movie I'd like to watch. Pompeii (2014) is one of a few movies I didn't inspect properly before watching. And that was a big mistake. This movie has no sense, no story, actions are amateurish, emotions are artificial, dialogues are brainless. We laughed a lot during the movie on how stupid many scenes and dialogues could be. Paul Anderson should really retire. I read his books and I liked them, but as a movie director, I'm sorry it's probably not for him. After two hours watching this movie and after the last sequence of scenes, I really wonder what all that was about? Even if considering a love genre, this movie doesn't belong to it either. Love between the main characters was very funny and superficial. Please, don't waste your time on this movie. It's completely worthless.

P.S. By the way, the volcano eruption was so funny. Most of the time it shoot fire bombs instead of producing lava. And the shoots were really bully. I think Paul Anderson took this from Starship Troopers where the huge alien insects shoot the similar bombs in space.

This is going into my bad movie HOF

[KOOLAIDBRO · 7/10 · 4 June 2023]

Jon Snow is playing the Spaniard from gladiator with Conan the Barbarian's back story. Kiefer Sutherland is trying to play a tough guy version of Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus and is less believable as a Roman Centurion, Caesar, senator I don't know what he's playing, but whatever it is Nic Cage has a better Alabama accent than whatever the Kiefer is doing in this. Then the volcano blows and it turns into a Roland Emmerich disaster movie mixed with titanic. The fact it's pg13 makes it funnier because there has been several throats slashed. Woman and Children cut down in cold blood on screen, but no blood spatter at all. This was obviously rated R and someone made a decision to make it more family friendly, but left all the death in. Basically it's a top tier comedy. This movie is awesome. People are dying dramatic deaths and I guess I'm supposed to care, but have no idea who they are because it's moving so fast I don't know who is who, but just that I know I saw that person earlier and now they're dying in slow motion by all sorts of different things. If you don't like this than you know nothing Jon Snow. This is a Neil Breen movie with a huge budget.

Not exactly good, nor as bad as most people would say

[tbaggaley-808-303450 · 5/10 · 3 May 2014]

I think most peoples and my main issue with the film is the subject matter. Everyone has seen the events of pompeii on screen many times and hence the plot and ending are no surprise, so we must be entertained by only the visuals and some sort of love story. The acting and directing were mostly fine. Kit Harrington and Emily Browning were passable and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje put in a noteworthy performance. The visuals and effects were by far the best aspect and kept the film very watchable and enjoyable to an extent throughout. The script was poor and most of the usual disaster movie clichés appeared at some point or other but in no way was it as awful as in say, 2012. Overall its probably not something to see at the cinema, but probably worth a watch on DVD or TV at some point. 5/10

It's a disaster movie.

[mndclmns · 7/10 · 12 June 2019]

I don't get all of the reviewers acting like they were expecting some sort of cinematic masterpiece from a disaster movie. Yes, it's cheesy and the characters aren't all that well developed, but, for what it is, the acting is solid. There is a plot, even if it is not original or perfectly accurate. The special effects are really well done. I was perfectly entertained. If you went into watching this movie thinking you were going to get anything more than what they give you, it's your own fault. If you're bored and need to kill an hour and a half, you could do worse than watching this. Sure it's sorta bad, but bad like a disaster movie is supposed to be. I enjoy decent cheese from time to time.

Cheesy. Okay. *Just* Okay.

[Danusha_Goska · 4/10 · 23 February 2014]

"Pompeii" is cheesy and okay. Just okay. The special effects are good enough, and the cast is very good, so it could have been a much better film than it is. Ooooh well.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje stood out for me as Atticus a noble, undefeated gladiator. I couldn't help but think that this guy should be a bigger star, and that perhaps his difficult name stood in his way. Kit Harington is charismatic and believable as Milo, a sensitive, horse- loving Celt who is forced to fight as a gladiator. He charms Cassia, a rich Roman girl (Emily Browning) and their love is believable. Kiefer Sutherland is an evil Roman Senator. Sutherland camps it up, doing a Boris Karloff imitation throughout the film. Not sure why he picked Karloff; perhaps just to see if anyone would notice. Sasha Roiz, who is from Israel, has a face, head and hair right off of a Roman mosaic, and he's good as yet another sadistic Roman officer, Sutherland's right-hand man.

This movie is obviously thrown together with little thought or heart, and it's a shame that more was not done with it. There's a scene where Milo and Cassia escape on horseback. That scene could have been classic – you've got a handsome slave who faces nothing but death in the arena, a beautiful maiden being menaced by a predatory Roman senator, and a nighttime escape on a gorgeous white horse: so much to work with! Instead their escape is just plopped on screen with no artistry at all. You're watching a rehearsal, not a real movie.

Special effects include aerial views of ancient Pompeii, earthquakes, cracking villas, sinkholes, volcanic eruption, and a tsunami. These are all okay, but I bet you could see equally good footage, if not better, on televised nature documentaries. There is lots of gladiatorial combat. I'm not qualified to judge these scenes. I usually squint my eyes and grimace throughout them and I have no idea how accurate they are. Somehow the consistency with which Milo and Atticus are able to defeat many more, and better armored opponents didn't convince me.

While watching this movie I couldn't help but reflect on Cecil-B- Demille-style sword and sandal movies from the fifties and early sixties. Those movies had special effects, but they also focused on gripping storytelling, larger than life stars like Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, and Richard Burton, and they had some larger point. Even without the CGI, those movies were often more satisfying than more recent films who sink everything in special effects and ignore more old fashioned storytelling craft.

Got what I came to see

[alyons-82386 · 10/10 · 2 June 2019]

I watched this movie for these reasons:

1. Kit Harington's abs 2. Epic volcano 3. Watching slaves fight back

I got what I came for and expected nothing else

Better than ratings suggest

[fayaz-19146 · 7/10 · 17 February 2021]

It's a good action paced movie which was well acted. Just a solid watchable movie. Kept me engaged and interested in the characters which is all you can ask for.

rofl

[sildarmillion · 4/10 · 26 February 2014]

I got dragged to see this. I knew it was going to suck. It sucked in a "it's so bad it's good" kind of way. I was never bored. Mostly laughing and saying, "You know nothing John Snow."

But you know a movie is bad when it ends with a scene that is supposed to be emotional and tragic, and the whole theater bursts out laughing.

I feel like there's no point in me going over how poorly written the characters were, because I'm sure everyone else has already done that. The romance was extremely random. It's like they didn't even care about the story.

To be fair, the visual effects were great, but really, today there are so many movies with great visuals, this one does nothing new. Although it turns out that the filmmakers did their research for this film and the set designs and the eruption were very true to fact (except for the lava bombs and the tsunami) and even the ash-figures we see at the end were based on (stress on based on) actual figures that were discovered. So that raises the film a bit in my respect.

Also,

Atticus: Which bastard will be the one I kill today? Me: Ned Stark's bastard.

Sorry. :P