Pompeii (I) (2014)

I never thought I'd say this, especially after understanding the story, seeing the trailer and the bad ratings the movie got, but – Pompeii really isn't that bad. If we also keep in mind that it was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, who directed stuff like Alien vs. Predator and the Resident Evil movies, it might be even more surprising that this, mostly ignored and avoided, February release actually turned out to be fairly good. Of course, Pompeii is predictable and its many flaws will make you laugh quite often, but that shouldn't be a bad thing. Yes, the movie fails when it tries to create drama and the audience laughs instead, but at least it's not boring. It's just frustrating if you expect it to be historically accurate.

Pompeii is about a Celt named Milo (Kit Harington), whose horsemen tribe is slaughtered by the Romans when he's very young and, left alone, is taken as slave by a group of men. First of all: you call an ancient Celt Milo? Seriously? Why can't people just google "ancient Celtic names", pick one from that list and avoid cutting such a poor figure? And yes, I am aware (and I already said) that this movie isn't historically accurate, but this thing with the name really bothered me. Anyway, as he grows up, Milo becomes a gladiator in ancient London, where the slave owner Graecus (Joe Pingue) sees him fight and decides to buy and take him to Pompeii. There Milo meets a rich patrician, Cassia (Emily Browning), by accident, and they fall in love instantly, but an evil and corrupt Senator (Kiefer Sutherland) wants to marry her instead.

Many have noticed (as it's not really subtle) that Pompeii reminds of Titanic a lot. Just like in Titanic, here the disaster is just the background for a love story involving a rich girl and a poor boy who can't be together. The love between Milo and Cassia would have benefited from more screen time: it's difficult to believe in love at first sight if the first meeting lasts 2 minutes and only a few words are spoken, and two of them meet only once after that, before the volcano erupts. Also, since the movie is mostly about Milo and Cassia and their relationship, it's strange that much more time has been put into developing the relationship between cellmates and fellow gladiators – Milo and Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Still, it was pretty well done, especially thanks to the good performances of the two actors.

The rest of the cast was good, too, and none of the actors delivered a horrible performance. The main problem with this movie was the dialogue: very basic, repetitive, filled with clichés and oscillating between ridiculous and cringe worthy – just like some scenes, that were supposed to be dramatic but left me laughing. The CGI was all right, and perhaps it's worth paying more to see Pompeii in 3D, since its focus is almost exclusively on action, but I can't really tell since I didn't see it in 3D. All in all, I'm not sure I'd recommend Pompeii. It's one of those movies you can watch on TV, one evening, if you have nothing better to do. It will entertain – if you can withstand the bad dialogue and overall ridiculousness – but won't teach you anything about the true tragedy and how it all really happened.

Rating: 6/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/