pompeii Archives - MediaMikes

Actors: Kit Harrington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kiefer Sutherland, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Directors: Paul W. S. Anderson
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Release Date: May 20, 2014
Run Time: 105 minutes

Film: 2 out of 5 stars
3D: 3 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I am a sucker of Paul W.S. Anderson. I love the “Resident Evil” film franchise, every one of them. I love his cult classic “Event Horizon”…but I really hated this film. The story is so absolutely terrible that I was left just twiddling my thumbs until that damn volcano just blew already…and too be honest when it blew finally about an hour and seven minute in, I really wasn’t that impressed. I am a big “Game of Thrones” fan, so it was cool to see Kit Harrington on the big screen and he did a solid job. As for the rest of the cast, Emily Browning wasn’t great (and she was awesome though in “Sucker Punch”). Kiefer Sutherland seemed miscast. And why is Carrie-Anne Moss second billed, where she has maybe 10 minutes of screen time. Can I get my 105 minutes back?

Official Premise: Set in 79 A.D., POMPEII tells the epic story of Milo (Harington), a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia (Browning), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator (Sutherland). As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent Pompeii crumbles around him.

Sony Pictures is releasing this film as a combo pack with 3D Blu-ray + standard Blu-ray + Ultraviolet digital copy. I wanted to really say that I was this film has to be seen in 3D but I wasn’t overly impressed with it personally. I thought that only the last thirty minutes benefited from the format, which wasn’t really that impressive anyway. The 1080p transfer was still solid but I felt like I saw through the visual effects a bit and couldn’t help but see the green screen behind them. This happened to me recently on “Oz, the Great and Powerful” as well. The best part of this Blu-ray is easily the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which did deliver for the film’s action sequences.

The special features are actually a major step up form the film, there are tons of very impressive extras to dig into (if you still want to after watching this quite terrible film). There is a filmmakers audio commentary track to kick things off. “The Assembly” is a look as the cast and characters. “The Volcanic Eruption” looks into the special effects of the big scene.”The Gladiators” looks into the film’s stunts. “The Journey” focuses on the production design. “The Costume Shop” looks into the costume design. “Pompeii: Buried in Time” goes behind-the-scenes into on of history’s greatest disaster. Lastly there are 20 deleted and alternate scenes, rounding out the extras.

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Directed By: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Kit Harington, Emily Browning and Carrie-Anne Moss
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 105 minutes
TriStar Pictures

Our Score: 2 out of 5 stars

I’m not a filmmaker, but I think I found the recipe for Hollywood’s latest CGI reimagining of history, “Pompeii”:

* A disregard for human life seen in every Roland Emmerich disaster movie.
* About three seasons worth of “Games of Thrones” stylized backstory crammed into a 40 minute introductory.
* A half-hearted attempt at “Gladiator” revenge
* Sexy women. Always gotta have that.
* A couple of veteran actors to legitimize everything above.

Maybe I’m a sociopath for going in and thinking the only interesting part of this movie would be Mother Earth smothering people in toxic volcanic ash, but I know when I walk into a movie called “Pompeii”, I would not expect any less. They barely deliver on that.

Alright, so let’s at least gloss over this story that took itself way too seriously to the point of cheesiness. Milo (Harington) is a Celtic slave who carries with him the horrific memories of his entire village and parents being slaughtered by Roman soldiers. He is the latest hot commodity among slave owners because of his seemingly invincible fighting skills in the gladiatorial ring. He’s transported to Pompeii where he’s expected to take on the equally invincible, Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Along the way, Milo encounters Cassia (Browning) by pure chance. And by pure chance, I mean they encounter each other while he’s being transported and she’s coming back from Rome…in a city of over 10,000 people. Regardless, she becomes automatically infatuated with him. Too bad the visiting Senator Corvis (Keifer Sutherland) already has his creepy eyes on her. Oh, did I mention he’s the one who led the slaughter of Milo’s village? I’m barely scratching the surface of every little, unexplained or barely touched on, side story. There’s stuff about an unseen Roman emperor, Corvis and Cassia have some history, her parents apparently have turmoil with the empire and some flimsy attempt at making us relate to Atticus’ long path towards freedom. You’ll be rooting for the volcano to just wipe them all out.

Look, when Paul W.S. Anderson’s (not the Paul Anderson that gave us “Boogie Nights”) name pops up in the first couple of moments, you know you’re in for something lacking in plot. This movie however does play to his strong suits, CGI and violence. The fight scenes are entertaining and the multiple scenes of hundreds of people dying are entertaining. But not a lot of other things really peaked my interest. Everyone in this movie talks in angry whispers and half their conversations are passive aggressive remarks. This movie would have been a lot more fun without a story, but a lot more memorable with one.

I shouldn’t be hating this movie too much, I’m a sucker for disaster movies. Despite the constant shifting in my seat throughout, I was attentive for the film’s final act of devastation; complete with a chariot chase. The CGI is great and surprisingly the 3D was well used, especially during the eruption. If you snoozed through middle school or never passed fourth grade history, you will undoubtedly head in not knowing what the ending will be. But most people will know there ‘s no last minute heroics. I mean, the only person who saw this first hand was in a different city watching from afar. He probably didn’t want to witness the horror that was Mount Vesuvius and you probably won’t want to waste your weekend watching this. Wait for a home viewing with friends and beer handy.

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