It's pretty much impossible to say that "Pompeii" is a
flawless film. It's love story is cliched 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 cliches. 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.
Final Rating: B-
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