Pompeii (2014) – Movie Review ★★★¾
Director: Paul W S Anderson – Cast: Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jared Harris & Kiefer Sutherland – Synopsis: After his family and village are wiped out by the Roman’s, Milo (Kit Harington) is taken as a slave and turned into a gladiator and sent to Pompeii, where he fights, falls in love and comes face to face with Corvus (Sutherland) the evil Roman Senator who butchered his family – As Mount Vesuvius erupts, Milo joins forces with fellow gladiator Atticus (Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to fight his way out of the Gladiatorial Arena in order to save Cassia (Browning) his new found love whilst all around them Pompeii is under attack by smoking hot ash and blazing streams of red hot lava – Verdict: Having climbed Mount Vesuvius and being a fan of the Resident Evil movies from filmmaker Paul WS Anderson I was interested to see how he fared swapping zombies & kick ass ladies for the more brutal times of the Romans, Pompeii, Gladiators and a mountain that erupted causing death and destruction – Overall: if you know your history then you know what’s coming towards the final chapter of this movie and sure enough all hell rains down, but in between it’s actually a pretty solid action film that includes some descent CGI, a Titanic-esque love story, some rather fun cheesy characters and a somewhat mesmerizing soundtrack – of course any film directed by Anderson will have it’s fair share of critics and it’s certainly true to say Pompeii is no Gladiator but overall I was pleasantly surprised & found the film a pretty engaging affair that reminded me of a 70’s disaster flick that is entertaining and full of fluent, exciting action scenes – Don’t let people ever tell you it’s not OK to enjoy these style of movies, you know going into the film that historical accuracy goes out of the window, this is first and foremost an action film, a popcorn munching, adrenalin flowing thrill ride and does not pretend to be something it’s not – It’s certainly not a classic but Paul W S Anderson’s Pompeii is nevertheless a fun movie experience and one I would recommend for some Saturday night entertainment….
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