Review of Pompeii (2014) by Iamthejuan — 25 May 2014

Oh man, where to start with this movie?

The 6 is out of respect for the quality acting and above average directing and choreography-- the screenplay and cgi just ruin it. This movie would have been far better as a standalone action-tragedy in a different Roman territory. The volcano cgi all through the movie was cheesy and fake looking, and did not follow known patterns of volcanic activity. There are inconsistencies when at one point the protagonist is able to quickly defeat 5 opponents, while at another time he almost dies to one Roman officer, but later defeats a higher ranking officer in single combat. The Romans would not have been so unusually cruel for no reason to otherwise peaceful territories. They fought to expand their empire, not to kill the people they wanted to tax. Also, no roman or noble of any nationality would have allowed their daughter to court a slave.

The last 35 minutes you can't help but scream at the characters who are lolligagging around when they should be running the Boston marathon. The story is so far beyond predictable that you have to come up with a new word for "really ******* predictable". Whoever wrote the screenplay did not attempt originality in the slightest-- there were times I could have sworn I was watching Gladiator or Rome. The love story is excellent, and once again would have been better served in a different setting. The whole movie seemed to be built around the final scene were we see the famous 2 lovers kissing frozen in time. It would have been much better to start with this and build from there with more of a focus on the natural disaster if they really wanted to make a movie about Pompeii.