Review of Pompeii (2014) by William M — 04 May 2014

"Look at me".

Sometimes a concept is great but disheartening to see it in the hands of an inept director and writers. This joins the long list of a great start, idea wasted by the people who created it. The Setting of 'Pompeii', the mystery and the things that happened when the volcano erupted could have and should have made for a brilliant film. But that's not what 'Paul WS Anderson' did instead he tried to weave a love story around this event and use 'Pompeii' as a backdrop.

That is by far the most frustrating aspect - its not the poor direction the cringe-worthy writing the confusing accent from 'Kiefer Sutherland'. No its the squandered chance of something brilliant. As I said the story is a love story, its almost 'Romeo & Juliet'. 'Milo' (Kit Harrington) is a slave to the Roman Empire and waiting for revenge on 'Corvus' (Kiefer Sutherland). Along the way he encounters 'Cassia' (Emily Browning) and well you can see where this going. A separate love with gladiators and the brute force of the Roman Empire and a forceful villainous commander keeping them apart. 'Pompeii' is used purely as a backdrop there's no real link this could occur in any time, place, city. To be perfectly honest I don't know why they've chosen this title.

There's isn't much that could be described as good. The acting is fine despite the embarrassing accent from 'Kiefer'. The direction is sloppy and creates no sense of urgency or want to move forward. The script is plain crap, the dialogue at times is hard to listen to everything is by the numbers - but poorly done. The special affects are good but that just tells me that its there to mask the crappy story. There's an inevitable sequence towards the end with 'Vesuvius' erupting. Which has shades of something, something that would have to happen. But because of the wooden characters and nothing plot with politics, love and 'danger' as well as the poor direction the impending doom holds barely any weight. As the dust and molten ash descends on the protagonists its welcome.

Some may unfavourably compare its set-up to a 'video game' what with how it plays out - caught, rises up gets pushed down then has a final showdown with the 'Boss. But I always feel that's a huge disservice to an industry has create many wonderful stories. No, this is set up like a student film but with some Hollywood gloss to try to cover up the boring. 'Pompeii' did not need this, no 'Pompeii' deserves a film that focuses on the city itself, the daily lives different view points - poor, rich the city as a living breathing organism then the eruption of 'Vesuvius' will mean something. Instead this made no use of the setting other than to end it in a cheap easy fashion. I admit that that's just what I want and looking at what this is trying to do as oppose to what I want it to do is different. But the problem is what this is attempting to do is really bad and hardly worth talking about it more than I have.

'Pompeii' isn't just bad, its terrible. The direction is as basic and dull as it gets. The writing is just as bad proving hollow characters and eye rolling displays. 'Kiefer' brings a laughable accent that feels almost mocking of this film as if he knew. The special effects are good but that's nothing more than an attempt to mask the complete ineptitude of the story. Most of the actors may try and once, only once it shows the brutality of the Roman's and the destruction of 'Pompeii'. But the core of the story has no link what happen in 'Pompeii'. There was a chance of creating something interesting but instead 'Paul WS Anderson' tried the easy boring love story option. 'Vesuvius' erupted but this is on a whole other level.