Strong and Moving!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I confess I had some curiosity about this movie. Disaster films with volcanoes are no longer new ("Volcano" and "Dante's Peak" are good examples) but a film about a real historical fact as dramatic as the destruction of Pompeii (and the nearby city of Herculaneum) in 79 AD, is somewhat unusual. Unfortunately its much weaker than I thought it would be.The plot is simple: a Celt, captured and enslaved after Romans massacred his family, becomes a successful gladiator and gets the attention of a wealthy Roman girl, disappointed in her culture's cruelty. When Vesuvius erupts, he will have the chance to flee with her and avenge his family, as the girl's forced bridegroom is, precisely, the one responsible for the massacre that has killed them. The influence of films and series such as "Gladiator", "Rome" and "Spartacus" is evident, but the fact is that the script is frankly underdeveloped, with characters so basic that we can summarize each one in a single word. Another problem I felt was the partiality of the plot, demonizing Roman civilization. The end of the film tries to be unpredictable but isn't properly capable of that, besides that makes everything too melodramatic. About historical accuracy... forget it. Who wrote the script totally ignored historical facts. That bombs or that tsunami are obscenities that attempt to the intelligence of those who know the basic about what actually happened in Pompeii.Paul W.S. Anderson has a bad name as a director but this was his first movie that I actually watched. In this case, I recognize reason in the criticisms: he's a weak director, dazzled with the CGI but incompetent in the direction of the cast and the script. Regarding the cast, there are some heavy names like Kit Harington, Emily Browning and Kiefer Sutherland, but the performances were generally mediocre and uncompromising. It is true that the characters are too basic and underdeveloped but the actors also did not feel like sweating the shirt by their characters. Browning, for example, was unable to build a chemistry with his romantic pair. That intense love that should have existed is never there and everything sounds unlikely and artificial. Sutherland, who was the villain, is simply ham and histrionic. The best actor here was Akinnuoye-Agbaje, with a performance capable of harmonizing strength and action with some psychological depth and drama.Visually, the film is a CGI feast and visual and sound effects of good quality and a lot of impact, mainly from half the film to the end. Cinematography helps, emphasizing the colors and with the camera moving quickly in the action scenes. The problem is that these were the only aspects where the film was really good, and this is not enough to make the movie good. It just makes it bearable.

Saying that, I didn't particularly fall crazy in love with this film, but I did like it. If you enjoy movies of this type of genre then I say, give it go. Yes, it's titled Pompeii, but don't be fooled into thinking that the movie is based & focuses on Pompeii itself. I do believe that it hardly follows true events of what really happened back when the volcano blew its top, but the storyline they went with & used wasn't that bad.. I thought the special effects did OK & wasn't poorly done & the acting wasn't bad in any way either. I do feel slightly disappointed, they could of really gone to town with the blood, guts & grisly stuff beings as they chose to focus the storyline around fighting, gladiators & more fighting, but the movie lacked any of the sort.

I've never been the biggest fan of disaster movies but I gave this film a chance to see if it could change my mind but no this film is pretty terrible. The premise is set in old Roman times in the town of Pompeii a gladiator is trying to survive a massive volcano while trying to get justice for his family. Kit Harrington who plays Jon snow on game of thrones is the main character in this film and he is pretty bad. There is absolutely no emotion to his performance which makes it hard to care about him or any of the situations he is put into. He isn't given a lot to work with to be honest as his character is written to be really lifeless and cliché when it comes to pretty much every situation. The one and only character I liked in this film was his gladiator ally played by Adewale akinnuoye-agbaje, he was the only person I cared about and he easily gave the best performance in this film which made him the most fun to watch. Emily Browning plays Harringtons love interest in this film and her character has nothing about her, I didn't buy there romance at all and it made me not care about her at all. Kiefer Sutherland is the bad guy in this film and my goodness he is absolutely awful in this film, one of the most over the top cheesy performances I think I have ever seen in any film. He just overdoes everything in this film and you just end up laughing at him for this film. Carrie Ann moss and Jared Harris are in this film but are completely wasted and really anybody could have played there roles in this film. The story in this film is completely paper thin and there is nothing to it. You won't care about the romance at all which means you won't care about anything until the end and by then it doesn't have any decent payoff. The script has some truly awful dialogue in it that usually just ends up making you laugh or sigh in disbelief by just how dull or ridiculous it is. The style of the film too its credit does have some fun over the top destruction scenes towards the end of the film. But this film is littered with truly awful CGI and truly awful action scenes, clearly the budget for this film was not big enough because pretty much every effect look awful in this film. For some reason during the action scenes after every hit and it is truly jarring to watch. Overall this film is an avoid at all cost type of film, do something better with your time then this mess of a film.

Pompeii is probably the one city of the ancient Roman era we know the most about thanks to the fact that the eruption froze the city in time - we know what people talked about, what they worked with, what their concerns were.And yet, the one movie about the destruction of Pompeii unfortunately focuses more on a gladiator than any one else in the city. And that is so unfortunate, since with Spartacus, Gladiator and a few other features, it seems Hollywood has locked itself up with a gladiator that refuses to let them out. So instead of a movie about the actual retired Syrian marine (for example) who worked as a bronze maker and his day to day, we get another hack n' slash. it's lazy, but even worse it's plain cowardice, that Hollywood couldn't make this movie more about the actual people of Pompeii.So it was a disappointment from a script perspective, but the historical accuracy also left a lot to be desired, and the CGI was... abysmal. I'm not one who really notices matte paintings that much in movies, but here it was painfully obvious, and all the damn time.So all in all, what I thought would be a disaster movie set in history, just turned out to be something that should not have been made.Watch Gladiator, Rome or Spartacus instead. It's not about an exploding mountain, but their production values are way higher.