Pompeii

I am a Paul W S Anderson fan. I have loved the Resident Evil series and I found his treatment of Alexander Dumas’ Three Musketeers to be extremely creative.  But without his tried and test good luck charm (read Mila Jovovich) he seems to be less than average.  Pompeii is like that firecracker that is huge in size ($100 Million worth) but refuses to explode for a while.  When it finally does, you feel deprived.

For the unaware, Pompeii is the city that was consumed by The Great Mount Vesuvius way back in AD 79.  The story begins with a hero – Milo (Dylan Schombing / Kit Harrington – Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) – in AD 62.  His family and in fact clan of Celtic Horsemen are annihilated by an ambitious Roman Tribute called Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland).  Corvus’ exploits on the day would be spoken for years to come.

However, Corvus and his trusted aide Proculus (Sasha Roiz) unknowingly, leave a child (Milo) alive. 17 years later, the child has grown into a young man with an 8 pack (apparently it hasn’t required touch up after shooting) who takes a few seconds to kill the strongest of gladiators.   He is now called Kelt.  Of course, such talent cannot be wasted in a hamlet somewhere and Kelt is shipped off to Pompeii.

En route to Pompeii, in shackles, he encounters the daughter of a wealthy merchant – Cassia (Emily Browning) who is enamored by our hero at first sight.  So much that her friend, Ariadne (Jessica Lucas) has to remind her of our hero’s muscles.  One of the lowest points of the movie.  Of course the rest of the story is predictable unless you are a 3 year old – Boy girl fall for each other, Corvus intervenes, Mountain intervenes.  End.

Anderson gets the flow right.  He does everything to leave little or few open ends or unexplained aspects.  The effects are of really high quality.  The last 15 minutes or so when hell breaks loose is shot really well.  At the end of the day, Pompeii is probably worth it for these 15 minutes – unfortunately enjoyed only on the big screen.

Even more unfortunately, to get to these 15 minutes, one has to go through some really below par / insipid performances.  Even seasoned players like Sutherland and Carrie Ann Moss pale in comparison to their more intense roles.  The dialogue is awful and rank atrocious in parts – needless to say very, “I’ve heard that before”.

Pompeii is a meek attempt to overlap a story like Gladiator with a natural disaster.  With a bit more attention to the narrative, it could have been a really good movie.  It lands up being barely watchable and quite strenuous at times.  Even the 3D is not good enough. 5 on 10 for this one.  Looks like it is a week where I am going to be disappointed with some of my preferred directors.  First George Clooney.  Now Anderson.  Sigh.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3609176089/?ref_=tt_ov_vi