FilmDistrict, Constantin Film Produktion, Don Carmody Productions,
Emily Browning, Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kiefer Sutherland, Paz Vega, Jessica Lucas, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jared Harris, Sasha Roiz, Currie Graham
Milo (Kit Harington) lost his family to the Romans when he was a child. He was captured and made a slave, but his excellent skills of fighting made him a great gladiator who was sent to the city of Pompeii to perform. While there he met Cassia (Emily Browning), the daughter of the leader of Pompeii and is instantly attracted to her. A Roman Senator, Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) has arrived in Pompeii to make a deal with them to invest in their city and bring them into the Roman Empire, but his ultimate goal was take Cassia as his own wife. But the famous volcano, Mt. Vesuvius has other plans and the catastrophic eruption that destroyed the city of Pompeii has other ideas. This Titanic-like blockbuster is a historical drama based on the eruption of Vesuvius with the background of a romance tale.
Vesuvius is exactly what you would expect it to be. Unlike Titanic and other disaster films, I have a very, very strong suspicion that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius didn’t look like this very much! But they take lots of liberties in the scientific facts and give us instead another Pearl Harbor-like love story around the historical events. Just like those two stories, the action based upon the natural disaster provides the suspense and the intense action. The romance aspect is a bit weaker, but of course there’s a gladiator story as well, with some great battles in the arena. All in all, though it sounds like a mish-mash of so many different genre’s the story works together. The 3D effects were very good, and there was a lot of action. The special effects are superb, and the acting was not bad. I think maybe this wasn’t a huge blockbuster due to a lack of very big names, and the marketing wasn’t done very well. This movie has a lot going for it, and I was really happy I spent the bucks to see this on the big screen in 3D. It’s definitely a major motion picture, and is well worth catching. If you like the historical drama type film, this tells a lot about the Roman Empire and the life in those days. With the excitement of the epic gladiator battles and certainly the volcanic activity, the movie is very interesting. I think this movie deserved a lot more attention that it seems to be getting, and I think this will be a big hit once it gets to DVD. But if you like epic stories on the big screen, this one is epic enough!
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
