Pompeii (2014 film)

Pompeii

Two millenniums ago, a volcano called Mt. Vesuvius violently erupted and leaving the Roman town of Pompeii left no trace of life behind. Yes, we all read the history books about the fires of Pompeii but there's a bit more to this story than that because this new film titled Pompeii, what the producers said, uncovers the untold story during the events of the once memorable Roman village in the brink of doom. We know it's a bit of an untold story but sadly though, it wasn't.

I was expecting to be more of uncovering stuff about the fires of Pompeii, something that we can't find it on our history books but no. It's just a facsimile of Gladiator but only just on the first half.

Celt, played by actor Kit Harrington, witnessed the Romans' butchering of his village, led by Senator Corvus (played by 24's Kiefer Sutherland who was going to be the new English dub for Snake in the upcoming two Metal Gear Solid V video games; Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain) when he was young and 17 years later, he stood up to become one of the strongest gladiators in Londinium and all his combat skills led him to Pompeii where he caught the eye of a beautiful aristocrat named Cassia, played by Emily Browning. The two developed a bond between them but it was been proven to be difficult because Corvus seeks to make Cassia his wife.

The first half of the film is nothing more of a Gladiator look-alike because in my mind, it feels much of a same thing. The battles, the bloodbaths, everything that viewers may think that it has some stuff from Gladiator in it but when viewers approached to the part when Mt. Vesuvius violently erupted and turning into "disaster movie" mode, this movie tries to appeal itself to the very end and the fires of Pompeii is worth witnessing for the viewers wanting to know how did a Roman village heavily devastated in a cataclysmic volcano eruption. Well, if you were once learning history lessons up to this moment, you might think that in the fires of Pompeii, no one ever survived in the aftermath of one of the most cataclysmic disasters in ancient history but...ahem...remind you of any?

In conclusion, if you like Pompeii …or not because well, not quite a good movie or a bit Gladiator-ish until the eruption part, how about re-watching a DW episode called The Fires of Pompeii? It’s one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes in ages!

Rating: 2.5 out of 5