Pompeii – Movie Review
Pompeii is a disaster movie disguised as Gladiator, and honestly, I’m here for it.
Plot
The movie begins with the slaughter of a tribe of Celtic horsemen by Roman soldiers. After being knocked to the ground by a passing horse, a young boy (Dylan Schombing) realizes the only way he’s going to have a chance of survival is if he plays dead. Ordered to kill everyone, the Roman soldiers execute the boy’s mother right in front of him, and afterwards throw his assumed to be lifeless body onto a mass grave and leave. But you know what assumptions do right? They make an ass out of you. Or in this case, out of the Roman general leading this slaughter, Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland).
After crawling out of the grave, the young boy, Milo, is eventually captured by slave traders and sold to become a gladiator. 17 years later, he’s become pretty good at it. As his owner, Graecus (Joe Pingue), brings a group of gladiators to Pompeii to fight in the amphitheater, Milo (Kit Harington) by chance meets Cassia (Emily Browning), the daughter of Pompeii’s governor. She is on her way home after briefly living in Rome. When Milo compassionately puts down a suffering horse, his kindness captures the attention of the young aristocrat.
After arriving in Pompeii, Milo meets Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a champion gladiator who only needs one more win to be freed according to Roman law. Naturally, he’s the one scheduled to fight Milo in the big 1v1 finale of the upcoming gladiatorial games.
To drum up interest in the games, Graecus brings his best gladiators to be shown off at a big party with the governor (Jared Harris) and all the who’s who of Pompeii. As it turns out, the governor, Severus, is trying to show off the city to a Roman senator so he can get funding from Rome to put back into the city. Guess who that senator is? Dum dum dum… Corvus. Corvus isn’t against the whole idea, but it looks like he might want something, or someone in return for this precious Roman funding. In the year Cassia was living in Rome, she was apparently having to spend a lot of time evading the sweaty paws of Corvus. This did nothing but make Corvus keener on the idea of “breaking her” though, and he wants to take her for his wife. Cassia has zero interest in this, and you really can’t blame her. Corvus is a terrible person and at least twice her age.
While all this has been happening, there have been some interesting geological occurrences in Pompeii. Ground rending earthquakes, a smoking volcano, these are some really bad signs, but the people of Pompeii think it’s all normal. They associate it with the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire. Big ooof.
During the party, an earthquake occurs that greatly distresses Cassia’s horse. Fearing for the horse’s safety, Cassia has Milo take a break from begrudgingly showing off his bodyodyody to older Pompeian women with wandering hands. Milo calms the horse and shares a moment with Cassia alone in the stable. As guards open the stable doors to check on Cassia, She and Milo burst through atop the horse and escape into the countryside. Their happiness is short lived though, as they realize there is no way they will realistically be able to escape together. With a heavy heart, they turn around towards the group of guards pursuing them.
How will Corvus react to Milo running away with Cassia? Will Atticus win his freedom? Will Milo and Cassia survive the upcoming disaster? Watch Pompeii to find out!
My Thoughts
There are a lot of bad reviews about this movie, but honestly, I like it. Now, is it the most realistic movie? No. Did the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the events surrounding it happen the same way in real life as they did in the movie? No. Is a lot of it suspiciously similar to Gladiator? Yes. BUT it’s an entertaining movie and an enjoyable, tragic love story.
I will say it took me a little time to get used to the idea of Kit Harington as a gladiator. It’s not historically accurate, but when I think about gladiators, I think about huge, hulking men. Kit Harington’s not a huge, hulking dude, but he definitely worked out for this role, and it worked.
Kiefer Sutherland sure plays a hateable bad guy though.
That’s it! If you feel like casually watching a historical romance/disaster film, pop a tub of popcorn, get comfy, and check out Pompeii.
