Movie Review: Pompeii – burn after watching
History provides a significant spoiler for viewers of this film –one embraced by director Paul WS Anderson, who includes in the opening sequence visuals of the famous preserved body shapes of Pompeii's inhabitants, who became instant statues as they were covered in tons of ash during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Kit Harington’s Milo is a slave with a grudge against Rome in Pompeii.
The build-up to the inevitable conclusion can be continuously re-imagined for dramatic purposes, though, and the screenwriters responsible for this effort went for sword-and-sandals soap opera, which is fairly standard for special effects-laden historical dramas.
The result is often hilariously overwrought. Kiefer Sutherland affects a bizarre, camp Eton accent while apparently trying to pout as he speaks.
Emily Browning’s Cassia becomes the object of affection for more than one suitor. Picture: Supplied.
It’s all patently ridiculous, but the cheerful commitment to the cause by director and actors makes it a joyously silly experience rather than a profoundly annoying one. And there are enough swords, fists and fireballs to make the 3D component worthwhile.
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