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Pompeii... An unintentionally hilarious and terribly twee disaster movie.
I didn't go in expecting much, but I'd read a couple of online articles that claimed that the creators had paid attention to historical accuracy when forming this movie. This turns out to be true for some details (such as the fact that Pompeians ate bread, had paintings in their houses, and there were many street-fountains), but false for many, many other big things.
As someone who has visited Pompeii itself recently, I was surprised by how small the movie made Pompeii appear, and some of the buildings seem to be completely misplaced. This is really quite lazy since a 5 minute Google search for the map of Pompeii would have fixed that. The scale is off, and also some of the aerial-view shots of Pompeii in the movie seem to place the large amphitheatre closer to the centre of the town (closer to where the theatre is in reality). At least that is how it appears in the movie when we get the occasional brief glance. The pacing of the film doesn't allow the viewer to really soak in the atmosphere of the town at all. That in itself is a wasted opportunity.
The eruption itself wasn't correct either. The movie has
. The ash-fall and falling pumice stones that Pompeii's eruption is most known for were given about 5 seconds of screen time. Also, whilst the lead character
...
Pompeii is in a much better state of preservation today than it appears within 20 minutes of the eruption in that movie. It was damaged and covered, yes, but not destroyed to the extent seen in this movie. The wonderful thing about Pompeii for us today is the brilliant state of its preservation after it was excavated, not its ultimate destruction.
As for the acting... I've seen a lot of these actors in other things, and they have been good in their other films / TV serials / etc, but in this (probably down to the script), few people seemed to have their hearts or minds in the right places. The best performance for me was Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as an African slave-gladiator. He had his heart in the role, it seems. Somehow he managed to get on board with it. I'm a bit confused by his name though (I forget if it was explained in the movie), since he was I think called Atticus, suggesting that he's from Attica in Greece, though he's meant to be African. A slave name given to him by a former Athenian / Attic slave-owner? Who knows! It's Latin, so it sounds right!
Aside from this, many other characters were talking to each other without really talking to each other, and the script wasn't believable.
They also essentially recycled an entire scene from Gladiator.
I see what they were trying to do with this film, and I respect that there may be people who enjoyed it, but unsurprisingly for me it fell far short of being an engrossing and emotional Pompeii story. With this movie I just didn't care about any of the characters at all, Atticus aside. But it was entertaining in a b-movie sense. It actually caused me serious discomfort because the very last scene in particular was so twee, and I was in agony trying to contain my laughter so that I didn't ruin the experience for other people in the cinema.
Oh well.
I didn't go in expecting much, but I'd read a couple of online articles that claimed that the creators had paid attention to historical accuracy when forming this movie. This turns out to be true for some details (such as the fact that Pompeians ate bread, had paintings in their houses, and there were many street-fountains), but false for many, many other big things.
As someone who has visited Pompeii itself recently, I was surprised by how small the movie made Pompeii appear, and some of the buildings seem to be completely misplaced. This is really quite lazy since a 5 minute Google search for the map of Pompeii would have fixed that. The scale is off, and also some of the aerial-view shots of Pompeii in the movie seem to place the large amphitheatre closer to the centre of the town (closer to where the theatre is in reality). At least that is how it appears in the movie when we get the occasional brief glance. The pacing of the film doesn't allow the viewer to really soak in the atmosphere of the town at all. That in itself is a wasted opportunity.
The eruption itself wasn't correct either. The movie has
giant fireballs destroying half of Pompeii (and apparently all of its inhabitants), and then an enormous tsunami sweeps through part of the town, dragging a boat through the streets with it
on horseback chased the chariot-riding villain through the then deserted streets of Pompeii (we're to assume that only the main characters have survived at this point) giant fissures open up in the ground, and whole sections of the town crumble away
Pompeii is in a much better state of preservation today than it appears within 20 minutes of the eruption in that movie. It was damaged and covered, yes, but not destroyed to the extent seen in this movie. The wonderful thing about Pompeii for us today is the brilliant state of its preservation after it was excavated, not its ultimate destruction.
As for the acting... I've seen a lot of these actors in other things, and they have been good in their other films / TV serials / etc, but in this (probably down to the script), few people seemed to have their hearts or minds in the right places. The best performance for me was Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as an African slave-gladiator. He had his heart in the role, it seems. Somehow he managed to get on board with it. I'm a bit confused by his name though (I forget if it was explained in the movie), since he was I think called Atticus, suggesting that he's from Attica in Greece, though he's meant to be African. A slave name given to him by a former Athenian / Attic slave-owner? Who knows! It's Latin, so it sounds right!
Aside from this, many other characters were talking to each other without really talking to each other, and the script wasn't believable.
They also essentially recycled an entire scene from Gladiator.
I see what they were trying to do with this film, and I respect that there may be people who enjoyed it, but unsurprisingly for me it fell far short of being an engrossing and emotional Pompeii story. With this movie I just didn't care about any of the characters at all, Atticus aside. But it was entertaining in a b-movie sense. It actually caused me serious discomfort because the very last scene in particular was so twee, and I was in agony trying to contain my laughter so that I didn't ruin the experience for other people in the cinema.
Oh well.
.
.
