So someone got the chocolate of Gladiator in my peanut butter of Titanic and out spilled Pompeii… a disaster flick with gladiators, a rich girl who falls in love with a poor boy (ok, a slave/gladiator) while her unwanted rich suitor pursues her with malice (before and during the disaster). So, big shock, it’s aping a formula that worked… that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work automatically though.

Does it work? Meh. No, not really. Paul W.S. Anderson is no James Cameron but I’ll give him a tiny bit of credit for doing something other than his usual Resident Evil level story and production value. This IS a damn good looking movie – not just the disaster special FX but also the look and feel of ancient Pompeii (which is part CG, part sets, part CG set extensions) but also some of the ancient Roman details (not a huge expert on ancient Rome but I did notice things that clearly indicated to me they were trying… though I can’t say all what they got wrong).

So there’s a budget here and there’s care… it just didn’t extend into the script which is pretty humdrum and unconvincing. And that’s a real problem for a disaster movie where we need to care about these people or at least the city. On top of that, as an extended gladiator movie, the action just isn’t very good.

Anyhow, Kit Harrington (he who knows nothing, John Snow from Game of Thrones) is the hero from Britania, Carrie-Ann Moss wondering why she isn’t in better movies after those Matrix flicks, and … Kiefer Sutherland (!?) all star in this. Yeah, Kiefer Sutherland is the villain (the Billy Zane of this movie, you might even say) and he’s just pretty miscast as a Roman senator. Sure, he can play a bad guy, but he doesn’t seem to be trying here… or there’s nothing interesting to work with.

Anyhow, it’s not a terrible movie but it’s not a particularly good or great one… but it’s watchable and reasonably entertaining for what it is.

Score: 72