The film opens, in all places, in Ye Olde Britannia, where we witness the diabolical Senator Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland) massacring a nomadic tribe of horsemen. Milo (Kit Harington of Game Of Thrones) is the sole survivor of the carnage, a wee lad who grows up to become a fierce, battle-ready slave. On his way to Pompeii to fight in its arena, he meets Lady Cassia (Emily Browning), a wealthy heiress who`s returning from Rome, weary of the politics and men she has encountered there.
Obligatory love story aside, Milo is also forced into a life-or-death situation with Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), an honourable black slave who`s one death-match away from winning his freedom. As matters both personal and political swirl through Pompeii, the looming volcano – taking its name from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire – sends tiny shock-waves through the streets: a promise of the horror and destruction that will soon seal the city and its inhabitants into the very earth upon which they tread.
The minor miracle of Pompeii is that it takes this faintly silly premise – the fact that Milo is a honest-to-god horse whisperer is an actual important plot point – and makes it work. Paul W.S. Anderson, director of schlocky, vaguely terrible films like Mortal Kombat, Alien Vs. Predator and Resident Evil, juggles character and action surprisingly well, allowing one to reinforce the other. The spiky, grudgingly respectful relationship that springs up between Milo and Atticus – two men who have every reason to loathe and resent each other, for one cannot live while the other survives – is particularly delightful. As they trade insults, threats and advice, the duo go from mortal enemies to something else entirely – and it`s a wonderful transition to watch.
Anderson even cooks up some great drama with his love story, which could easily have been a soppy, grossly under-written romance. The relationship itself boasts a fair few groan-worthy moments, due largely to Milo and Cassia forging a connection via her most favourite horse in the whole wide world. But what`s considerably more intriguing about it is the political web that`s woven around it: her parents (played in dignified, doomed fashion by Jared Harris and Carrie-Anne Moss) must negotiate with Corvus, the evil personification of a corrupt, greedy Rome. When Vesuvius blows, so too does the class system: the wealthy die as easily as the poor, and it`s a point well-made as Pompeii shudders to pieces around and beneath its populace.
Oddly enough, the film`s cracks only become more evident when the literal fault-lines start to appear. As the volcano spews smoke, then bursts of lava and showers of ash, Pompeii becomes an enormous disaster epic that struggles mightily but ultimately fails to shrug off its mediocrity. The special effects are mostly good – there`s a cracking moment when a ship crashes through a channel of houses – but, because the scale of the disaster is so terrifying, it`s hard to take it seriously when characters stop in their tracks, engaging in dramatic confrontations and sword-fights rather than running for their lives.
Even then, there`s some perverse fun to be had in watching Milo`s entire life boil down to one spectacular, ash-strewn battle with Corvus – it`s blatantly and completely ridiculous, but this is the point when the brain you thought you had to switch off at the start of the film can take a nap. It certainly helps that, instead of cowering in the corner, whimpering or unconscious, Cassia leaps into the fray as well. In this day and age, we shouldn`t have to single out a strong female character in an action-packed disaster epic – but, unfortunately, we must. Apart from a couple of damsel-in-distress scenes, Cassia is pleasingly spunky, running circles around Corvus at every available opportunity.
The cast is mostly agreeable: Harington has a limited selection of facial expressions from which to choose, but he`s suitably steely and noble as secret equestrian Milo. Browning is quite charming, and Sutherland has the time of his life as raving villain Corvus. But the real scene-stealer here is Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who plays the tragedy and triumph of Atticus so powerfully that he almost – almost – makes you believe it when he delivers a speech to an uncaring, unlistening… uh, volcano.
Strictly speaking, Pompeii falls short on many counts. The ending of this slightly silly story is a foregone conclusion, and it`s sometimes hard to care as these characters flounce about in the throes of their personal drama when chaos is about to, quite literally, explode all over them. But it`s also unexpectedly entertaining: a guilty-pleasure film that`s actually got quite a bit more going for it than its special effects.
Summary: Incredibly, this is not the full-out disaster you might have expected.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang