Movie: Pompeii

Pompeii: a gladiator disaster film that is my first nomination for worst film of 2014.   Mount Vesuvius is going to erupt, the year is 79 AD, and the question is whether you care if any of the characters survive.   After observing them, you may be routing for the volcano by the time it erupts.   The special effects people did their part.  The problem is a weak script with horrendous acting as to most of the characters.   The lead character is named Milo, played by Kit Harington.   He is miscast as the lone survivor of a Celtic horse tribe.   Never thought I’d miss Steve Reeves.   From the opening sequence when we see Kiefer Sutherland order the massacre of Milo’s family, you know the film is going to be violent.  I don’t know why the movie has a PG-13 rating.  What you don’t know is that Sutherland, as Roman Senator Corvus,  gives a terrible performance: worse I’ve seen from him.   A love story is intertwined with the gladiator and volcano rumbling scenes.   Emily Browning plays the aristocrat daughter Cassia who falls in love with Milo after observing him kill a horse.   Cassia has returned to Pompeii after a year in Rome.  As the story unfolds, we learn that she left Rome to distant herself from Corvus.    Corvus, observing her affection for Milo, sets out to have him killed in the gladiator arena.  Yes, the script is that silly.   The only credible actor is Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje, as gladiator Atticus.  The interplay between him and Milo works.   Of course, you have to ignore the question of whether gladiators became friends before going into the arena to kill each other.  The sword fighting scenes are well done.   The director is Paul W. S. Anderson and as long as he is not doing drama, the movie has entertainment value.  But the 105 minute movie is not limited to sword fighting and the volcano.