Stars Kit Harrington, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas, Joe Pingue, Sasha Roiz with Carrie-Anne Moss, Jared Harris and Keifer Sutherland Directed by Paul WS Anderson The tag on the poster there says “No Warning, No Escape” although history might actually disagree. Then again, for anyone stepping into the cinema without any knowledge of what they’re getting into, that tag might be equally prophetic unless you’re willing to waste the money you spent on the ticket. Still, this IS a Paul WS Anderson film, the guy who gave us the Resident Evil series and that steampunkish Three Musketeers movie a couple of years back. There’s your warning, you serious movie-goers. This wasn’t exactly a must-see, but I was curious to watch it, simply “just because” and no other reason to it. Really. I generally knew what I would be in for, and perhaps, if we did have a 3D presentation here, it might have been a little more fun. The “fun” to be had, unfortunately was more in the story, the performances, and the dire-logue. This is a B-grade mash-up that has Titanic, Gladiator, a little of The Horse Whisperer, a hint of Conan mixed into the disaster movie mold. For one thing, once that volcano gets going, director Anderson could give Roland Emmerich a run for his money. That’s not a spoiler, it’s called Pompeii and it’s there on the poster. Watching a movie like this and not knowing the volcano is going to blow is like watching Titanic and not expecting the ship to sink. The movie opens like a Conan movie where a tribe is slaughtered by Romans, led by Corvus (Keifer Sutherland) and a young boy, who survives the massacre, is captured into slavery. After that, instead of going to Conan route, it slips into Gladiator, as the young boy is now Kit Harrington (taking a break from the Game or Thrones shenanigans) with washboard abs. The Celt, as he’s called, is then taken to Pompeii where conveniently meets rich girl, Cassia (Emily Browning), whose father (Jared Harris) has to deal with Corvus in order to secure financing to make Pompeii a more glorious city, even with Vesuvius grumbling in the background. Who else can see what’s coming next? The casting is unusual, to say the least. While they do try as best as the can, Harrington seems a little lost, Browning’s doe-eyed vulnerability seems misplaced and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as a fellow gladiator who befriends the Celt feels like a low-rent Djimon Hounsou. You really can’t help but draw comparisons there, which is unfair to Akinnuoye-Agbaje who is about the second best performer on the screen. Jared Harris and Carrie-Anne Moss do okay, but it’s Keifer Sutherland who’s obviously having a ball, completely breaking away from his Jack Bauer days. If anything, it’s worthwhile for Sutherland alone, but the volcano spewing disaster all around does make some great cinematic visuals. Then there are the few fight scenes, especially a sword fight towards the end that stands out for me. But I like that sort of thing, much like the rooftop sword fight at the end of Anderson’s The Three Musketeers. Fans of Anderson’s work may find this quite different from anything he’s done before although the visual flourishes are there, as is the staging of the action set-pieces and the focus more on the visual aspect than the acting itself (this goes all the way back to Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon). But there is the attempt at a more dramatic material than he’s usually associated with, much like what Roland Emmerich did with Anonymous. At least he’s heading back to wrap up the Resident Evil series, and dare we hope, the sequel to The Three Musketeers? Rating: **/5
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