Paul W.S. Anderson strikes again!

To say this is a shitty movie is basically like saying shit stinks.

This is a shitty movie in every way imaginable.  The plot is beyond just weak and cliche.  The acting and dialogue ludicrous.  The sets pretty damn cheap looking and poorly invisioned.  The FX are really the only thing this turd has going for it and at times, they're pretty weak as well.

Listen, this is dull, dull, dull and feels like any of 15 or 20 much better movies mashed together into a $100 Million budgeted rubber turkey that was DOA when it hit theaters, and crumbled like Pompeii itself, to the tune of a pathetic $23 Million at the NABO.  BUT...somehow, it pulled in another $79 Million overseas, but is obviously a financial flop, any way you look at it.

The acting by all is horrid, as mentioned above, but there is 1 performance that has to be given extra attention, as it's just so mind numbingly abysmal.  Kiefer Sutherland's portrayal of the evil Corvus is as bad as bad gets.  Actually, it could be quite humerous if viewed in that vein.  Seriously, what the fuck he was thinking, what his peeps were thinking getting him involved with this, what his Dad, Donald said to him after watching his performance - are all a true mystery.  Shockingly terrible performance in literally every way possible.

When Vesuvius finally blows her top, there are some cool FX and I guess it's rather fun seeing Pompeii get destroyed, but no way can I say the ride was worth it, and at times, in the finale, the look of the film is just hilariously fake.

Easily one of the worst big budget misfires I've seen in many years.

Grade - D-

And everyone thought Legend Of Hercules was an ebarassment...
Was that Carrie Ann Moss I saw? I miss the ol' Matrix fays ,,,and it's a good thing that Keifer reprised his 24 role recently, or this film might have killed his career.

Jeff, you are are wrong. This isb't just shit. It's dead flies on a pile of shit.
And everyone who worked on this just stepped in it.

Sure---I don't expect that master writer-director Paul WS Anderson to make a glorious piece of cinematic art, but there have been times where the vis is better than  characters and story (because, well, most of the time, there isn't either one)

That ending (if anyone viewing this made it that far) is nothing less than a kick in the balls ....even ol' fictitous Rose survived the sinking of the Titanic, right? Why can't a fictitous character or two survive the volcano ? But everyone dies! And the last image treats the audience with disrespect.  So this makes--


* The showdown between protag and antag seem not only anti-climactic but unessessary;

* Saving others/your hot g/f and avoiding close calls a moot point;

* Going back to the devestated arena to make sure a character is dead is somewhat odd. To murder such a character even odder still, considering that everything around you is going up in flames.(and the same goes for hunting down escaped slaves and kill them in the middle of the inferno when everyone in the city is most likely to be a little toasty anyway.)

Earlier in my response I mentioned that other fly infested piece of shit Legend Of Hercules. I don't know what The Rock's upcoming film will bring, but all I can say is after three movies that have flopped on thier butts with critics and audiences, it's time we retire gladiator shit and/or Spartacus love from any remaining feature films (hell, even Legend of Hercules went so far as to cast the actor who played Spartacus. That third film. BTW, was the confusion known as 47 Ronin)

I've wasted enough time on this already- but I'll admit watching all the carboard chatacters die had some small consolation. My 90 minutes had to have some meaning to life.

I agree with everything you guys said in your review, the characters were so shallow and the plot so thin.

What makes it extra worse for me is I was in a planning stage to write a feature about Pompeii myself when I saw the first trailer for this film I stopped it, I was very disappointed because I had some really good ideas about it. It is such a good premise, a epic disaster movie set in the ancient world, in the right hands it could be done so well, but this was just a terrible effort.

I just can't force myself to watch this movie. I sometimes get an urge to check it out but I have this really strong feeling and belief that it's gonna suck.

I don't why anyone would cast the guy that plays Jon Snow in GOT as a lead in a big budget movie like this. It's pretty obvious that the guy doesn't have that "badass" charisma and can't carry a movie such as this.

It's almost as bad of a casting choice as that guy that's the lead in that new horrible 300 movie. Which upon second viewing prove to be one of the most boring movies I have ever seen in my life. I was pleasantly surprised to see that movie named the worst movie of 2014 so far on some major website.