Do you think love will always find a way to bring two lovers together? In February 2014, we watched as Milo and Cassia were two lovers that had the deck stacked against them. Directing this 105 minute action/adventure/drama/history/romance is Paul W.S. Anderson.
Facing certin doom is this flick is: Kit Harington as Milo, Carrie-Anne Moss as Aurelia, Emily Browning as Cassia, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Atticus, Jared Harris as Severus, Currie Graham as Bellator and Kiefer Sutherland as Corvus.
After years of growing up in slavery and being made to fight, Milo has learned to handle a sword very well; a talent that soon takes him to Pompeii to fight in the coliseum against other gladiators. While in Pompeii, Milo
catches the eye of Cassia, a woman Milo knows he could never be with due to her being a ruler's daughter and him a slave. Yet, that doesn't stop what the heart wants. Unfortunately, Milo isn't the only one that longs for Cassia's hand. It seems that senator Corvus also wishes to have Cassia by his side.
So we have yet another film that looked freaking cool in the trailer, and after watching the movie... I re-watched the freaking cool trailer to get my moneys worth. The storyline was ok, but reminded me of Gladiator as it played through, then just add a volcano, trillion tons of ash, an apocalyptic event and boom! you've got Pompeii. I wound up bored most of the time and wishing the volcano would hurry and take away my misery. Having a budget of 100 million I could see where a lot of the money must have went to because, visually, the movie looks great as you work your way through it. After seeing the fight scenes, scenery, wardrobe and special effects, it would get a great rating. Then you take in the rest of the film like cast and playthrough, and that's when it starts falling. Akinnuoye-Agbaje is a really good actor, and I'm sure he thought this would be a great film to be a part of, I feel bad for him now. Sutherland, even though I usually like him in films... not so much here. Oh yeah, the rest of the cast, played their... characters well. Honestly, what Anderson did here just isn't worth the money they're asking with today's theater prices. Really, my low monthly fee from Netflix is even pushing it. Which kind of surprised me since Anderson has giving us such greats like; Mortal Kombat (1995), Event Horizon (1997), Soldier (1998), and the Resident Evil series (2002 - 2015) to name a few. So overall, I'd wait for the movie to hit the rental areas if you really want to see some gladiator fights woven into a love story that was buried away in history by a volcano that took a bunch of people out.
It's rated PG-13 for violence, very mild language and gore.
This one just needs to stay buried, 2 stars.