Dopey action film which has more in common with the peplums of the early 1960s and straight to DVD actioners of the 90s than say Game of Thrones - which has raised the bar so high when it comes to period action/adventure tales in the ancient world it probably wasn't a good idea to cast Kit Harrington in the lead. It doesn't help that Harrington's lack of ability is exposed here - he's got himself some neat abs, but the sick calf look, effective on Thrones surrounded by all that back story and good acting, just gets on the nerves here, as does his lack of charisma. Maybe he's really a great actor waiting to happen in the right part, maybe he'll get better as the years go on, but he doesn't have the charisma or presence to carry a big Hollywood action film. At least not one as dumb as this.
The first two thirds features some of the worst writing I've seen in a movie in a while - though I'm not across my big dopey epics. It reads like fan fiction crap, with a little boy watching two villainous Romans kill his family (one played by Keifer Sutherland, hamming it up), be sold into slavery, become a great gladiator (somehow... it's never gone into, unlike say Conan the Barbarian or Ben Hur), winds up in Pompeii where conveniently the two villains are stationed, falls in love with a stock aristocratic girl (Emily Browning, who I swear can act but here just lets her lips do the work) because he's good with horses, and fights a lot until the volcano erupts and we can all go home.
The film is full of poorly developed subplots and loose ends - Keifer Sutherland has this relationship with new emperor Titus which is meant to be dodgy; Browning has this maid Jessica Lucas who looks as though she's about to pay off but doesn't - as does slave owner Joe Pingue and Browning's mum Carrie Ann Moss (I think all three characters are only in the film for exposition purposes, they all could have been cut out); there's a really boring subplot about Browning's dad Jared Harris (who gives the best performance - he was born to play an aristocratic Roman) wanting Sutherland's help in a property development; Harrington's black gladiator friend (how's that for originality) played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is the one who fights the other Roman who helped kill Harrington's family because...?; Harrington escapes then is recaptured with no real story development; Sutherland keeps having chances to kill Harrington and not taking them to drag out the running time; Harrington rescues Browning twice.
What they've basically done it try to cross Gladiator with a disaster film, only it doesn't work in either genre. In the best disaster films you've got a decent cross section of characters who are interesting and who you care about and all have different fates; here we have stock archetypes - no one is really sympathetic except the leads and Adewale (Harris is killed trying to kill Sutherland). It's not as good as Gladiator either because the lead character is so dull - he's a gladiator into horses, big deal.
The movie has two good things going for it - special effects when the volcano erupts which are pretty good and the ending where Harrington and Browning decide to kiss and are enveloped in flame instead of running. Now this was pretty cool - based on the real life remains of a couple - and easily a strong enough basis for a Titanic like romance. But unlike Jack and Rose who did heaps of stuff on the ship together (sketching, sex in the car, running around the deck, a night out) Harrington and Browning hardly ever cross - a few looks, a horse ride, a lot of running around with the lava flowing... that's about it. This could have been Titanic in Ancient Rome but it's as though the filmmakers panicked and worried they'd lose the 300 crowd so shoved in plenty of blood and guts. The result was you had action which was only stock standard, and under developed the rest of the movie. A pity.
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