Emily Browning and Kit Harington are an the explosive couple in ‘Pompeii.” The movie was released in theaters Feb. 21.
You can’t outrun lava.
A trend in the movie industry is to take a piece of history and create a lengthy film in the hopes of getting people interested. Usually, it’s some event that we’ve heard about in history books in high school and never want to hear about again because it’s tattooed in our brains forever.
“Pompeii” is certainly another one of these films in the historical bundle.
As most college students should already know, Mount Vesuvius in Italy destroyed the city of Pompeii with its contents of molten hot lava and turned the skies dark with ash. Lives were lost and I’m sure the chaos was unimaginable. No wonder they decided to recreate this event into a motion picture.
Spoiler alert, the volcano still erupts.
In order to recreate scenes of an event, the characters can either make or break a film.
In “Pompeii,” the major actors aren’t exactly big-name stars. Kit Harington, “Game of Thrones” actor, stars as the lead male, Milo, while Emily Browning from “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” plays Cassia, the female lead.
I should also mention that Kiefer Sutherland rides through the film causing hardships for poor Milo. The major plot of the movie is to showcase the destruction of Pompeii with the addition of an underprivileged hero who falls in love with a woman who is completely out of his league. In the history books, a student isn’t going to see the romance novel intertwined with the gruesome details.
The film begins with on-screen words that are recommended to be read in order to follow the film unless you know your history and want another moment to update your Facebook status. From there, the audience gets insight into Milo’s past. Unfortunately, it’s only one scene and it’s not at all a happy one.
Milo eventually grows into a man who is basically forced into being a gladiator of sorts. Gladiators can be interesting characters when done correctly. It’s also a plus when the actor is as attractive as Harington.
Harington is your typical Romeo with his good looks and even better heart. He’s also a slave. It seems like every important woman is a sucker for a man in chains and without rights.
I have to admit, the history of Pompeii is exciting, albeit tragic. It’s risky business creating a film from factual information when you have to add random elements to hype the appeal and make it longer than 20 minutes.
I always watch a movie with an open mind. The trailers get me interested and I give them a shot. “Pompeii” wasn’t a disappointment.
The technology of today’s film editing and graphics department created the feel of an exploding volcano and made audience members give thanks considering they didn’t have to live through that event.
“Pompeii” is no “Titanic,” but despite the low movie ratings, it’s a nice cliche love and destruction story that managed to stay afloat.
Story by Katrina Yarbrough, staff writer