History is filled with tragic episodes of mayhem, but few are as memorable as the tragedy of Pompeii. One of the greatest moments in history going back to AD 79, the modern day version takes place immediately before the cataclysmic eruption of southern Italy's Mt. Vesuvius.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, plays Milo, a slave as a boy who grows into one of the greatest gladiators of the land. Shipped from the coliseums of Rome to those of Pompeii, a chance meeting with a princess named Cassia (Emily Browning) sparks a love that surpasses rumbling volcanoes, drifting ash, and vicious deaths of slaves turned into brutes for public consumption.
Although Pompeii’s storyline seems familiar, with a beginning straight from Conan the Barbarian, one of the best characters of this film is played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. As Atticus, he’s a tough, loyal, and borderline naïve gladiator waiting for his final fight that will win him freedom from a life of servitude.
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Other standouts include Keifer Sutherland. Creepy as the Roman senator Corvus, Sutherland is pure evil from his bloodlust to his grimy pawing of Cassia.
Although predictable and eerily feeling like scenes from the film have been seen somewhere before, the special effects of Pompeii vividly bring to life a time that was literally frozen in stone for all to marvel in wonder.
Pompeii is in theaters February 21.
