# Osage's Home Theater Shack Review of...POMPEII (2D Blu-ray; Sony Pictures/Constantin Film)



## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

[img]http://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/covers/pompeii-blu-ray-cover-35.jpg[/img]*Releasing/Participating Studio(s): Sony Pictures/Constantin Film et al
Disc/Transfer Information: Region A; 50GB Blu-ray Disc 1080p High Definition 2.40:1 (Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1)
Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Tested Audio Track: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring Cast: Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Jared Harris, Jessica Lucas, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kiefer Sutherland


THE LEGEND AWAKENS


PLOT ANALYSIS:*

You know what Paul Anderson’s _Pompeii_ essentially was? Ridley Scott’s _Gladiator_ set to the backdrop of the famous eruption of an active, angry volcano just off the coastal Italian city; in many ways it was absolutely no different than a handful of other “period pieces” done in this way a la _Titanic, The Patriot_ and _Pearl Harbor_, taking true events surrounding real historical disasters and throwing in, for “good” measure, a sappy love story and other hocus-pocus because heaven forbid today’s mindless, rabidly and numbingly dumb demographic actually sit through a film about something that took place in history without such elements attached to it. Anderson attempts to inject exciting setpieces to break up some of the “been there, done that” narrative elements in the style of his _Resident Evil_ outings, and the CGI work was pretty solid. Alas, there’s really nothing in _Pompeii_ that excites enough to warrant something beyond an evening’s rental (gee…what else is there but a purchase at that point?)…not even the beauty that is Emily Browning or the hammy performances from the likes of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. 

A big problem with this film was that Anderson and his writers coped, almost word for word at certain points, a great deal of Ridley Scott’s seminal _Gladiator_ right down to some dialogue lines; there are overtones of _Gladiator_’s freedom-from-being-a-slave themes, the sacrifice one man makes for another, the love interest that gets in the way, the evil gladiator games lorded over by an equally-evil senator/governor/wanna be emperor (Kiefer Sutherland in a role that really doesn’t fit him at all) and even the whole slave-turned-gladiator angle. I mean, Anderson doesn’t even make these parallels subtle in the film, instead unleashing to us _Pompeii_ as an almost carbon copy of Scott’s modern epic if not for the erupting volcano subplot to define it. Of course, the star of the show here should have been the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, much like the ship should have been the focus of _Titanic_, not the dumb love triangle between Billy Zane, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet or the equally nauseating one between Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale in _Pearl Harbor_…but our angry, spewing volcano in the distance doesn’t get much screen time, albeit with pretty effective CGI assistance, until almost the very end. That was disappointing.

The story centers on “Milo” played by Kit Harington, a Celtic child in the beginning of the film who witnesses Roman soldiers, led by Corvus (Sutherland), slaughter his entire village and his family in a fit of warfare. The time period here is deep in the “A.D.” frame, so we’re talking campfires, barely any language skills and a Roman Empire that had nearly conquered the entire planet, even dating back that far. You know where this is going, right? Yes…the typical male revenge fantasy wherein our hero and main character, Milo, grows up into a hunky, chiseled six-pack-stomached warrior who sweeps the cute chick off her feet and fights in the games to avenge his family. Sounds like your everyday situation at the local mall, doesn’t it? Just like Russell Crowe’s character Maximus in _Gladiator_, Harington’s Milo ends up turning into a Roman slave…one who is very, very adept at fighting with swords and shields and who takes out nearly every gladiator, no matter how muscular or strong, he faces. He’s eventually pitted against Atticus (Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Pompeii’s greatest gladiator up until that point and who is also living in the slave cells outside the city’s Colosseum-esque arena. We eventually meet Corvus (Sutherland) again, who returns from battle to lord over Pompeii and who has his eyes set on the very cute Cassia (the delightful Emily Browning who has come a long way since she was the spirit of an innocent little girl in a flowered dress in _Ghost Ship_), daughter of Severus (Jared Harris) and whom he had some romantic intentions with back in Rome. However, Cassia ignores the senator’s advances despite the power he wields in Pompeii, a mistake she knows she’ll eventually pay for when the time comes. She has a personal servant (standard fare in the Roman gladiator days) in the form of Ariadne (Jessica Lucas).

While the backstory of these gladiators duking it out in Pompeii’s arena play out, we get glimpses of Vesuvius off in the distance rumbling, bubbling and ready to explode, many of the characters making mention of the shaking ground beneath their feet but many, including Atticus, chalking it up to the “angry mountain” off the coast merely “talking.” The first battle between Atticus and Milo, after the two strong warriors taunt each other in their cells the night before, turns out to be something of a draw, with Atticus pretty much saving Milo’s life from a rogue attack by one of the soldiers encircling the fighting men. It is clear the film is setting up the two of them becoming something of friends to fight the corruption that is Rome, Pompeii and pretty much all of Italy at that period in time – and that’s precisely what happens when they’re forced together in a battle against one of Rome’s greatest warriors and his men, Bellator (Currie Graham), who proves to be even a match for the mighty Milo. All of this smacks of the “reenactment” battles as seen in _Gladiator_ and while I understand this is “just what they did” all over the country at that time, it did hit me as way too much copying on Anderson’s part. 

During this massive reenactment battle, Mount Vesuvius finally shows its ugly face and erupts, sending the city of Pompeii into chaos and destroying everything in its path with flying fireballs of lava and ash. The arena the warriors are fighting in cracks apart and comes crashing down, with massive sinkholes opening and swallowing spectators and gladiators whole; this was a nice display of some expensive CGI work and really captures what life must have been like when Vesuvius really did burst open and rain fiery hell down on that little village. At this point, Cassia and Milo have expressed their feelings for one another (big surprise) especially since Milo exhibited signs of being able to “horse whisper” in some way which seemed important to the pretty young girl since she was so connected to her horses. As Pompeii begins to get destroyed by the erupting volcano off its coast, Cassia is nabbed by the jealous and rage-driven Corvus, who will stop at nothing to force this girl to become his wife in Rome. The two of them attempt to flee the burning city of Pompeii as chaos breaks out around them via horse-drawn chariot while Milo and Atticus attempt to make their way through the ruins to either save how many they can or find Cassia. More battle ensues between the bitter enemies of Bellator and Milo, being that Milo has of course identified him as one of the Roman soldiers responsible for butchering his family when he was a child, even amidst the cracking, exploding buildings and streets, until a final standoff between Atticus and Bellator ensues, giving Milo a chance to chase after Cassia and Corvus.

Our hero does indeed chase the corrupt, evil senator down as ashy fireballs continue to streak across Pompeii’s skies, a hand-to-hand combat sequence of course playing out between the man responsible for ordering the deaths of Milo’s townspeople all those years ago and the gladiator slave himself. Does Milo win the fair lady’s heart for good? Does our chiseled, roided-out hero do away with the villainous Corvus? Do our lovebird main characters live happily ever after and escape the trauma that was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii? Do I really need to ask you these questions? If you are really interested, you’ll have to rent _Pompeii_.

[img]http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/uWUGF0j9WRo/maxresdefault.jpg[/img]*VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC LOOK?*

Sony’s Region A Blu-ray release of _Pompeii_ in standard 2D format looked good and detailed enough, but there was something that kept it slightly out of full borne “excellent” territory – don’t get me wrong, the visuals were clear, the image was stable and there were no overt problems with noise, grain or video encode elements. But there was an overwhelming sense that the 2.40:1 widescreen transfer exhibited more DVD-like qualities than that of high definition; at times, I could have sworn I was merely viewing a standard DVD, not a Blu-ray, if not for some up-close facial shots that exhibited copious amounts of detail. 

The film is bathed in a gold hue for most of its run time, especially during interior sequences in which characters are talking in the catacombs of the arena or within jail cells, and this was rendered accurately on the Blu-ray. Much like Ridley Scott’s aforementioned classic _Gladiator_, there’s an obvious “hot sand” beige look to the film, what with all the rough textures of the arena’s grounds and walls and the undeveloped nature of the world the film takes place in. Some dark shots exhibited a bit of crush and shadow detail loss, such as when the men are talking in their cell before the gladiator matches, rendering the sequences with “black holes” that were difficult to make out. Yet contrast didn’t appear to be an issue, with the sunlit skies of the outdoor sequences ripe with blinding, bright nuances and realistic blues. 

All in all a solid Blu-ray transfer, but not one that truly knocked me off my couch in terms of sheer depth of field, color saturation or detail enhancement. 

















[img] http://img.moviepilot.com/assets/tarantulaV2/project_images/1377165362_pompeii-oo.jpg[/img]*AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS: HOW DID THE DISC SOUND?*

If there was anything negative to say about _Pompeii_’s 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track in English it would have to be its lack of sheer, plummeting, house-shaking LFE which could have made this a real barnstormer, given the nature of the story – is there deep bass in the track? Yes. But when the volcano erupts or even begins to “burp” its intention of spewing hot lava, there could have been some more sheer wallops and digging of truly deep LFE here. Beyond that, the film’s lossless mix was pretty aggressive, throwing the fireballs of ash and lava this way and that through the soundstage while keeping dialogue intelligible throughout. I did note – and I am going to have to confirm this with Sony with regard to whether this was a problem with just my review disc – an issue when I paused or stopped the disc in which a startling “crackle” would pierce my front main speakers. At first, I thought my Polk RTi12 mains were either blown – really not possible – or some kind of short was occurring via perhaps some frayed speaker cable or some other wires that may be touching one another, but this did not occur when I popped another disc in after watching _Pompeii_. So it was definitely my copy of this disc; as I said, I will have to ask a contact I have there if this was something that occurred during the mastering process or if a small batch of review discs were plagued by this problem (strange scenario but I’ve encountered stranger). 














[img]http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg555/movienewsplus/stills3/Pompeii/pompeii-6.jpg[/img] *FINAL THOUGHTS:* 

As I said, this was really Ridley Scott’s _Gladiator_ set to the backdrop of the tragedy in Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius erupted during the glory days of the Roman Empire; some of it is so much a copy of that film that you can make out some dialogue that was directly lifted from it. Beyond that, this is a fun evening’s rental let down merely by a sappy love story between the main hero character – you know, the slave that became a gladiator…or is it the slave that was already a gladiator? Or was it….never mind – and a corny, off-putting performance by Kiefer Sutherland who tries way too hard as a head citizen of Pompeii that wants the same girl our hero wants. The CGI destruction setpieces depicting Vesuvius boiling over and destroying the city at the end are worth sitting around for…though I don’t know if this is quite purchase material.

Your thoughts, my friends?


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Edits made to clean up review; thank you...


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

It wouldn't surprise me on that audio glitch. Underworld awakening had an issue where it would cause my speakers to pop every time I skipped over to change chapters. I didn't pause the film, but I'll give it another once over to see if I can replicate your issue on my copy


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Mike Edwards said:


> It wouldn't surprise me on that audio glitch. Underworld awakening had an issue where it would cause my speakers to pop every time I skipped over to change chapters. I didn't pause the film, but I'll give it another once over to see if I can replicate your issue on my copy


My contact from Sony's media relations office responded with a quick email regarding the fact that "this shouldn't have happened" and that so long as the feature film itself didn't "crackle" there's no reason to return it for a new copy to re-review...:sarcastic:

At any rate, the film was mediocre so I don't need to even go back and forth with them about it; would just be interesting if you or any other member here experienced the same thing on either their purchase or rental copy...


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

I'm surprised that Milla Jovovich wasn't shoe horned in since Paul almost ALWAYS puts her in his films


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Good point, and was actually thinking that...


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## BeeMan458 (Nov 25, 2012)

If I'm reading your review correctly, to those who have systems for the purpose of expecting to be properly entertained, this is a trite film worth passing on?

According to Box Office Mojo, it's looks like "Pompeii", with combined foreign and domestic gross take, failed to break even which sadly makes it a stinker and a flop? Even "Noah" and "The Other Woman" did much better.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

BeeMan458 said:


> If I'm reading your review correctly, to those who have systems for the purpose of expecting to be properly entertained, this is a trite film worth passing on?
> 
> According to Box Office Mojo, it's looks like "Pompeii", with combined foreign and domestic gross take, failed to break even which sadly makes it a stinker and a flop? Even "Noah" and "The Other Woman" did much better.


Not sure what you're saying here Bee, but in my opinion Pompeii is worth checking out as a rental...not sure if it's worth a buy, though. It's basically Gladiator, set miles away in Pompeii instead of Rome, with the backdrop of the volcano incident and a love story thrown in for good measure a la The Patriot, Titanic, Pearl Harbor...


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

I'd say it's at least worth a rental. I had a lot of fun with it. it's a disaster movie ala 2012 with gladiators thrown in the mix.... think of it like a disaster version of all of Paul Anderson's movies... if you enjoyed "The three musketeers" version he did a few years back then it's very possible you'll like this one. lots of style over substance, but rather fun style if you know what I mean


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## BeeMan458 (Nov 25, 2012)

Osage_Winter said:


> ...but in my opinion Pompeii is worth checking out as a rental...not sure if it's worth a buy, though.


This is what I was looking for. Thanks!


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

oh, I tossed it back in the player tonight Osage, and I couldn't replicate your "crackle" error... picture perfect for me in terms of that issue.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

BeeMan458 said:


> This is what I was looking for. Thanks!


Sure thing. Let me know what you did think of it if you rent it...


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Mike Edwards said:


> oh, I tossed it back in the player tonight Osage, and I couldn't replicate your "crackle" error... picture perfect for me in terms of that issue.


Interesting; must have been a random bug on my copy -- thanks for checking.


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## BeeMan458 (Nov 25, 2012)

Osage_Winter said:


> Let me know what you did think of it if you rent it...


...:T


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Thanks...


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## Savjac (Apr 17, 2008)

Oh no Osage, you gave away the ending.... it I was wondering if the mountain would let go.:innocent::innocent: 
It's ok though, I still have to give it a rental.


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