With much of the story line echoing the original "Gladiator," we see a boy in Britannia whose family was murdered by the Romans in front of him and whose later prowess in the gladiatorial ring brings him to the big time in the arena at Pompeii. In Pompeii he catches the eye of a high-born lady who is being courted by - guess who - the very general, now a Roman Senator, who ordered the slaughter in Britain. The Senator (Kiefer Sutherland) and his main henchman seemed to have been locked in a time machine for 20 years, because they look exactly the same as they did in the first scenes.
Our hero Milo (Kit Harington of "Game of Thrones") is a wonder in the ring, but there's no time to explain his fighting skills or even pause for a setback. He befriends the veteran gladiator who is to be his rival (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and has a moment with the lady (Emily Browning) at her villa when he has a chance to calm her horse, spooked by the pre-eruption rumblings of Vesuvius. It's a semi-"Titanic" moment, but alas, the wooden-faced Harington is no Leonardo DiCaprio.
Finally we get to the real focus of the movie, when all hell breaks loose. Clearly, eruption and destruction is what engages director Paul W.S. Anderson, and "Pompeii" hits its stride. The scenes of destruction are imaginative and thrilling, and 3D is put to good use. Never mind that the phases of the eruption do not follow the eye witness accounts we have. Never mind that there was no tsunami, which would have had to originate offshore, and Vesuvius lies inland. Never mind that no giant chasms opened up, swallowing people and houses and horses. The movie rushes to its inevitable end, the world of Pompeii meets its fiery burial, and we're left sitting in the theater, drained and exhausted as the credits roll.
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