Pompeii captures a tale about of love turn between two worlds, the courage to rise up to people who are superior, and the escape from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The movie starts off with a scene of a little boy watching his family get killed. After the gruesome killing of his family, the boy becomes a grown slave. The male slaves fight to the death for the enjoyment of the city’s people and buyers watch and choose who they want for their city, which sounds a lot like other movies that are set in the 70 – 1800 A.D. like, Gladiator. This film though stands out because the graphics in the movie were done very well, the explosions and the flying rocks were very realistic.

Milo, played by Kit Harrington, is the fastest slave-gladiator with exception of his cellmate Atticus, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. These two men did a very good job at their roles. Atticus sounded slightly like a robot, but towards the end of the movie, his emotions came through. During the movie it seemed like Milo did not say a whole lot throughout the movie, just a lot of staring and fighting, but his way he made his eyes look were different in every scene, it was very easy to see how exactly he was feeling at every moment.

The slaves traveled to the city of Pompeii, a very beautiful Italian city with a view of Mount Vesuvius, which rumbles a couple times a day. The slaves walk through the city and past the beautiful princess Cassia, played by Emily Browning, who is coming back from Rome a few days early. Milo and Cassia lock eyes, and the relationship grows from there. This is another movie of a pair of young adults fighting for one another and they just met the day before.

The graphics in this movie are fantastic, especially when the screen focuses and zooms in on the volcano right before it explodes. The day comes when Milo and Atticus have to fight to stay alive. The Romans and the Pompeians watch as the slaves recreate the Romans killing troops. While the fighting is happening, the volcano explodes and everyone is running and trying to get away. Once the volcano explodes the people see all of the rock flying, the lava spewing out and racing towards the city of Pompeii. The city panics and tries to get away, while Milo and Atticus fight off the men to get out of the stadium. Which for their strength to fight off 20 men was unbelievable, it is believable for the time period because all the male slaves did was fight, and if they were not fighting, they were training. The story continues with Milo trying to find out where exactly Cassia is so that they can get out together. The Roman ambassador Corvus, played by Kiefer Sutherland, fights to get out of Pompeii and back to Rome.

The story continues with the destruction of Pompeii. The acting in the movie is not the greatest. It does not show the emotions that people would actually have when the volcano was erupting. Yes, the actors were screaming in fear, but crowds were just running in random directions, they were not thinking about what was actually happening. They saw the explosion and just followed what other people were doing. Other than the fact that the acting was not too great, the movie itself was really good, and put together well, as it had the audience on the edge of their seat and wanting more. The music added so much to the effects of the volcano erupting. You had the fast-paced music which was composed by Clinton Shorter while seeing people on horses dodging the flying rocks, getting away from the smoke and ash.

At the end of the movie, some movie-goers could be overwhelmed with many emotions such as sadness, anger and other emotions. Looking over to the women four seats down, they were clapping. The couple up two rows were commenting about the ending. A few other people were criticizing the love story. But that is all they were looking at was Cassia and Milo, not the cowering city, or the effects.

This is a pleasing movie for those who enjoy violence and intensity. There are a lot of gruesome scenes, as it is like the movie 300 but a PG-13 version. It is enjoyable and fast paced with a lot of action and graphics that is good to go see with friends and family.