Film Reviews by None

Those who are expecting (as I did) a magnificent screen version of Robert Harris' riveting historic fiction account of the last days of Pompeii, will be greatly disappointed. Although the main event is presented with some truly astonishing visual effects, the original storyline has been massively altered to make way to a mediocre action movie plot, involving barbarians, gladiators, legionnaires and the token love story. I truly missed the original detective/treasure hunt style storyline with interesting characters such as Pliny the Elder and vivid, historically researched imagery that brought the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Pompeii to life.

I'm a special effects fan so I was satisfied with their amount and quality in this film, but in hindsight I wished they had stuck to Robert Harris'/Roman Polanski's original screenplay. The resulting film was pleasant but left a bad taste in my mouth.

I've read a lot of literature and watched a lot of films in my life. This particular film just showed that it was streched to be adapted from a short story. It dragged on and on and on and on. Almost 3 hours of a pretty lame shorter wax version of Brad Pitt gradually aging younger to... a pretty lame taller wax version of Brad Pitt. What happens in between is so normal, ordinary and inconsequential that would barely attract attention lest for the big acting names, especially the great but short performance by Tilda Swindon (about 15 min). I adore Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett as actors, but I didn't see the spark for a moment in their supposed love story, which begins weird and ends up even weirder. I assume that perhaps the original story was intiguing but this adaptation was one of the most outrageously boring films I've ever watched in my life. I felt myself aging faster while I was watching it and that can never be a good thing.