Pompeii (5/20/2014)

Rated PG-13 for intense battle sequences, disaster-related action and brief sexual content.

Starring Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Kiefer Sutherland

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Three Musketeers and Alien vs. Predator)

If you think there is a difference between a volcano and a bomb…just watch Pompeii.

Set in 79 A.D., POMPEII tells the epic story of Milo (Kit Harington), a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia (Emily Browning), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent Pompeii crumbles around him.

We all have our favorite movies, my wife’s is Titanic. You remember that James Cameron epic love story set against an impending disaster that we all know it’s coming. Well Pompeii is an “epic” love story set against an impending disaster that we all know is coming. Oh and there’s also a bad guy in this film who is interested in the leading lady. Oh yeah, and almost everybody dies. In other words I felt like I had already seen this movie.

But instead of Leonardo DiCaprio we get Kit Harington, who spends most of the film staring awkwardly at someone or brutally killing soldiers or gladiators. The dialogue he does have feels forced and less than authentic. And normally I would take Kiefer Sutherland over Billy Zane any day the week, but I have to say Billy Zane was a better villain in Titanic than Kiefer was in Pompeii.

Like Titanic, the real star of the film is the volcano, and the special effects were amazing. No big surprise there, that’s what Paul Anderson is known for.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good volcano movie, and I guess we’ll have to wait a little bit longer. This one is worth watching “only if it’s free.”

SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
As far as sex/nudity, there is a brief scene where a slave is “inspected” by a woman who feels his behind and says that it is firm. The language is also on the mild side.

Most of the reasons for the PG-13 rating are the violence and gore. We see several gladiators and soldiers die gruesome deaths. We also see an entire village be massacred, including a scene where a boy watches his mother being killed. Later he sees the bodies of his tribesmen hanged upside down from a tree.

The final half an hour of this movie is filled with apocalyptic scenes, with flaming rocks raining from the volcano and destroying buildings, tidal waves and widespread death and destruction. Young viewers may find it disturbing.

CONVERSATION STARTER:

1. The film opens with the words, “Some prayed for help, others wished for death, but still more imagined there were no gods left.” What is something you prayed for that was answered?


2. What is something you prayed for that was not answered?


3. How did you feel when your prayer wasn’t answered the way you were praying for?

Read these verses on prayer:

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Luke 11:9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.


Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want because His plan is not our plan or because we are asking for the wrong thing or asking for it in the wrong way.

Read:


James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

So when you pray, pray for God’s will to be accomplished and for the grace to understand His will.