"Pompeii" follows in the footsteps (or wake, rather) of "Titanic" by recreating a historical tragedy in the context of an epic (and probably doomed) romance. The film centers around the ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples that was mostly destroyed and buried under 13 to 20 feet of ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. ... an event that makes the love affair between a slave (Harington) and young maiden (Emily Browning) even more complicated.
The trailer, seen here first on Yahoo! Movies, opens with some dreamlike images of falling ash, covering what is soon revealed to be many dead bodies. An impressive sight, but nowhere near impressive as the shot that immediately follows: Harington showing off the fact that he's been spending a lot of time in the gym lately as he strides into leading man status with a look of grim (and, for some, swoon-worthy) determination.
It's rather strange to see Harington in such skimpy attire. Sure, he got nekkid with Rose Leslie (as fiery Free Folk warrior woman Ygritte) in at least one episode of "Game of Thrones" — but for the most part, Jon Snow has been covered head to toe in wintry gear as a steward of the Night's Watch. GoT has certainly given him some experience with nature gone wild and cities in distress, though ... as did last year's "Silent Hill: Revelation," a town that has seen more than its fair share of ash and fire.
As cheesy (cheesecake?) as "Pompeii" looks, it's still nice to see Paul W.S. Anderson doing something besides "Resident Evil" and "Death Race" movies. It actually seems like he's overdue for a large-scale historical action epic, as he seemed to be heading in that direction earlier in his career with ambitious (and not bad) sci-fi films like "Event Horizon" and "Soldier" before becoming distracted with things like ... well, "Resident Evil" and "Death Race" movies.
Plus, with "Pompeii," Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has finally found a character with a name almost as cool as his own: "Bridgageous."
"Pompeii" will erupt in theaters on February 21, 2014.
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