Apocalypse Pompeii (2014) Directed by Ben Demaree

Just before the releases of Paul W.S. Anderson's "Pompeii", The Asylum strikes again with their "Apocalypse Pompeii". And yes, it's a pretty bad and silly movie but yet it isn't a completely terrible one as well.

Volcano movies generally speaking aren't the best or most exciting ones. Just ask Tommy Lee Jones and Pierce Brosnan! in comparison to other natural disaster movies, there are also very little volcano movies out there. Hard to say what's the reason for this really. Is it because volcanoes are static and seemingly easy to run away from? Or maybe it's just simply due to budget reasons. In that regard, I also really do feel that I should be giving this movie some credit.

The writing isn't all that great and to be honest, it's a very ridicules movie but at the same time, it's also a pretty creative one. It's hard to come up with some original and imaginative stuff, based around the premise of a volcano eruption. This movie manages to bring in some pretty original elements to the story. Again, nothing too great or realistic but I definitely have to give the movie some points for creativity!

The story still can't manage to provide the movie with some good tension or engaging enough characters as well though. There is absolutely never a sense of urgency and it never feels like the main character's life are ever in true danger. Not that it matters all that much, since the characters themselves aren't very interesting or engaging ones anyway. They also aren't played by the best actors around, which also isn't exactly very helpful for the movie its tension or credibility.

There are truly plenty of ridicules things happening in this movie. It's ridicules to see for instance how some people randomly combust into flames and whenever lava rocks hit, it hits some trashcans or cars and rarely ever just into the ground. I also still don't understand why military people with heavy machine guns were needed to go along the rescue mission with the Adrian Paul character. Guess they were planning to kill some rocks and lava with their guns and throw some grenades up the Vesuvius. It's all some Michael Bay logic, if you would ask me.

Luckily the special effects aren't all that bad. Well, actually it's pretty bad looking all but all things considering, things could have been a whole lot worse for this movie! Normally these type of movies feature the absolute worst and cheapest looking effects but 60% of the effects in this movie are actually pretty decent looking.

Of course no one in their right minds could ever call this a great movie but I have to say that it's an entertaining and pretty creative one nevertheless, that I also enjoyed watching on those levels. It's a bad movie but no a terrible one to watch as well.

4/10

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