Considering it's a Hollywood production tackling ancient, non-American drama, this is passably entertaining. As frequently happens when studios attempt films like these now, though, it feels underdeveloped, superficial, and occasionally corny. The movie has a cast that’s adequate enough, and I must say the performances are generally good—at least as much as the script permits. The plot itself is fairly basic: a young slave is compelled to become a gladiator, where he proves quite skilled. A beautiful woman appears, and romance blossoms. Then a villain arrives and proceeds to do what villains typically do to create problems. It’s a straightforward story that offers considerable freedom, which naturally gets amplified by the backdrop of an erupting volcano. However, there was so much more potential in the narrative. Even though the special effects are significantly better than those found in films like *Ben-Hur* starring Charlton Heston or works from Cecil B. DeMille, it somehow doesn't manage to create the same sense of wonder and scale. Taking away the volcano, many scenes just felt commonplace. Still, it remains a decent enough form of entertainment. I rather liked the character of Atticus, and the gladiator sequences aren’t bad either. Some of the volcano effects are reasonably impressive as well. But why do Hollywood producers and directors seem to lack any understanding of the subjects they depict in their movies? You introduce an exploding volcano, which is already quite a spectacle, then suddenly add a tsunami wave heading toward it. What...? It's just so clueless. I don’t demand historical precision from a movie like this but seriously, you shouldn’t insult the intelligence of viewers like that. The scenes showing ships floating through the streets of Pompeii were also the weakest special effects in the film, aside from the absurdity of the tsunami itself. The ending? Well, anyone familiar with my reviews knows I'm drawn to happy endings, so you can probably imagine I wasn’t thrilled with this one. I suppose it is realistic, though, considering that once an eruption began, escaping the volcano would be difficult given the technology available at the time.

Source on TMDB