SEVENTH SON

I was thinking I should post about this today because I would be extremely tied up for the next two weeks.

Starring Ben Barnes as the titular character the seventh son of the seventh son Thomas Ward, Jeff Bridges as Gregory the Spook, one of my favourite actresses Julianne Moore as the evil witch and dragon Mother Malkin, Alicia Vikander as Alice, Kit Harington (lead actor of last year's movie Pompeii) with a brief role as the apprentice Billy Bradley and Olivia Williams as Tom's mother Mam who is a good witch, the simple storyline was a letdown to me.

Thomas, the son of a good witch and human, was sort of destined to be an apprentice to help the supernatural master the Spook to kill a dark witch, who was once Gregory's ex-lover. What is a movie like this without a love relationship, hence the character Alice, who was the daughter of another witch and human, and Thomas fell in love with each other. Anyway, that was besides the point and I hardly think it was a pivotal part of the movie.

Interestingly, Kit Harington had a small part to play at the beginning of the movie and died shortly after being killed by the dragon. This was another recent movie of Julianne Moore's but I wasn't quite impressed with her character and role. Ben Barnes was just there to look good. I did find Mam quite an interesting character though.

Anyway, I don't think this is excellent box office material, which kind of explains why it wasn't released in December 14 with the bigger blockbusters.

Billy ensnared by the dragon's tail.

the witch in human form

Thomas and Gregory

Alice and Thomas

Mam who sacrificed herself to save the village

POMPEII

The movie "Pompeii" was based very loosely on the volcanic eruption in 79 AD of an ancient Roman city near modern day Italy's Naples. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius killed almost 20,000 people and buried its inhabitants under 4-6 m of ash and pumice. For 250 years, Pompeii has been a popular tourist attraction and is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites with annual visitorship of almost 2.5 million people.

Starring Kit Harington, Emily Browing, Carrie-Anne Moss and Kiefer Sutherland, it tells a romance story of Milo, the remaining survivor of the Celtic horsemen tribe which was massacred by the brutal Roman leader Corvus, and Cassia, the daughter of the city ruler of Pompeii.

The ruthless Corvus pursued Cassia from Rome to Pompeii in an attempt to make her his bride. While trying to escape from Corvus, she was rescued by the grown-up Milo, who had by then become a gladiator known for his fighting ability, and they both fell madly in love with each other. With the help of Atticus, a champion gladiator, Milo tried to overthrow Corvus and their battle ensued and culminated with the explosion of the volcano. The ending is not unexpected, documenting the city's destruction and decimation under the prowess of nature.

I have no complaints about the movie although I didn't think it was box office material.

Kit Harington with his great abs and windswept hair

A brooding looking Milo

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the champion gladiator Atticus

Cassia and her mother

The hateful and corrupted Corvus

Sasha Roiz as Corvus's henchmen Proculus