Pompeii

In 79 A.D., Milo, a slave turned gladiator, finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia, 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.

Critics largely dismissed Pompeii as a derivative, paint-by-numbers disaster spectacle borrowing heavily from Gladiator and Titanic, with little in the way of original storytelling. Anderson's action direction drew a small pocket of genuine defenders who argued the film's unapologetic pulp energy was being punished for exactly what it set out to do — though most found that case unconvincing. A decade on, there is a mild revisionist current suggesting the original critical verdict was harsher than the film deserved.