Pompeii movie billboards...

Not since the likes of 1997's Volcano and Dante's Peak has L.A. seen so many volcanic eruptions around its skyline, so thanks to the new movie Pompeii for bringing the cataclysmic event back for 2014.

These engaging ad creatives featuring the faux destruction of the billboard hoardings are a nice visual trick to sell the disaster movie, loosely based on the real life events of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the resulting devastation of the ancient Roman town of Pompeii in 79 A.D.

Paul W.S. Anderson helms this historic action movie and Game of Thrones Kit Harington stars as 'Milo', a slave-turned-gladiator (aren't they all), who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love from a corrupt Roman Senator, as their world erupts around them.

Will our young hero save the lovely 'Cassia' (Emily Browning) from the heat, ash and lava, or will this epic romance end unhappily ever after. What do you think?

These explosive Pompeii movie billboards were spotted along Melrose Avenue and Sunset Boulevard on February 1, plus a smaller version was spied along Beverly Boulevard on February 12, 2014.

The squarer volcanic bomb version, which doesn't feature Mount Vesuvius erupting and reminds Daily Billboard of some of the Battleship movie billboards from 2012, was spotted along Santa Monica Boulevard at Beverly Glen Boulevard on February 14, 2014.

One of the things Daily Billboard likes the most about these optical illusion creatives is that the blue of the mock creatives matches the beautiful California blue sky, but wonders if this gimmick works as well in other territories.

Will Pompeii be an epic success or a true disaster of a movie (regardless of whether it's in 3D or not). Only time and audiences will decide.